  HD163296 is a Herbig Ae/Be star known to host a protoplanetary disk with a
ringed structure. To explain the disk features, previous works proposed the
presence of planets embedded into the disk. We have observed HD163296 with the
near-infrared (NIR) branch of SPHERE composed by IRDIS and IFS with the aim to
put tight constraints on the presence of substellar companions around this
star. Despite the low rotation of the field of view during our observation we
were able to put upper mass limits of few M_Jup around this object. These
limits do not allow to give any definitive conclusion about the planets
proposed through the disk characteristics. On the other hand, our results seem
to exclude the presence of the only candidate proposed until now using direct
imaging in the NIR even if some caution has to be taken considered the
different wavelength bands of the two observations.
