Italy has a unique place in the history of microwaves. Not only the birthplace of radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi, the country was also first to use “microonde” (microwave) in literature to describe the high frequency waves we all know and love.1 This year, EuMW 2022 takes place in Milan, returning to that city for the first time since 2002. This latest article in our series about the microwave industry in Europe takes a closer look at Italy—the key players in this market, as well as its historical contributions to advancing microwave technology.
Much of the country’s manufacturing industry is concentrated in the northwest region, known as the “Industrial Triangle.” The Triangle joins the cities of Milan, Turin and Genoa, housing the automotive industry and production of defense and aerospace equipment. This area is also home to some of the microwave companies that serve these sectors. There is also a concentration of microwave expertise further south, around Rome and Perugia—both cities having universities that specialize in microwave and mmWave technology.
A BIT ABOUT MARCONI
Figure 1 Guglielmo Marconi with the wireless telegraphy equipment he invented and patented.
Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi was born in Bologna in 1874, the son of an Italian aristocrat father and an Irish mother who came from the Jameson family of whiskey distillers. Despite having no formal education, he began experimenting with electromagnetic waves as a young man, and patented a radio wave-based wireless telegraphy system (see Figure 1).2 In 1897, he moved to the U.K. and founded The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company, which later became the Marconi Company. In 1901, he achieved the remarkable feat of transmitting a radio signal more than 2,000 miles across the Atlantic, from Poldhu in Cornwall, England, to Newfoundland in Canada. He shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun “in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy,” and was later ennobled as a Marchese by the King of Italy.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
True to Marconi’s heritage, Italy retains a strong telecoms industry. Its main mobile network operators are Wind Tre, TIM and Vodafone. A newcomer, Iliad, took on frequency bands abandoned by Wind Tre after the merger between Wind and 3 Italy, then launched as an operator in February 2018. Iliad grew at a phenomenal rate, acquiring 2 million subscribers in the first seven months of operation. The fifth operator is Fastweb, owned by Swisscom, which was initially a provider of fiber-optic broadband. Fastweb became a mobile virtual network operator in 2015, then acquired a 5G operator license in July 2019.
Most recently, Fastweb began rolling out 26 GHz 5G for fixed wireless access (FWA), to provide ultra-broadband connectivity at Gbps data rates as an alternative to fiber to the home. Samsung has been announced as the end-to-end supplier of core and radio units and, in February, Fastweb announced plans to use Qualcomm’s 5G “gen 2” FWA platform to commercialize its 5G standalone (SA) mmWave offering, featuring Snapdragon X65 and X62 5G modem-RF systems. This will enable Fastweb to rapidly scale its 5G mmWave FWA deployments, with a plan to connect 12 million homes and businesses in Italy by the end of 2025.
SIAE Microelettronica in Milan has been a key player in microwave point-to-point telecommunications links since before the advent of the earliest mobile networks, with a history going back 69 years. Its current product portfolio includes a complete range of microwave radios, including split mount, full outdoor and all-indoor systems across traditional licensed microwave bands and mmWave frequencies, supporting MEF, IP/MPLS and SDN protocols. Also in the portfolio are microwave radio products for licensed and unlicensed frequencies from 4 to 80 GHz, E-Band radios, multiplexers, cell site gateways, network switching devices and network management systems. The company designs and produces its own RF components from semiconductors to system level and boasts in-house RF laboratories, clean room facilities and complete product assembly lines.
In May 2022, SIAE Microelettronica announced it had become a member of the O-RAN Alliance, the worldwide technology community of over 300 telecom operators, vendors, research and academic institutions working to define and build an open and interoperable ecosystem for virtualized mobile networks, supporting the specifications of 3GPP and other standardization bodies.
SPACE AND DEFENSE
Italy has a particularly strong space and defense industry. One of Europe’s largest manufacturers in this sector is Leonardo, headquartered in Rome. Leonardo was founded under its original name of Finmeccanica in 1948, the same year the Italian Constitution was established. The name change to Leonardo officially occurred at the beginning of 2017, inspired by the famous Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci. Over the years, the company has absorbed several famous brands in these market sectors, including Alenia, SGS Thomson (now ST Microelectronics), AgustaWestland, DRS Technologies and SELEX. Through a partnership with BAE Systems and Airbus, Leonardo owns a 25 percent stake in European missile systems manufacturer MBDA, and it is also a partner in the Eurofighter consortium that manufactures the Typhoon aircraft. In collaboration with Thales, it is a partner in both Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio. These latter two companies together make up the Space Alliance, a strategic partnership formed in 2005. Combining Thales Alenia Space’s expertise in satellite systems with the capability of Telespazio in satellite services means the Space Alliance can readily address the needs of the space market, which are increasingly focused on applications and the space technologies themselves.
CONTRACTS
Thales Alenia Space is a European leader in both active electronically scanned array development and satellite navigation. The company recently signed a new contract with the EU Agency for the Space Program (EUSPA) to develop, qualify and deploy the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS). Under this contract, the company will provide EUSPA and the EU navigation community with a new version of EGNOS (V243), underpinned by a state-of-the-art Navigation Land Earth Station (NLES) technology being developed to transmit the EGNOS data to the geostationary satellites. This will be integrated with a new geostationary satellite, GEO3, to enhance the end-to-end performance of the EGNOS system. Thales Alenia Space additionally announced the integration of a new satellite (GSAT0223) into the ground mission segment of Galileo, which has increased the operational constellation to 23 satellites for positioning and 25 for search and rescue; this will improve the service to the 3.3 billion Galileo users.
Figure 2 Leonardo is developing key components of the ECRS Mk1 radar fitted to the Eurofighter Typhoon. Source: Hensoldt AG/Stefan Petersen.
Earlier this year, Leonardo signed a €260 million contract with German aerospace manufacturer Hensoldt3 that will give Leonardo responsibility for developing key components of the European Common Radar System (ECRS) Mk1 E-scan radar (see Figure 2). ECRS Mk1, which will be fitted to the Eurofighter Typhoon models ordered by Germany and Spain, adds a digital multi-channel receiver and wideband transmit/receive modules to enhance the capabilities of the existing ECRS Mk0, for which Leonardo is the design authority. Leonardo will design and produce core antenna, APSC and processor components and will develop wideband capabilities to improve the ECRS Mk1’s detection range and accuracy. Leonardo will also be the design authority for the new U.K.-led ECRS Mk2 radar variant, which will feature a multi-function array. The modules for the ECRS Mk1 will be produced at Leonardo’s sites in Nerviano near Milan, Campi Bisenzio in Florence, Palermo in Sicily and Edinburgh, U.K.
Another major defense equipment manufacturer with headquarters in Rome is the Elettronica Group, along with its subsidiary ELT-Roma. Founded in 1951 and once partially owned by Finmeccanica, Elettronica specializes in the design and production of electronic warfare equipment and systems, electronic support measures, electronic counter measures, signals intelligence, radar warning receiver, cyber warfare and homeland security.
In 2019, Space Engineering—already a wholly-owned subsidiary of Airbus—changed its name to Airbus Italia S.p.A. At the time of the change, the Tiburtina, Rome-based company had 120 employees at its 1,200 m2 facility and was focused on satellite communications. This included the validation and qualification of on-board and ground components, equipment and subsystems such as antennas and repeaters. Its activities also extended to the development of IoT applications, mobile terminals for airborne, train and land applications, RF components and ground modems. In addition to working on several large Italian and international space programs, it holds several international patents related to antennas, radar, scientific software and digital signal processing. Airbus Italia’s assembly, integration and test facility benefits from a 12 × 8 × 7 m anechoic chamber and environmental and thermal vacuum chambers, as well as a 250 m2 ISO-8 clean room and it has test facilities for measurements up to 70 GHz.
SPACE ECOSYSTEM
The dominance of the Italian market by the large defense and aerospace equipment manufacturers Elettronica and Leonardo, along with its two joint ventures in the Space Alliance, has led to the emergence of a cluster of smaller space-focused companies in Italy.
Marco Lisi, who led the systems engineering activities for Galileo at the European Space Agency, and was previously chief scientist at Telespazio, observed: “Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Italy is experiencing a ‘renaissance period’ in RF and microwaves, with the flourishing of small and medium enterprises that are very dynamic and innovative.”
Figure 3 Artist’s impression of LuGRE on the moon and the GNSS constellation orbiting the Earth. Source: NASA/Dave Ryan.
Among the young companies highlighted by Prof. Lisi are Qascom, which has developed the open service authentication service for Galileo and specializes in the detection of jamming and spoofing of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals. One of Qascom’s latest projects is building a software-defined radio receiver payload for the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE). LuGRE is a collaboration between the Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana) and NASA that aims to test lunar navigation based on existing satellite navigation signals, with a view to developing navigation approaches for Artemis astronauts and robotic missions’ exploration of the Moon. The payload that is being developed by Qascom will fly on a NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services mission in 2023. Figure 3 shows an artist’s impression of LuGRE on the moon’s surface, with the Earth-based GNSS constellations taking up less than 10 degrees of the lunar sky.
Argotec, based in Turin, produces microsatellites (CubeSats), managing all the stages in the process from research, design and assembly through integration test and operation. The ArgoMoon is a microsatellite that will be the only European payload aboard Artemis 1, the first mission of the NASA Space Launch System. The ArgoMoon will take photos during the mission to confirm that the other CubeSats have been successfully released. It will also be a platform to validate autonomous tracking of specific targets in a deep space environment.
Leaf Space, founded in 2014 in Lomazzo, Lombardy, operates a distributed ground station network to connect with small satellites, based on a “ground segment-as-a-service” model. This enables their clients to access a complete set of satellite operations services, including time-shared access to ground, customized telecommunication solutions, ground station procurement and microwave system consultancy. This method can reduce the cost and development time for SmallSat operators, whose ground segment becomes a predictable recurring cost.
UNIVERSITY SPIN-OFFS
Many of Italy’s microwave manufacturers began as spin-offs from leading universities. Aresys, for example, is a spin-off of Politecnico di Milano and targets customers in the space, aerospace, defense and oil and gas markets. Founded in 2003, the company specializes in remote sensing, focusing on research and development activities to deliver customized solutions and services in airborne and spaceborne synthetic aperture radars (SARs), ground-based SAR, radar and ground-penetrating radar, pipeline acoustic monitoring systems and seismic and geophysical prospecting systems.
In April this year, Aresys was announced as a subcontractor for a technology demonstration mission called SATURN, which is short for Synthetic AperTure radar cUbesat foRmation flyiNg. The mission will define the technical requirements and assess the critical technologies needed for a constellation of microsatellites equipped with miniaturized SAR instruments. The prime contract is with the Italian Space Agency, while Aresys is responsible for the SAR payload, MIMO SAR data processing and the payload ground segment. The subcontractors are Politecnico di Milano, responsible for the mission requirements and data scientific exploitation, and Airbus Italia, which will provide the payload antenna design and carry out manufacturing.
The SATURN mission is aimed at demonstrating the technology of coordinated swarms of MIMO SAR microsatellites for low-cost Earth observation. By distributing the key resources among small-sized, simpler systems—rather than concentrating them in a single large satellite—and assuring the correct combination of signals from each single node of the swarm, the swarms can be deployed on different orbital planes, enabling high revisit time and optimum performance, irrespective of the available daylight and cloud cover.
RF Microtech is a company originally spun out of the University of Perugia by the late Professor Roberto Sorrentino, who was one of the founders of the European Microwave Association (EuMA) and was EuMA president from 1998 to 2009. RF Microtech develops and manufactures custom products for equipment manufacturers and system integrators, supporting projects with technical assistance, consultancy, RF design and simulation and RF test and characterization. Its product expertise includes antennas and phased arrays, microwave filters, passive components and microwave sensors and systems—addressing telecoms and satcoms, space and avionics and industrial control and sensing applications.
Active Technologies, based in Ferrara in Northern Italy, manufactures a range of high performance arbitrary waveform generators and pulse generators. The company emerged out of the University of Ferrara in 2003.
PASSIVE COMPONENTS AND INTERCONNECT
Italy has several independent component and subsystem manufacturers, which support its indigenous aerospace and telecoms corporations and export to customers across the world. It is particularly strong in manufacturing passive components, waveguide and coaxial connectors and adapters.
Pasquali Microwave Systems, located in Florence, has been operating since 1958, specializing in precision mechanical machining to produce waveguide devices and assemblies. The microwave components and assemblies it manufactures are used in high reliability applications worldwide, including civil and military radars and the space, telecommunications and security sectors. Genex RF, in Rome, manufactures a range of passive components, waveguide components and coaxial connectors, adapters and assemblies up to 40 GHz.
Würth Elektronik Stelvio Kontek is the Italian subsidiary of the German Würth Elektronik Group and manufactures electromechanical components, including terminal blocks, connectors, fuse-holders and sensors in its Oggiono facility in Lombardy. MTR, based in Naples, manufactures waveguide parts, including filters and couplers.
CPE Italia is based in Milan and manufactures cables, connectors and assemblies for frequencies to 65 GHz, as well as a series of microwave and RF resistors, attenuators and power loads. Products for military and other applications requiring stringent environmental qualification are a specialty. Multiple coaxial contacts within a single standard MIL 38999 series III circular connector are featured, offering the advantage of a rapid blind-mate connection where space is limited. Phase-matched coaxial cable sets are also offered. Leanfa designs and manufactures solid-state OEM microwave and RF generators and power amplifiers (PAs) for industrial, scientific and medical applications. Its generator designs feature highly accurate parametric control, with modular and scalable architectures that run from a single low voltage DC supply.
Microwave Filters & TVC was founded in Milan in 1979 and designs and produces passive components from 10 MHz to 90 GHz for applications including microwave and mmWave backhaul links, cellular repeaters, satcom, broadcasting and test and measurement. The product range includes filters, diplexers, waveguide isolators and circulators, loads, couplers, OMTs, adapters, seamless and flexible/twistable waveguide, cables, connectors and cable assemblies. Filter technologies include hairpin and combline, RC lumped component and helical filters.
Intech Microwaves in the Tecnopolo Tiburtino area just outside Rome serves the large aerospace and defense companies nearby. It specializes in the design and production of microwave components and subsystems and the design and development of automatic test equipment. With a 300 m2 clean room area out of a total of 600 m2, the company has microelectronic assembly equipment with chip-and-wire capability, RF testing to 50 GHz and environmental test. Its products encompass both its own and custom designs for specific customers. The standard product range includes passive components such as filters, power dividers and combiners, MMICs and active components (low noise amplifiers and receivers, PAs and transmitters, microwave sources), digital components, subsystems and assemblies and antennas.
THE ITALIAN MICROWAVE LANDSCAPE
In conclusion, defense and aerospace are the dominant factors in Italy’s thriving microwave community. The advent of small satellites has provided a significant boost to the industry and enabled smaller companies to enter the market, many supported by close ties with academia. Italy now has a rich ecosystem of component and subsystem vendors supporting larger equipment manufacturers. Prospects for the future look very promising.
References
* “Speaking of microwaves”
- G. Pelosi, “Time Travel,” Microwave Journal, February 2022.
- S. Hong, “Wireless: From Marconi’s Black-Box to the Audion,” MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-08298-5.
- “€260M Contracts Will See Leonardo Play Core Role in E-scan Radar for German and Spanish Typhoons,” Microwave Journal, January 2022.