Challenges and opportunities for RF-MEMS in aeronautics and space - The EADS perspective

This paper presents an overview on the opportunities and challenges for RF-MEMS based microwave circuits in the aeronautic and space domain. The most promising applications, like passive phased array antennas, active phased array antennas and reconfigurable systems are discussed and their different requirements in terms of performance and reliability are highlighted. Several RF-MEMS demonstrators already built and achievements made by EADS InnovationWorks are presented.