Analysis of the Effect of EBG on the Mutual Coupling for a two-PIFA Assembly.

yesSize constraints and mutual coupling on the performance of a two-element PIFA assembly are investigated for a design frequency of 2.4 GHz. A benchmark antenna assembly, employing a normal metallic ground plane is compared with an EBG modified ground plane. The height of the antenna elements over the EBG is optimised, and an isolation factor of 9.12 dB is achieved for a gap of 2.5 mm. Prototype structures have been constructed and measured for both cases

Artificial Magnetic Conductor Integrated Textile Monopole Antenna

Wearable antenna is a fast growing field in application-oriented research, which introduced a new generation of garments capable of monitoring wear health, as well as environmental states. This thesis is concerned with the design and fabrication of a compact textile wearable antenna at operating frequency within the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band, intended for integration into a flight jacket of the astronaut inside the habitat. The antenna is integrated with artificial material known as High Impedance Surface (HIS) for performance enhancement. The purpose of the system is to constantly monitor vital signals of the astronauts. The entire design cycle of wearable Co-Planar Waveguide (CPW) fed monopole antenna, starting from simulation-based design to fabricated prototype and antenna testing under different conditions was carried out in this thesis. Because of the lossy nature of human body tissues, the radiation efficiency of the antenna will be reduced due to the absorption of the radiated energy. Hence, changes in the radiation characteristics of the wearable antenna like operating frequency, gain and impedance bandwidth will take place. To overcome these challenges, HIS has been suggested and integrated with the monopole antenna to isolate the antenna from the ambient environments. This wearable antenna was tested under real operating conditions such as bending and crumpling conditions. Moreover, as the antenna operates near human body tissues, Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) assessment is required to consider the safety concerns of the antenna system. SAR analysis based on simulation results has been carried out in this thesis to show a significant reduction in SAR with the usage of HIS in the antenna system

Electromagnetic Band Gap Structure Integrated Wearable Monopole Antenna For Spacesuit

Research and development of body-worn communication systems and electronics have become very prominent in recent years. Some applications include intelligent garments equipped with wireless communication devices for sports, astronauts’ spacesuits [1], and fire fighters’ uniforms [2]. These systems are unthinkable without different kinds of body worn textile or flexible antennas. In this thesis, we will discuss the design and fabrication of a compact wearable textile antenna within the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band operating frequency, proposed for incorporation into a flight jacket of the astronaut inside the habitat. The antenna is integrated with artificial material known as Electromagnetic Band Gap (EBG) structures for performance enhancement. The purpose of the system is to constantly monitor vital signals of the astronauts. In this thesis the design, simulation, prototype fabrication and antenna testing under different environmental condition, in a word the entire design cycle of wearable Co-Planar Waveguide (CPW) fed monopole antenna is discussed. As human body tissues are lossy in nature, the radiation efficiency of the antenna will be affected due to the absorption of the radiated energy. Therefore, alteration in the radiation characteristics of the wearable antenna like resonant frequency, realized gain and impedance bandwidth will take place. For overcoming these obstacles, addition of EBG layers are recommended to isolate the antenna from near body environments. The proposed wearable antenna was tested under real operating conditions such as pressure and stretching conditions

A Comprehensive Survey on 'Various Decoupling Mechanisms with Focus on Metamaterial and Metasurface Principles Applicable to SAR and MIMO Antenna Systems'

Nowadays synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna systems with the capability to radiate waves in more than one pattern and polarization are playing a key role in modern telecommunication and radar systems. This is possible with the use of antenna arrays as they offer advantages of high gain and beamforming capability, which can be utilized for controlling radiation pattern for electromagnetic (EM) interference immunity in wireless systems. However, with the growing demand for compact array antennas, the physical footprint of the arrays needs to be smaller and the consequent of this is severe degradation in the performance of the array resulting from strong mutual-coupling and crosstalk effects between adjacent radiating elements. This review presents a detailed systematic and theoretical study of various mutual-coupling suppression (decoupling) techniques with a strong focus on metamaterial (MTM) and metasurface (MTS) approaches. While the performance of systems employing antenna arrays can be enhanced by calibrating out the interferences digitally, however it is more efficient to apply decoupling techniques at the antenna itself. Previously various simple and cost-effective approaches have been demonstrated to effectively suppress unwanted mutual-coupling in arrays. Such techniques include the use of defected ground structure (DGS), parasitic or slot element, dielectric resonator antenna (DRA), complementary split-ring resonators (CSRR), decoupling networks, P.I.N or varactor diodes, electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structures, etc. In this review, it is shown that the mutual-coupling reduction methods inspired By MTM and MTS concepts can provide a higher level of isolation between neighbouring radiating elements using easily realizable and cost-effective decoupling configurations that have negligible consequence on the arrays characteristics such as bandwidth, gain and radiation efficiency, and physical footprint

Miniaturized DGS and EBG structures for decoupling multiple antennas on compact wireless terminals

MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) technology has been presented to significantly increase the wireless channel capacity and reliability without requiring additional radio spectrum or power. In MIMO systems, multiple antennas are mounted at both the transmitter and the receiver. When this technology is employed for a compact wireless terminal, one of the most challenging tasks is to reduce the high mutual coupling between closely placed antenna array elements. The high mutual coupling produces high correlation between antenna elements and affects the channel capacity of MIMO system. The objectives of this thesis are to design practical miniaturized structures to reduce high mutual coupling for small wireless terminals. The research is conducted in the following areas. Initially, a PIFA design and two-element PIFA array are proposed and optimized to operate at 1.9GHz. A pair of two coupled quarter-wavelength linear slits is inserted in a compact ground plane, resulting in significant reduction of the mutual coupling across antenna operating frequency band. In order to take up less space on the ground plane, instead of the linear slits, miniaturized convoluted slits are implemented between the two closely placed PIFAs. Although the convoluted slits have small area and are positioned close to the edges of the ground plane, the miniaturized convoluted slit structures achieve a reduction of mutual coupling between antenna elements and succeed in reducing the effect of the human body (head and hand) to the antennas. In order to further reduce the size of the slits etched on the compact ground plane, a novel double-layer slit-patch EBG structure is proposed. It consists of a two-layer structure including conducting patches and aperture slits placed on either side of a very thin dielectric layer. They are placed in very close proximity to each other (55μm). A two-element printed CPW-fed monopole array operating around 2.46GHz and a two-element UWB planar monopole array operating from 3GHz to 6GHz have been employed to investigate the proposed slit-patch EBG structures. The optimized double-layer slit-patch EBG structure yields a significant reduction of the mutual coupling and produces the maximum miniaturization of antenna array. Another novel convoluted slit-patch EBG structure has been presented to reduce the mutual coupling between two PIFAs operating at 1.9GHz. These results demonstrate that the slit-patch EBG structure is a feasible technology to reduce the mutual coupling between multiple antennas for compact wireless terminals

Wideband and UWB antennas for wireless applications. A comprehensive review

A comprehensive review concerning the geometry, the manufacturing technologies, the materials, and the numerical techniques, adopted for the analysis and design of wideband and ultrawideband (UWB) antennas for wireless applications, is presented. Planar, printed, dielectric, and wearable antennas, achievable on laminate (rigid and flexible), and textile dielectric substrates are taken into account. The performances of small, low-profile, and dielectric resonator antennas are illustrated paying particular attention to the application areas concerning portable devices (mobile phones, tablets, glasses, laptops, wearable computers, etc.) and radio base stations. This information provides a guidance to the selection of the different antenna geometries in terms of bandwidth, gain, field polarization, time-domain response, dimensions, and materials useful for their realization and integration in modern communication systems

Design and synthesis of non-uniform high impedance surface-based wearable antennas

This thesis is concerned with the design and fabrication of flexible textile wearable antennas integrated with the newly introduced artificial materials known as high impedance surfaces (HIS). With the rapid growth and use of wireless communication systems more and more people are taking advantage of portable computing systems on daily basis. Also with the advancement in electronic industry new and sophisticated wireless devices have been introduced which are being used closed to human body. For user convenience there is an increasing need for integrating antennas on or in the clothing. The conventional antennas being rigid and obtrusive to user movements have limitations. There is a need of antennas made of flexible textile materials that can be part of user clothing defined as wearable antennas. Also with the miniaturisation trend in electronic industry, antenna designers are facing a challenge to come up with a compact, low profile,multi function efficient antenna designs occupying a small physical space. By integrating antennas in user clothing this limited space problem can also be resolved. With the easy availability of electro textile materials it is now possible to manufacture complete fabric antennas. The entire design cycle of wearable fabric antennas starting from material selection to prototype fabrication and antenna testing was carried out in this thesis. A novel technique for antenna fabrication using electro textile material is proposed that will have major implications on wearable computing industry. The use of HIS for antenna performance enhancement is growing at a rapid pace. In this thesis a modified wearable form of HIS defined as non uniform HIS is presented and successfully integrated with antenna for improved performance under low profile limitation. The HIS was also integrated with normal patch antenna to reduce its size and improve its gain and impedance bandwidth. These wearable antennas were then tested under real operating conditions. The measured results validated the design idea and showed that there are many possibilities for these unique artificial materials to be exploited for future wearable on body communication antennas

A Comprehensive Survey on “Various Decoupling Mechanisms With Focus on Metamaterial and Metasurface Principles Applicable to SAR and MIMO Antenna Systems”

Nowadays synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna systems with the capability to radiate waves in more than one pattern and polarization are playing a key role in modern telecommunication and radar systems. This is possible with the use of antenna arrays as they offer advantages of high gain and beamforming capability, which can be utilized for controlling radiation pattern for electromagnetic (EM) interference immunity in wireless systems. However, with the growing demand for compact array antennas, the physical footprint of the arrays needs to be smaller and the consequent of this is severe degradation in the performance of the array resulting from strong mutual-coupling and crosstalk effects between adjacent radiating elements. This review presents a detailed systematic and theoretical study of various mutual-coupling suppression (decoupling) techniques with a strong focus on metamaterial (MTM) and metasurface (MTS) approaches. While the performance of systems employing antenna arrays can be enhanced by calibrating out the interferences digitally, however it is more efficient to apply decoupling techniques at the antenna itself. Previously various simple and cost-effective approaches have been demonstrated to effectively suppress unwanted mutual-coupling in arrays. Such techniques include the use of defected ground structure (DGS), parasitic or slot element, dielectric resonator antenna (DRA), complementary split-ring resonators (CSRR), decoupling networks, P.I.N or varactor diodes, electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structures, etc. In this review, it is shown that the mutual-coupling reduction methods inspired By MTM and MTS concepts can provide a higher level of isolation between neighbouring radiating elements using easily realizable and cost-effective decoupling configurations that have negligible consequence on the array’s characteristics such as bandwidth, gain and radiation efficiency, and physical footprint