Design of a 12-GHz multicarrier earth-terminal for satellite-CATV interconnection

The design and development of the front-end for a multi-carrier system that allows multiplex signal transmission from satellite-borne transponders is described. Detailed systems analyses provided down-converter specifications. The 12 GHz carrier down-converter uses waveguide, coaxial, and microstrip transmission line elements in its implementation. Mixing is accomplished in a single-ended coaxial mixer employing a field-replacable cartridge style diode

Design and Analysis of Substrate-Integrated Cavity-Backed Antenna Arrays for Ku-Band Applications

Mobile communication has become an essential part of our daily life. We love the flexibility of wireless cell phones and even accept their lower quality of service when compared to wired links. Similarly, we are looking forward to the day that we can continue watching our favorite TV programs while travelling anywhere and everywhere. Mobility, flexibility, and portability are the themes of the next generation communication. Motivated and fascinated by such technology breakthroughs, this effort is geared towards enhancing the quality of wireless services and bringing mobile satellite reception one step closer to the market. Meanwhile, phased array antennas are vital components for RADAR applications where the antenna is required to have certain scan capabilities. One of the main concerns in that perspective is how to avoid the potential of scan blindness in the required scan range. Targeting to achieve wide-band wide-scan angle phased arrays free from any scan blindness our efforts is also geared. Conventionally, the key to lower the profile of the antenna is to use planar structures. In that perspective microstrip patch antennas have drawn the attention of antenna engineers since the 1970s due to their attractive features of being low profile, compact size, light weight, and amenable to low-cost PCB fabrication processes. However, patch elements are basically resonating at a single frequency, typically have \u3c2% bandwidth, which is a major deficit that impedes their usage in relatively wide-band applications. There are various approaches to enhance the patch antennas bandwidth including suspended substrates, multi-stack patches, and metalized cavities backing these patches. Metalized cavity-backed patch structures have been demonstrated to give the best performance, however, they are very expensive to manufacture. In this dissertation, we develop an alternative low-cost bandwidth enhancement topology. The proposed topology is based on substrate-integrated waveguides. The great potential of the proposed structure lies in being amenable to the conventional PCB fabrication. Moreover, substrate-integrated cavity-backed structures facilitate the design of sophisticated arrays that are very expensive to develop using the conventional metalized cavity-backed topology, which includes the common broadside arrays used in fixed-beam applications and the scanned phased arrays used in RADAR applications

Antennas and Propagation

This Special Issue gathers topics of utmost interest in the field of antennas and propagation, such as: new directions and challenges in antenna design and propagation; innovative antenna technologies for space applications; metamaterial, metasurface and other periodic structures; antennas for 5G; electromagnetic field measurements and remote sensing applications

Proceedings of the Second International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC 1990)

Presented here are the proceedings of the Second International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC), held June 17-20, 1990 in Ottawa, Canada. Topics covered include future mobile satellite communications concepts, aeronautical applications, modulation and coding, propagation and experimental systems, mobile terminal equipment, network architecture and control, regulatory and policy considerations, vehicle antennas, and speech compression

A survey of ATL-compatible radiometer antennas

A survey was made of antennas suitable for remote sensing of the earth's surface, in particular the world ocean, by means of microwave radiometers operating in the 1 to 26 GHz frequency region and carried on board the shuttle-launched advanced technology laboratory. Array antennas are found to be unattractive and unsuited to the task. Reflectors, including Cassegrain and offset types, as well as horn-reflectors are possible candidates but all have shortcomings which impair the accuracy of measurement. Horns of the corrugated type have excellent electrical characteristics. Although they are physically very large and will require development of suitable deployment mechanisms, they appear to be valid candidates for the task. The evolution of the periscope antenna is outlined, and it is shown to possess nearly ideal electrical characteristics for the intended application. Its only shortcoming is that the feed horn creates aperture blocking; there is no blocking due to struts or any other source. The periscope antenna is recommended for ATL radiometry

Development and Validation of a Method of Moments approach for modeling planar antenna structures

In this dissertation, a Method of Moments (MoM) Volume Integral Equation (VIE)-based modeling approach suitable for a patch or slot antenna on a thin finite dielectric substrate is developed and validated. Two new key features of this method are the use of proper dielectric basis functions and proper VIE conditioning, close to the metal surface, where the surface boundary condition of the zero tangential-component must be extended into adjacent tetrahedra. The extended boundary condition is the exact result for the piecewise-constant dielectric basis functions. The latter operation allows one to achieve a good accuracy with one layer of tetrahedra for a thin dielectric substrate and thereby greatly reduces computational cost. The use of low-order basis functions also implies the use of low-order integration schemes and faster filling of the impedance matrix. For some common patch/slot antennas, the VIE-based modeling approach is found to give an error of about 1% or less in the resonant frequency for one-layer tetrahedral meshes with a relatively small number of unknowns. This error is obtained by comparison with fine finite- element method (FEM) simulations, or with measurements, or with the analytical mode matching approach. Hence it is competitive with both the method of moments surface integral equation approach and with the FEM approach for the printed antennas on thin dielectric substrates. Along with the MoM development, the dissertation also presents the models and design procedures for a number of practical antenna configurations. They in particular include: i. a compact linearly polarized broadband planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA); ii. a circularly polarized turnstile bowtie antenna. Both the antennas are designed to operate in the low UHF band and used for indoor positioning/indoor geolocation

Investigation of L-band shipboard antennas for maritime satellite applications

A basic conceptual investigation of low cost L-band antenna subsystems for shipboard use was conducted by identifying the various pertinent design trade-offs and related performance characteristics peculiar to the civilian maritime application, and by comparing alternate approaches for their simplicity and general suitability. The study was not directed at a single specific proposal, but was intended to be parametric in nature. Antenna system concepts were to be investigated for a range of gain of 3 to 18 dB, with a value of about 10 dB considered as a baseline reference. As the primary source of potential complexity in shipboard antennas, which have beamwidths less than hemispherical as the beam pointing or selecting mechanism, major emphasis was directed at this aspect. Three categories of antenna system concepts were identified: (1) mechanically pointed, single-beam antennas; (2) fixed antennas with switched-beams; and (3) electronically-steered phased arrays. It is recommended that an L-band short backfire antenna subsystem, including a two-axis motor driven gimbal mount, and necessary single channel monopulse tracking receiver portions be developed for demonstration of performance and subsystem simplicity

Recent Trends and Considerations for High Speed Data in Chips and System Interconnects

This paper discusses key issues related to the design of large processing volume chip architectures and high speed system interconnects. Design methodologies and techniques are discussed, where recent trends and considerations are highlighted