MWSE

MWSE, short for Microwave Sensors and Electronics S.L., is an electronics engineering company in Vilafranca del Penedès, near Barcelona, Spain. It develops radio frequency products. These include payloads and sensors for small satellites, multi-frequency radars, microwave radiometers and GNSS reflectometers.

The company began as a spin-off from the Technical University of Catalonia. Its team has more than 20 years of experience in hardware design. Its products and projects have been tested in harsh places, such as the cold and wet Arctic, the hot desert of Saudi Arabia, and the radiation and thermal vacuum of low Earth orbit.

For the ground and for airborne platforms, MWSE makes multi-frequency radars, microwave radiometers and GNSS reflectometers. For space, it builds low power microwave payloads for small satellites, including radiometers and GNSS reflectometers. It also designs custom electronics for customers.

One product is the Multi-Frequency Full-Polarization Ground-Based Synthetic Aperture Radar, known as the MFFP-GBSAR. It joins multi-frequency InSAR technology with full polarisation. The company says it can detect tiny ground movements even under dense plant cover. It also helps bridge the gap between measurements taken on site and satellite radar data.

MWSE takes part in European space projects. It is part of a group led by Elecnor Deimos, with ALTER Technology, Anywaves and the University of Padova, that won the Galileo Space ReceivER (GASPER) project for Horizon 2020 in-orbit demonstration and validation. The aim is a low cost NewSpace receiver that works with Galileo. The company also built the RF front-end for the Flexible Microwave Payload-2, the main payload of the 3Cat-5/A satellite. That payload is a software defined radio that works as an L-band radiometer and GNSS reflectometer. It flies on a nanosatellite mission of the Technical University of Catalonia.

MWSE has shown its work at the New Space Economy congress in 2022 and supported a remote sensing summer school that year. It says it builds long term partnerships with its customers.

Services

• Multi-frequency radars
• Microwave radiometers
• GNSS reflectometers
• Small satellite payloads
• Ground-based synthetic aperture radar
• Custom electronics design
• RF front-end design