People – Thales Alenia Space S.p.A.

NameShort BiographyRole in ATOS
Mr. Andrea FiaschettiAndrea Fiaschetti pursued his MsC in Control Engineering from University of Rome "La Sapienza" in 2009 and his Ph.D. in System Engineering in 2013 from the same University. Since 2008 he has been actively involved in EU funded research, collaborating to the successful coordination and execution of several FP7/ECSEL projects, including: TASS, pSHIELD, nSHIELD, MONET and the national project EMERSAT. The experience gained in such activities allowed him to reach his certification as Project Management Professional (PMP®) from the international Project Management Institute. In 2013 he joined Thales Alenia Space Italia as System Engineer, providing his expertise in EU funded research, as well as his technical competences on Satellite Ground Segment Architectures. In this perspective, he actively collaborated to the development, integration, verification and validation of the Ground Control Segment for the dual-use military/civil Satellite ATHENA-FIDUS built with the collaboration of Italy and France. His technical expertise is mainly focused on SatCom architectures (both Ground and Space) as well as automatic control mechanisms.
In addition Andrea Fiaschetti is also “Honorary Fellow” at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, where he supports teaching activities in the domain of Automatic Controls.
Mr. Andrea SurianiAndrea Suriani is currently Head of R&D and Proposals, and RF products Design Authority within the Competence Center Electronics. He graduated “cum laude” as an Electronic Engineer at the University of Rome Tor Vergata in 1990 with a thesis on design of microwave mixers. He joined the former Selenia Spazio (to merge into the present Thales Alenia Space through the years) in October 1990 as microwave engineer. He was technical lead in the development of Ku band radar receivers for the Cassini Titan Radar Mapper, (1991-92); Ku band channel amplifiers and receivers for commercial telecom (1993-95) which were successfully used in many missions of several Primes in Europe and USA starting operation in orbit in 1997; Ka band receivers, channel amplifiers and linearizers for commercial telecom (1997-99) also successfully commercialized and proven in orbit since 2002.
In 1998 Andrea Suriani was appointed Head of the Payload Equipment Design Unit within the RF & Microwave Equipment Engineering Unit. In 2001 he was appointed Head of the RF & Microwave Equipment Engineering department, relabeled as RF Products in February 2006, after the merger between Alenia Spazio and Alcatel Space. He led the RF group for twelve years, coordinating a direct workforce that grew from roughly 30 to 55 people. Under his leadership, key achievements of the operating unit included development and qualification of:
• RF equipment of the Globalstar2 constellation of 48 satellites,
• RF equipment for the COSMO constellation X band SAR
• Military telecommunications RF equipment up to Q band operating in orbit
on board Sicral1B and their evolutions on board Athena Fidus and Sicral2;
• New generation TT&C and payload equipment, delivered to TAS and all
major Satellite Primes
• SAR T/R modules of Sentinel-1 (C band), SIASGE (L-band)
• Deep-space radioscience equipment at Ka band (e.g. for the JUNO mission)
• L band T/R modules for Iridium Next main mission antenna.
In 2013 he took charge of a newly established R&D department within the Competence Center Electronics Italy. Andrea Suriani is co-author of over 60 publications in major conferences in the fields of microwave design and space equipment technology, often participating as member of the technical committees.
Mr. Antonio FinaAntonio Fina has a master Degree in Electronics Engineering, University of L’Aquila. He started working at Alenia Spazio as Quality Assurance Engineer 1991-1995 and, in 1995, he was appointed Head of Production Line Quality Assurance Unit. In 1998, he was appointed Head of Microelectronics Technology Unit and kept this role up to 2011 when he was called to work in the frame of the technical and technological officer department as responsible for the Microelectronic technologies. Presently he is Head of Microelectronics R&D Unit inside the Competence Centre Electronic Italy and TAS-I representative member of the H&P (Microelectronics Hybrids & Packaging) and SMT/PCB (Surface Mount Technology / Printed Circuit Boards) working groups of the ESA CTB (Components Technology Board). As such, he has to provide support to technology qualification activities and techno-harmonization projects as per specific requests, provide support to inquiry boards as per specific requests. Antonio Fina is also Design Authority for Product Line (DAPL): Technology – T/R Modules & EFE. Since February 9th 2017, he was Delegated by the Domain Observation and Navigation (DONI) Italy as Responsible for the technology choices for T/R Modules and EFE throughout their Lifecycle for a given Product Line. He is the technical interface & reference for the PLM (Product Line Manager) and he manages the technology variability and configuration chairing internal reviews and hybrid line TRB (Technology Review Board) committees.
Mr. Marziale FeudaleMarziale Feudale took his Master Degree in Electronic Engineering at University of Naples in 1986. In 1987 He joined ALCATEL FACE as RF equipment designer. His main activity was focused on the design and implementation of the Microwave Landing System (MLS) simulator - ground segment. Between 1988 and 1992 he worked for TELETTRA S.P.A. as RF and Microwave circuits Designer on the Development of optical interfaces for the standard systems SONET ADM 600 (600Mbit/s), ADM 2400 ( 2.4 Gbit/s) and for the experimental 10 Gbit/s. He also worked on the development of a multifunction "ASIC" for the optical communications system at 600 MHz (ADM 600). From 1992 to 2014 he was working in Alenia Spazio (presently Thales Alenia Space) on the Design and Development of MMIC, MIC and Integrated Circuits for main Satellite Equipment. During this period he was appointed main interface with External foundries from USA and Europe for the development of MMIC in the frame of main Programs and related Products. He was also responsible of MMIC development in the frame of COSMO Skymed (X Band TR Module) and SIASGE Program (L band TR Module). Since 2014 he has been appointed as Thales Alenia Space Expert in MMIC design and qualification. Presently he is staff Member of R&D department and main referee for MMIC and related technologies. Marziale Feudale is co-author of more than 20 papers published in European and US Conferences. He is also permanent member of the CTB Microwave Working Group at European Space Agency.
Mr. Walter SteffèWalter Steffè has a Master Degree in Electronic Engineering. From 1991 to 2010 was in the Antenna Group, as responsible for the development of passive components (OMT, filters, horns) of space antennas. There, he developed electromagnetic codes for the analysis and optimization of waveguide components. From 2010 to 2013, he was in the Technical Office where he was in charge of the monitoring and coordination of internal research and development activities. He was directly involved with R&D activities carried out in the frame of an ASI funded study (Technologies for second generation tiles) aimed to development of radiating elements using PCB technologies. Since 2013 he is working within the R&D department of Competence Center Electronics as Antenna/Microwave Senior Engineer.
Mr. Paolo PanfiliPaolo Panfili has a Master Degree in Aerospace Engineering and is the lead Mechanical and Thermal specialist in the frame of CCEL - RF Advanced Studies group. From 2006 up to 2010 he worked as thermo-mechanical engineer responsible for the following development programs: Lisa PathFinder – X Band Transponder, GAIA – X Band Transponder, Globalstar 2 – C Band Telemetry Transmitter, Ka Band translator for the Juno Mission. From 2011 to 2014 he worked on the development of New generation Telemetry Transmitters and Ka Band Beacon Transmitters. Between 2014 and 2015, he was involved as TAS-I Project Manager and Responsible for an ESA – ARTES 5.1 study on Peltier Devices for Telecom LNA and currently leads as WP manager the development of on-feed redundant LNAs on an Artes 5.2 project.