news club went to meet Nicolas Capet, the founder of Anyways, a French company born two years ago which proposes a new generation of products adapted to the market of space miniaturization.
The advent of digital has led, over the years and technological progress made in various sectors, true miniaturization of technologies. The space sector has obviously not escaped this "fashion" that we know with the massive development of CubeSats, small satellites that offer solutions to companies or institutions, more modest than in the past.
Led by an enthusiastic and passionate founder, Nicolas Capet, Anywavesdesignsmini antennas for mini-drones and mini-satellites. news club took advantage of the Paris Air Show 2019 edition to meet the CEO of the Toulouse-based start-up, who appeared just two years ago and who already has a well-filled order book.
Interview with Nicolas Capet, founder, CEO, and CTO of Anyways
news club: You design two antennas at Anyways, a band-S, and a Band-X.Can you describe each of them, differentiate them, and explain to us why they are intended?
Nicolas Capet: The band-S antenna operates in frequencies around 2 GHz, 2.3 GHz. It is made to pilot the satellite, to send him instructions on the maneuvers he has to do, on what he must record in particular, and receive his state of health, even some data that may come from the payload.
The goal is to be in permanent contact with the satellite, so we need to have coverage all around the satellite, regardless of its altitude, since when it is released into orbit, it must be Stabilizes and can be oriented anyhow. If we can not hang it at that time, we can very well lose the entire mission.
The Band-X antenna has completely different functionality, since it is there to repatriate only data that comes from the payload, so the data of the mission. It can be a camera that repatriates data. When the satellite will pass over the inking station that will capture its signals, it will have to empty a maximum of data. Here we will operate at higher frequencies, around 8 GHz.
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| antenna S-band, antenna X-band |
How were they made? And above all, it must be said, the antennas are really very small ...
Oh yes, there we are talking about a few tens of centimeters of side on the satellite. These are ridiculously small objects next to what was done historically. Regarding manufacturing, we have adopted an approach that is breaking with some, since we are a fabless company that is, we do not have production tools in-house. But we have an extraordinary chance in France, and particularly in Occitania, to have an industrial fabric of space SMEs, since it has been decades since France is a technological jewel in the field. We have a lot of partners who have incredible experience and know-how. We rely on local partners, all based in France, to produce our antennas, with high volumes and a real level of quality.
"WE ARE PUSHING THE LIMITS OF PHYSICS"
Is it more difficult to conceive precisely because it is smaller?
Absolutely, it's even more demanding because here we really push the boundaries of physics. After a while, when you want a certain performance, there is a minimum volume needed, and you have to use some special techniques. We use technologies like metamaterials, which allow us to miniaturize these antennas at the design level while maintaining very good performance.
Is the performance level of a nanosatellite antenna comparable to a larger model?
In some cases, no. But the thing to keep in mind is that these small satellites tend to be in low orbit, between 400 and 800 kilometers above sea level, where a geostationary satellite rises to about 36,000 kilometers. So the propagation distance is incommensurate, so when we are in low orbit, it is not useful to have as many links at the antenna as a satellite that will be 36 000 km. We come to find compromises, precisely, to be able to achieve good performance to achieve the mission, with antennas that are small enough to be embedded on these small satellites.
What surface can be covered with a single antenna?
If we consider a truly fixed antenna, we develop products that will enter a phase of 10x10x10 cm, which is a standard developed in the field of CubeSats. On our side, generic products, fixed antennas, must fit in there.
But we are developing other technologies because in some cases, these dimensions will not achieve the desired results to achieve the missions with the expected performance. So, we switch to other antenna concepts that are called deployable antenna technologies. When we put the antenna into the satellite at launch, it will be contained in this famous 10x10x10 cm, and once it is in orbit, we unfold to obtain much larger dimensions, so that the antennas, in fine, can end up being larger than the satellite itself.
We are always looking for materials that have spatial heritage and flying heritage, always in this desire to ensure a sufficient level of quality for our commercial customers.
"WITH MINIATURIZATION, WE COME TO A COMPLETE BREAK, AND THE APPROACH FOR SATELLITE MANUFACTURERS BECOMES COMPLETELY DIFFERENT"
What can be the approximate cost of a nanosatellite antenna?
It all depends on performance and technology, but the order of magnitude can range from a few thousand to around ten thousand euros. On payload antennas, for example, deployable antennas, we are on a much more complex technology, which can climb one or two orders of magnitude above.
We are witnessing miniaturization of satellites and equipment in general, through the CubeSats in particular. How is it explained?
From my personal point of view, the miniaturization of electronics has been one of the strong drivers pushed by all technologies such as smartphones. Today, with extremely small electronic cards, you can end up with tremendous computing powers. To give an example, in any smartphone, there is much more computing power than what is embedded on Curiosity. It gives you a little idea ... Since we work in low orbit on these small satellites, we remain a little protected by our atmosphere, ionosphere, magnetosphere, etc., so that we can begin to ship electronic equipment that comes from the ground and to operate them in orbit. So we come to a complete break and the
How do you develop your business for two years?
Our customers are mainly manufacturers of small satellites, who will manufacture the platform and integrate a whole lot of equipment (controllers, inertia wheels, antennas, etc.). We provide them with antennas to meet the needs of their mission, and manufacturers are led to selling a satellite to a customer. We also speak directly to the end customers, who will specify the performance of the payload, we will make tailor-made for the end customer. If necessary, we may have to develop an antenna directly for this final customer, who will ship it on the satellite of a manufacturer.
Does your order book fill up?
We are quite happy because we have already exceeded our sales targets for this year. We have sold more than 12 flight models, so antennas that will go into orbit, and about the equivalent in engineering models, which are first models purchased for one of our customers to do all the tests at the ground and validate the overall performance of the satellite as its smooth operation. On the face of it, we have good contacts with ESA in order to put into orbit the navigation antenna that we are developing right now.
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| Eye-sat, a tiny satellite of 30 cm by 10 cm |
You also have a foothold in the drone market ...
We position ourselves as a pure aerial equipment supplier. The problem is a bit the same as for small satellites. Airborne systems that were made with large planes or helicopters facilitated the installation of antennas. Today, on very small drones, where mass is a differentiating factor for the autonomy of the drone, we have a real problem of miniaturization antennas.
We will no longer go to the professionals, where there is a strong need for performance on the antenna, whether for availability (keep in touch with the drone when it is going to sail out of the field of view) or to repatriate data at very high speed when the mission embarked will do its operation and have all the data in real time, rather than waiting for the drone to come back a little later to recover the data, process them, etc.
You have an exclusive license on a technology that structures the material in 3D to adjust the electromagnetic properties. Can you tell us more?
This is a technology that I patented when I was at CNES in 2014. One of the biggest problems when designing antennas is that you can buy some American materials with standard values and thicknesses. , the antenna is then having to fend for himself, but it limits us a lot in our way of designing antennas and optimizing performance.
So I worked on this subject: the idea is to say that we need material and a generic process, then allowing us to have the ability to design our parts on demand and in a completely flexible way. This is where I got the idea to structure ceramic material, which is a noble material for space applications because it is very resistant to the environment, radiation, and temperatures. This material is structured in 3D to adjust its electromagnetic properties and to design antennas, optimal from optimal, without being constrained by the technology. Behind it, you can make them in 3D printing to be extremely flexible in the forms of the part that you want to do and have a generic technology that we will qualify once,
How was the company Anyways born, Nicolas?
Anyways is born from the fact that I had the chance to work, for ten years, in the field of antennas and in particular for space, since I had the chance to begin my career after my doctorate at the ONERA at CNES. I was in charge of all kinds of activities, including a lot of innovation activities. I was able to work with many partners: academics, SMEs, large groups. All this allowed me to discover all the technologies that were available, I published a lot of scientific articles and filed more than twenty patents. I was able to flourish in this professional environment.
The desire to do business had been there for a long time, but I did not have the weapons, the expertise, or the network, I was not ready at the end of my Ph.D. Then I had the chance to get to the heart of the matter since CNES must develop the French space industry, and it was my mission for the antennas. The emergence of the new space, this break in our field, where missions that were originally made with some very large satellites, are now envisaged with constellations, a multitude of small satellites. The problem is that there were no antennas sufficiently powerful to embark on these satellites. From there, I
The company was born in 2017, we recently celebrated our second anniversary. We are eight people and will be ten in September, probably about fifteen by the end of the year.
Where did the passion of antennas come from?
The love for antennas comes from my studies and even the very end of studies. I discovered all this electromagnetism that is quite rough (Maxwell's equations are always easy to implement when it is necessary to calculate with), this theoretical and conceptual difficulty that are the electromagnetic waves. An antenna, in the end, is a concrete object with matter, structure, precisions, which is the opposite of the digital where we manipulate things that remain abstract, like algorithms. This difficulty between the technological complexity and the theoretical complexity to design antennas attracted me. In this area, we learn every day, it's pretty wonderful technically, and it's something that is absolutely essential and useful,
We position ourselves as a pure aerial equipment supplier. The problem is a bit the same as for small satellites. Airborne systems that were made with large planes or helicopters facilitated the installation of antennas. Today, on very small drones, where mass is a differentiating factor for the autonomy of the drone, we have a real problem of miniaturization antennas.
We will no longer go to the professionals, where there is a strong need for performance on the antenna, whether for availability (keep in touch with the drone when it is going to sail out of the field of view) or to repatriate data at very high speed when the mission embarked will do its operation and have all the data in real time, rather than waiting for the drone to come back a little later to recover the data, process them, etc.
"STRUCTURING THE MATERIAL TO DESIGN OPTIMAL ANTENNAS WITHOUT BEING CONSTRAINED BY TECHNOLOGY"
You have an exclusive license on a technology that structures the material in 3D to adjust the electromagnetic properties. Can you tell us more?
This is a technology that I patented when I was at CNES in 2014. One of the biggest problems when designing antennas is that you can buy some American materials with standard values and thicknesses. , the antenna is then having to fend for himself, but it limits us a lot in our way of designing antennas and optimizing performance.
So I worked on this subject: the idea is to say that we need material and a generic process, then allowing us to have the ability to design our parts on demand and in a completely flexible way. This is where I got the idea to structure ceramic material, which is a noble material for space applications because it is very resistant to the environment, radiation, and temperatures. This material is structured in 3D to adjust its electromagnetic properties and to design antennas, optimal from optimal, without being constrained by the technology. Behind it, you can make them in 3D printing to be extremely flexible in the forms of the part that you want to do and have a generic technology that we will qualify once,
How was the company Anyways born, Nicolas?
Anyways is born from the fact that I had the chance to work, for ten years, in the field of antennas and in particular for space, since I had the chance to begin my career after my doctorate at the ONERA at CNES. I was in charge of all kinds of activities, including a lot of innovation activities. I was able to work with many partners: academics, SMEs, large groups. All this allowed me to discover all the technologies that were available, I published a lot of scientific articles and filed more than twenty patents. I was able to flourish in this professional environment.
"AS SOON AS WE WANT A WIRELESS SYSTEM, WE NEED AN ANTENNA"
The desire to do business had been there for a long time, but I did not have the weapons, the expertise, or the network, I was not ready at the end of my Ph.D. Then I had the chance to get to the heart of the matter since CNES must develop the French space industry, and it was my mission for the antennas. The emergence of the new space, this break in our field, where missions that were originally made with some very large satellites, are now envisaged with constellations, a multitude of small satellites. The problem is that there were no antennas sufficiently powerful to embark on these satellites. From there, I
The company was born in 2017, we recently celebrated our second anniversary. We are eight people and will be ten in September, probably about fifteen by the end of the year.
Where did the passion of antennas come from?
The love for antennas comes from my studies and even the very end of studies. I discovered all this electromagnetism that is quite rough (Maxwell's equations are always easy to implement when it is necessary to calculate with), this theoretical and conceptual difficulty that are the electromagnetic waves. An antenna, in the end, is a concrete object with matter, structure, precisions, which is the opposite of the digital where we manipulate things that remain abstract, like algorithms. This difficulty between the technological complexity and the theoretical complexity to design antennas attracted me. In this area, we learn every day, it's pretty wonderful technically, and it's something that is absolutely essential and useful,
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