Design of polarization reconfigurable beam-steerable and frequency tunable FPMS based SIW-slot antennas

With the rapid evolution of modern and smart communication technologies such as 5th generation of mobile network (5G), (internet of things) IoT, Autonomous Vehicles, Aviation Technology, etc., the need for reconfigurable radio frequency (RF) components cannot be emphasized enough. Thus, the rationale for plethora of research carried out in the design and development of reconfigurable/tunable RF components and devices. This work focuses on the design of a polarization reconfigurable and beam-steerable substrate integrated waveguide-slot (SIW-slot) antenna using a novel technology, field programmable microwave substrate (FPMS). At first, the antenna is optimized to operate at 4 GHz on a Duroid 5880 substrate with six slots rotated at 5° towards the center of the waveguide. This follows the integration of optimized FPMS unit cells on the slot radiators. While varying the capacitance values of the unit cells, close attention is paid to the impedance and radiation performance of the antenna. Initial results presented here show a beam steering of ±40°. In addition, the antenna is also seen to provide gain modulation in maximum steered direction. Interestingly, as the antenna radiation is steered, the polarization of the antenna switches from E (maximum at 0) to Eθ (40). This makes the design an excellent candidate for end-to-end secured communication with minimum interference in applications such as aircraft RADARs. Thus, the antenna performance metrics show the promise of the unique FPMS technology in designing of smart RF components

Phased Array Antenna System Enabled by Liquid Metal Phase Shifters

This paper introduces a proof of concept design for the first phased array antenna design enabled by liquid metal (LM) technology. The proposed LM phased array antenna system is based on substrate integrated waveguides (SIW) to excite an 1×4 printed dipole antenna array. To effectively control the phase distribution on SIW power dividers, the liquid metals performed as a shorting pin along the body of the SIW are implemented. The proposed LM integrated SIW structure enables a large-phase tuning ratio of 360°. This new LM based phase shifters perform stable, low loss and wideband performance for the phased antenna array. In addition, a reconfigurability of the phase controls on the proposed phased antenna array can be realized when the LMs are filled in and out on the designated vias on the SIWs. To validate the proposed antenna array, simulation and measurement are carried out in this work. A prototype of the proposed LM phased array antenna operates at 10 GHz is measured, which confirms the array can have a 12% impedance bandwidth and the maximum gain of 8.3dBi with the scanning range of ±38° along the end-fire direction. This proposed technology is reliable and cost-effective for wideband phased array application

DESIGN OF WIDEBAND WAVEGUIDE-FED PLANAR ANTENNA ARRAY IN THE KU-BAND

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Television broadcast from space systems: Technology, costs

Broadcast satellite systems are described. The technologies which are unique to both high power broadcast satellites and small TV receive-only earth terminals are also described. A cost assessment of both space and earth segments is included and appendices present both a computer model for satellite cost and the pertinent reported experience with the Japanese BSE

Proceedings of the fifth annual NASA and Department of Defense Precise Time and Time Interval Planning Meeting

Subjects covered at this meeting were navigation, communications, applications of interferometry, frequency and time standards and synchronization, and radio wave propagation