Ensuring the stability, power and quality of high-speed communications between space and Earth.
This, regardless of the signal transmitter: fixed geostationary satellite (GEO, 36,000 km from the Earth) or small satellites forming a constellation in motion in low orbit.
And regardless of the receiver: planes, drones, boats, trains, cars or individuals at home or in the office.
This is the promise of Greenerwave, a French start-up born in 2016 from the Langevin Research Institute (CNRS, ESPCI), in Paris, dedicated to the physics of waves.
The start-up started from a simple observation.
From one room to another, or on board a car or a plane, a smartphone or a computer picks up more or less well.
This is because the waves disperse, blocked by obstacles such as a wall or an underground passage, for example.
The solution developed by Greenerwave consists in taming the waves so that they do not disperse.
Read alsoElectromagnetic waves, ubiquitous and essential
“We have developed flat antennas made of a material with real-time electromagnetic reconfiguration, like a mirror whose surface is deformed. This technology allows a stable and high-quality broadband connection between a satellite and a receiver whether they are static or in motion”,
explains Geoffroy Lerosey, former researcher at the CNRS and co-founding president of the young shoot.
This presents its revolutionary antenna at Satellite Week, which is held in Washington (until March 16).
Other applications in development
This “made in France” technology is also
“five times less expensive and consumes less energy than conventional antennas because it incorporates five to ten times fewer semiconductors”, specifies
Geoffroy Lerosey.
These new generation antennas are of interest to armies.
Greenerwave has received support from the Defense Innovation Agency.
And validated its technology, during two test campaigns carried out in 2021 and 2022, with the Athena-Fidus broadband military telecom satellite.
This, with the support of the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA).
The start-up is preparing to move from prototype to mass-produced product.
To this end, it is preparing to raise 15 million euros from a pool of investors.
“Our goal is to launch industrialization at the end of 2023 and then mass production in the fall of 2024. Until then, we are organizing our ecosystem of subcontractors.
Our objective is to locate this production in France”,
specifies the president of Greenerwave.
Greenerwave prepares the next move
The start-up targets government markets, armies, companies as well as constellations.
It is also leading discussions with OneWeb, the operator of the eponymous constellation, and with telecom satellite operators such as the European Eutelsat, the American Intelsat and the Korean KT Sat.
And it has already signed two contracts with the DGA to carry out new tests, and with Telespazio, a telecommunications services joint venture owned by Thales and Leonardo, which also wishes to test the antenna.
At the same time, Greenerwave is preparing the next step, by developing other applications based on the same technology.
Target markets?
Radar imagery for autonomous vehicles and those with 5G and 6G connectivity.
