The Operational Reality
Conventional sensing breaks down exactly when it matters most. In fog, darkness, noise, and cluttered environments, visibility falls, maintenance costs rise, and detection becomes unreliable.
Where RF Becomes Intelligence
Dual-use RF systems that stay reliable in real environments, from autonomous counter-drone defence to battery-free sensing platforms.
Upcoming Events
Invited
2026
London, UK
EuMW 2026 — The Defence Forum
RFisense has been invited to the Defence Forum at European Microwave Week 2026 in London, bringing our counter-UAS RF technology to the heart of Europe's defence-electronics community.
Visit the Defence ForumWhy RFisense
RFisense is a European dual-use startup building deployable RF systems for defence and critical infrastructure. We engineer the full stack in-house, from radar and RF hardware to embedded systems, real-time signal processing, and AI, so our technology stays reliable exactly where conventional sensing breaks down.
Winner
EUDIS Defending Air Space Hackathon 2026
TRL 6
Field-tested prototype
In-house
Radar + RF + AI stack
What We Build
- RF-Sentinel: Portable AI-Powered Counter-Drone Defence.
- Passive RF Platform: Battery-free wireless sensing for scalable monitoring.
- Dual-use roadmap: Products designed for both civilian and defense needs.
Why It Matters
- Reliable detection and sensing in day, night, and adverse environments.
- Portable and scalable systems built for real deployment constraints.
- Battery-free sensing approach for ultra-low maintenance operations.
- Strong technical advantage built on RF, signal processing, and AI.
Our Solutions
Fully integrated and validated prototypes, tested in real-world environments.
TRL 6 · Field-tested prototype
RF-Sentinel: Portable AI-Powered Counter-Drone Defence
RF-Sentinel fuses an in-house active X-band radar, passive RF sensing, and AI to deliver total airspace awareness. Passive RF classifies transmitting drones by their control and video links, but it cannot see silent, autonomous, and fibre-optic FPV drones. That is why we built our own radar and fused it with AI to detect and classify those threats and decide how to react. Once the AI confirms a threat, it triggers the countermeasures, such as the directional RC and GPS jammer and, in development, a close-range microwave beam.
- Detection: In-house X-band radar plus passive RF, catching even silent fibre-optic FPV drones.
- Classification: AI fusion distinguishes drones from birds and false alarms in real time.
- Neutralization: Non-kinetic soft-kill via directional RC and GPS jamming, with a close-range microwave beam in development.
- Field-proven: Lab-demonstrated, field-tested in Denmark, validated in NATO STO and EUDIS environments.
- Deployable: Portable architecture for rapid site-level protection of airports, borders, prisons, utilities, and critical infrastructure.
Operational evidence
Built in the lab. Proven outside it.
RF-Sentinel has progressed from laboratory demonstrations to outdoor field trials in Denmark, with further validation through NATO STO and EUDIS environments. The images show the deployed hardware, live detection interface, and real drone flights from recent testing, not concept renders.
DEMO
“If it transmits, we hear it. If it flies silently, we see it. In both cases, we defeat it.”
We design our own active X-band radar in-house, from antenna to micro-Doppler, fused with passive RF and on-board AI. Most counter-drone systems integrate someone else's radar. We engineer the full stack.
TRL 5 to 6
Passive Platform for Versatile Wireless Sensing
Battery-free passive RF sensing for wireless data acquisition, with no batteries to replace and no wired infrastructure. Built to scale monitoring and object identification across distributed sites and battlefield environments with ultra-low maintenance.
- Battery-free: Designed for ultra-low maintenance deployments.
- Wireless Sensorization: Enables remote data collection without wired infrastructure.
- Versatile Integration: Supports multi-domain sensing scenarios.
- Battlefield Identification: Passive tags can identify equipment, assets and objects in contested environments without onboard power.
- Target Markets: Defence, industrial IoT, smart agriculture, healthcare, and space-related applications.
Deep-Tech Founders.
Field-Ready Execution.
We are RF researchers and engineers with an obsession: we build fast, test in the field, and turn complex RF technology into mission-ready defence products.
Founders
Daniel Escadas
Co-Founder & CEOLeads company strategy, partnerships and customer engagement, while directing the radar, signal-processing and AI intelligence stack.
- NATO STO ICMCIS Speaker
- URSI Best Research Project 2025
Gonçalo Martins
Co-Founder & CTOLeads technology and product architecture, with hands-on responsibility for RF hardware, antennas, embedded systems and countermeasure engineering from simulation to field-ready prototypes.
- Fraunhofer Master Thesis Award 2025
Advisory Board
Nuno Borges de Carvalho
RF Systems AdvisorInternationally recognised expert in RF systems and wireless technologies.
Pedro Pinho
Antenna AdvisorSpecialist in antenna design and integration for compact RF systems.
Delmar Santos
Go-to-Market AdvisorCommercial strategy, B2B positioning and market development.
Engineering Team
Martim Gil
RF Systems EngineerDevelops RF hardware from concept to validated prototype, with hands-on experience in wireless power transfer, avionics and electronic systems.
- RF Prototyping
- Wireless Power
- Avionics
Pedro Mendes
FPGA & Digital Systems EngineerDevelops and verifies real-time DSP hardware on AMD RFSoC, connecting VHDL/Verilog, MATLAB modelling and benchtop validation for next-generation RF sensing and countermeasure systems.
- AMD RFSoC
- DSP HDL
- VHDL / Verilog
Validation & Recognition
Public recognition, technical awards, and end-user engagement support our transition from research to mission-ready capability.
Team Achievement
Winner of the EUDIS Defending Air Space Hackathon 2026, RF-Sentinel
RF-Sentinel won the Portuguese edition of the EUDIS Defending Air Space Hackathon 2026. The platform combines radar, RF sensors, and AI to detect, classify, and respond to aerial threats.
Press Feature
Featured in the Press, Defesa de Espinho
Local press covered the EUDIS Defending Air Space Hackathon 2026 win: “Daniel Escadas leads award-winning project in the fight against drones,” spotlighting RF-Sentinel and our team.
Individual Distinction
Daniel Escadas, URSI Best Research Project Award 2025
Awarded at the 19th URSI Portugal Congress, with public recognition from ANACOM and institutional channels.
Individual Distinction
Gonçalo Martins, Fraunhofer Master Thesis Award 2025
Recognized for outstanding academic and applied engineering work in advanced electronics and RF systems.
Individual Distinction
Daniel Escadas, APDC National Award for Master's Dissertation
His master's dissertation at the University of Aveiro received national recognition from APDC for excellence and innovation in communications engineering.
Startup Distinction
Empreende+ 2026 Award, University of Aveiro
RFisense received the Empreende+ 2026 distinction, reinforcing our progress from academic excellence to market-oriented innovation.
Collaborative Achievement
1st Place, NATO STO Hackathon 2025
Daniel Escadas participated in the winning team for AI-based drone detection and classification, reinforcing RFisense capability in mission-driven defense scenarios.
PARTNER & INVEST
Partner With Us
RFisense was born at the EUDIS Defending Air Space Hackathon 2026 and is now field-validated, with integrated prototypes proven outside the lab and recognition across EUDIS, NATO STO, URSI, and Fraunhofer.
We are building Europe's counter-UAS capability on a full in-house RF stack, and the same core powers our passive sensing platform.
If you're an investor, integrator, or operator exploring pilots, partnerships, or early deployments, let's talk.