The director of ETSIT receives an award in the US for his achievements in the field of antenna measurement

The Antenna Measurement Techniques Association (AMTA), a US-based organisation that brings together engineers and other professionals worldwide specialising in antenna measurement techniques, has awarded its most prestigious honour, the Distinguished Achievement Award, to Manuel Sierra Castañer, Professor and Director of the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación (ETSIT) at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). This is the first time the award has been given to a Spaniard and it recognises individuals whose research or technical advances have contributed significantly to the body of knowledge in the field. He will receive the award on 30 October in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, where AMTA is holding its annual symposium this year.

The award recognizes Sierra’s ‘pioneering work’ throughout his career. Among the recipient’s merits, the jury highlights the ‘development of post-processing techniques in antenna measurements, advances in near-field to far-field transformation algorithms using single-cut information, and innovations in phaseless measurements.’ It also mentions his ‘technical leadership’ as director of the Antenna Testing and Certification Laboratory, one of the few in its field with ISO 17025 accreditation, ‘recognized for its high-precision characterization of antennas and systems for satellite applications, European Space Agency missions, defense applications, and personal communications.

Sierra says he received the news of the award with “satisfaction and pride”, but also with surprise: “I didn’t expect to receive this recognition, nor did I even consider I might be a candidate.” Those who have received it in the past “are very well-known figures in the field”, and it usually happens “when they’re already quite senior,” says the professor, who was born in Zaragoza in 1970.

Regarding his area of specialisation, he acknowledges that many people don’t really know what it involves. “It’s not about going in with a tape measure to check the size of an antenna — it’s about understanding how it radiates and how it receives signals,” he explains. “For example, when you send an antenna into space and it has to point towards Earth, you need to make sure — before launch — that it’s going to point correctly. If it needs to aim at Madrid, you don’t want it ending up aimed at Paris. That’s what it means to measure an antenna. And that’s just part of it — there are more technical aspects, because it’s not just about pointing, but also about how it does so, how much signal loss there is, and the purity of the wave it transmits.”

Antennas are measured in an anechoic chamber, a room isolated from the outside and designed to absorb any electromagnetic waves. This ensures that the measurements recorded inside originate solely from the radiation emitted by the device being analysed. The first chamber at the ETSIT was inaugurated in the early 1980s, thanks to the efforts of Jesús Sánchez Miñana and José Luis Besada. “Thanks to the work of those professors from the Radiation Group and others, such as Miguel Calvo, a measurement facility was created that became a point of reference in Spain,” explains Sierra.

When he began working in the chamber in 2000, after completing his doctoral thesis, the current director of ETSIT led the task of replacing the software that had been used up until then, “to develop a platform capable of controlling all measurement processes with almost any equipment and system, and to try to unify them.” The challenge was to obtain technical accreditations, the achievement of which in 2010 marked a turning point. “They allowed us to become a professional-grade laboratory and offer officially recognised external services,” he recalls. “In the most recent phase, with Belén Galocha—now technical director—and myself at the helm, we have focused on internationalising the laboratory.”

He goes on to list some of the major companies they provide services to, such as Nokia, Ericsson, Huawei, Rohde & Schwarz, Thales Alenia, and Microwave Vision Group. He also mentions the European Space Agency. “Not every lab can say they’ve carried out measurements for missions to Mars, Venus, the Sun, Mercury and Jupiter, or for many of the antennas used in satellites such as Galileo, Astra, or Hispasat, among others.”

Sierra states that the award granted by AMTA is also “a recognition of everyone who has contributed to the laboratory in recent years”: professors, technicians, the measurement engineer, as well as the PhD students who have worked alongside him. When asked about a project he feels particularly proud of, he replies that “the most striking” are the aforementioned missions of the European Space Agency. “We measured the rover that landed on Mars — that’s a milestone,” he points out as an example.“But the most challenging task was measuring the radars for Indra’s upcoming F-110 frigates, because it involved controlling the chamber and, in addition, the radar itself. We had to work alongside the company’s engineers to ensure everything could be done in record time. That was incredible,” he recalls.

The ETSIT professor has recently focused his work on post-processing techniques, “that is, taking the raw measurements, analysing the antenna and the system, and improving either the accuracy, the speed of the measurements, or both.” However, he believes that the techniques used in his field will need to change “radically” in the future.

“Right now, measuring an antenna can take hours or even days, and that has to change. Taking a photo — which is somewhat similar — takes no time at all, just a second. We need to develop techniques that allow us to measure almost in real time. We probably need to rethink all the procedures and processes, as well as what we actually want to measure — in other words, the measurement parameters and how they’re obtained. And to do that, we need to take a step back and reflect.”

AMTA post on LinkedIn”: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antenna-measurement-techniques-association_antennas-measurements-activity-7216175704130867201-5mzb?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAACwVw88BNa9NIaZQ6oa1ipyD-PefMA2C8iY

Source: UPM. Press room, Research news: https://short.upm.es/2yemf, originally published at its source on 28 of October of 2024

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