Low-Profile Wideband Antenna Arrays for Mobile Satellite and 5G Communication

Three innovative low-profile antenna arrays are designed and tested for vehicular satellite and 5G communication. All of the systems presented target key challenges of GEO, LEO and 5G communication. Each design provides a high level of performance for the given application in a far more compact and lower cost design than existing systems.Firstly, a wideband curl antenna array is developed to enable L-band GEO satellite communication for emergency vehicles. This novel 1×3 rotated array utilises a hybrid switch beam and phase shifting technique to enable full beamforming down to 70° in all directions with 40% lower cost than standard phased array systems. Uniquely, this provides excellent azimuth beam steering at low angles from a linear array. This system also utilises a high impedance surface to reduce the height of the antenna elements by 50% compared to existing curl antenna designs.Secondly, a shared aperture antenna array is developed to enable Ka-band LEO satellite communication for vehicular integration. This system utilise a new combination of circular polarised triangular antennas in an interlaced planar triangular lattice such that the topology provides optimal tessellation. As a result, the system provides high performance beam steering and reconfigurable circular polarisation in a highly compact design. This array has been developed such that it is suitable for common PCB manufacturing methods. Unlike existing shared aperture arrays for LEO terminals, this topology enables reconfigurable circular polarisation in a single, planar PCB structure.Finally, a low-cost wideband compressed spiral antenna array is designed and fabricated for global 5G ground-to-air communication for aircraft. An innovative spiral antenna optimisation is presented where the spiral is highly compressed such that it can provide an axial beam over a wide bandwidth while maintaining a lower profile than existing wideband solutions

State-of-the-art assessment of 5G mmWave communications

Deliverable D2.1 del proyecto 5GWirelessMain objective of the European 5Gwireless project, which is part of the H2020 Marie Slodowska- Curie ITN (Innovative Training Networks) program resides in the training and involvement of young researchers in the elaboration of future mobile communication networks, focusing on innovative wireless technologies, heterogeneous network architectures, new topologies (including ultra-dense deployments), and appropriate tools. The present Document D2.1 is the first deliverable of Work- Package 2 (WP2) that is specifically devoted to the modeling of the millimeter-wave (mmWave) propagation channels, and development of appropriate mmWave beamforming and signal processing techniques. Deliver D2.1 gives a state-of-the-art on the mmWave channel measurement, characterization and modeling; existing antenna array technologies, channel estimation and precoding algorithms; proposed deployment and networking techniques; some performance studies; as well as a review on the evaluation and analysis toolsPostprint (published version

Millimeter-Wave Components and Antennas for Spatial and Polarization Diversity using PRGW Technology

The evolution of the wireless communication systems to the future generation is accompanied by a huge improvement in the system performance through providing a high data rate with low latency. These systems require access to millimeter wave (mmWave) bands, which offer several advantages such as physically smaller components and much wider bandwidthcomparedtomicrowavefrequencies. However, mmWavecomponentsstillneed a significant improvement to follow the rapid variations in future technologies. Although mmWave frequencies can carry more data, they are limited in terms of their penetration capabilities and their coverage range. Moreover, these frequencies avoid deploying traditional guiding technologies such as microstrip lines due to high radiation and material losses. Hence, utilizing new guiding structure techniques such as Printed Ridge Gap Waveguide (PRGW) is essential in future mmWave systems implementation. ThemainpurposeofthisthesisistodesignmmWavecomponents,antennasubsystems and utilize both in beam switching systems. The major mmWave components addressed in this thesis are hybrid coupler, crossover, and differential power divider where the host guidingstructureisthePRGW.Inaddition,variousdesignsfordifferentialfeedingPRGW antennas and antenna arrays are presented featuring wide bandwidth and high gain in mmWave band. Moreover, the integration of both the proposed components and the featured antennas is introduced. This can be considered as a significant step toward the requirements fulfillment of today's advanced communication systems enabling both space and polarization diversity. The proposed components are designed to meet the future ever-increasing consumer experience and technical requirements such as low loss, compact size, and low-cost fabrication. This directed the presented research to have a contribution into three major parts. The first part highlights the feeding structures, where mmWave PRGW directional couplers and differential feeding power divider are designed and validated. These components are among the most important passive elements of microwave circuits used in antennabeam-switchingnetworks. Different3-dBquadraturehybridcouplersandcrossover prototypes are proposed, featured with a compact size and a wide bandwidth beyond 10 % at 30 GHz. In the second part, a beam switching network implemented using hybrid couplers is presented. The proposed beam switching network is a 4 × 4 PRGW Butler matrix that used to feed a Magneto-electric (ME) dipole antenna array. As a result, a 2-D scanning antenna array with a compact size, wide bandwidth, and high radiation efficiency larger than84%isachieved. Furthergainenhancementof5dBiisachievedthroughdeployinga hybridgainenhancementtechniqueincludingAMCmushroomshapesaroundtheantenna array with a dielectric superstrate located in the broadside direction. The proposed scanning antenna array can be considered as a step toward the desired improvement in the data rate and coverage through enabling the space diversity for the communication link. The final activity is related to the development of high-gain wide-band mmWave antenna arrays for potential use in future mmWave applications. The first proposed configuration is a differential feeding circular polarized aperture antenna array implemented with PRGW technology. Differential feeding antenna designs offer more advantages than single- ended antennas for mmWave communications as they are easy to be integrated with differential mmWave monolithic ICs that have high common-mode rejection ratio providing an immunity of the environmental noise. The proposed differential feeding antenna array is designed and fabricated, which featured with a stable high gain and a high radiation efficiency over a wide bandwidth. Another proposed configuration is a dualpolarized ME-dipole PRGW antenna array for mmWave wireless communication. Dual polarizationisconsideredoneofthemostimportantantennasolutionsthatcansavecosts and space for modern communication systems. In addition, it is an effective strategy for multiple-input and multiple-output systems that can reduce the size of multiple antennas systems by utilizing extra orthogonal polarization. The proposed dual- polarized antenna array is designed to achieve a stable gain of 15 ± 1 dBi with low cross- polarization less than -30 dB over a wide frequency range of 20 % at 30 GHz

1-D broadside-radiating leaky-wave antenna based on a numerically synthesized impedance surface

A newly-developed deterministic numerical technique for the automated design of metasurface antennas is applied here for the first time to the design of a 1-D printed Leaky-Wave Antenna (LWA) for broadside radiation. The surface impedance synthesis process does not require any a priori knowledge on the impedance pattern, and starts from a mask constraint on the desired far-field and practical bounds on the unit cell impedance values. The designed reactance surface for broadside radiation exhibits a non conventional patterning; this highlights the merit of using an automated design process for a design well known to be challenging for analytical methods. The antenna is physically implemented with an array of metal strips with varying gap widths and simulation results show very good agreement with the predicted performance

Beam scanning by liquid-crystal biasing in a modified SIW structure

A fixed-frequency beam-scanning 1D antenna based on Liquid Crystals (LCs) is designed for application in 2D scanning with lateral alignment. The 2D array environment imposes full decoupling of adjacent 1D antennas, which often conflicts with the LC requirement of DC biasing: the proposed design accommodates both. The LC medium is placed inside a Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) modified to work as a Groove Gap Waveguide, with radiating slots etched on the upper broad wall, that radiates as a Leaky-Wave Antenna (LWA). This allows effective application of the DC bias voltage needed for tuning the LCs. At the same time, the RF field remains laterally confined, enabling the possibility to lay several antennas in parallel and achieve 2D beam scanning. The design is validated by simulation employing the actual properties of a commercial LC medium

Antenna System Design for 5G and Beyond – A Modal Approach

Antennas are one of the key components that empower a new generation of wireless technologies, such as 5G and new radar systems. It has been shown that antenna design strategies based on modal theories represent a powerful systematic approach to design practical antenna systems with high performance. In this thesis, several innovative multi-antenna systems are proposed for wireless applications in different frequency bands: from sub-6 GHz to millimeter-wave (mm-wave) bands. The thesis consists of an overview (Part I) and six scientific papers published in peer-reviewed international journals (Part II). Part I provides the overall framework of the thesis work: It presents the background and motivation for the problems at hand, the fundamental modal theories utilized to address these problems, as well as subject-specific research challenges. Brief conclusions and future outlook are also provided. The included papers of Part II can be divided into two tracks with different 5G and beyond wireless applications, both aiming for higher data rates.In the first track, Papers [I] to [IV] investigate different aspects of antenna system design for smart-phone application. Since Long Term Evolution (LTE) (so-called 3.5G) was deployed in 2009, mobile communication systems have utilized multiple-input multiple-output antenna technology (MIMO) technology to increase the spectral efficiency of the transmission channel and provide higher data rates in existing and new sub-6 GHz bands. However, MIMO requires multi-antennas at both the base stations and the user equipment (mainly smartphones) and it is very challenging to implement sub-6 GHz multi-antennas within the limited space of smartphones. This points to the need for innovative design strategies. The theory of characteristic modes (TCM) is one type of modal theory in the antenna community, which has been shown to be a versatile tool to analyze the inherent resonance properties of an arbitrarily shaped radiating structure. Characteristic modes (CMs) have the useful property of their fields being orthogonal over both the source region and the sphere at infinity. This property makes TCM uniquely suited for electrically compact MIMO antenna design.In the second track, Papers [V]-[VI] investigate new integrated antenna arrays and subarrays for the two wireless applications, which are both implemented in a higher part of the mm-wave frequency range (i.e. E-band). Furthermore, a newly developed high resolution multi-layer “Any-Layer” PCB technology is investigated to realize antenna-in-package solutions for these mmwave antenna system designs. High gain and high efficiency antennas are essential for high-speed wireless point-to-point communication systems. To meet these requirements, Paper [V] proposes directive multilayer substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) cavity-backed slot antenna array and subarray. As a background, the microwave community has already shown the benefits of modal theory in the design and analysis of closed structures like waveguides and cavities. Higher-order cavity modes are used in the antenna array design process to facilitate lower loss, simpler feeding network, and lower sensitivity to fabrication errors, which are favorable for E-band communication systems. However, waveguide/cavity modes are confined to fields within the guided media and can only help to design special types of antennas that contain those structures. As an example of the versatility of TCM, Paper [VI] shows that apart from smartphone antenna designs proposed in Papers [I]-[IV], TCM can alsobe used to find the desirable modes of the linear antenna arrays. Furthermore, apart from E-band communications, the proposed series-fed patch array topology in Paper [VI] is a good candidate for application in 79 GHz MIMO automotive radar due to its low cost, compact size, ability to suppress surface waves, as well as relatively wide impedance and flat-gain bandwidths

Integrated Filters and Couplers for Next Generation Wireless Tranceivers

The main focus of this thesis is to investigate the critical nonlinear distortion issues affecting RF/Microwave components such as power amplifiers (PA) and develop new and improved solutions that will improve efficiency and linearity of next generation RF/Microwave mobile wireless communication systems. This research involves evaluating the nonlinear distortions in PA for different analog and digital signals which have been a major concern. The second harmonic injection technique is explored and used to effectively suppress nonlinear distortions. This method consists of simultaneously feeding back the second harmonics at the output of the power amplifier (PA) into the input of the PA. Simulated and measured results show improved linearity results. However, for increasing frequency bandwidth, the suppression abilities reduced which is a limitation for 4G LTE and 5G networks that require larger bandwidth (above 5 MHz). This thesis explores creative ways to deal with this major drawback. The injection technique was modified with the aid of a well-designed band-stop filter. The compact narrowband notch filter designed was able to suppress nonlinear distortions very effectively when used before the PA. The notch filter is also integrated in the injection technique for LTE carrier aggregation (CA) with multiple carriers and significant improvement in nonlinear distortion performance was observed. This thesis also considers maximizing efficiency alongside with improved linearity performance. To improve on the efficiency performance of the PA, the balanced PA configuration was investigated. However, another major challenge was that the couplers used in this configuration are very large in size at the desired operating frequency. In this thesis, this problem was solved by designing a compact branch line coupler. The novel coupler was simulated, fabricated and measured with performance comparable to its conventional equivalent and the coupler achieved substantial size reduction over others. The coupler is implemented in the balanced PA configuration giving improved input and output matching abilities. The proposed balanced PA is also implemented in 4G LTE and 5G wireless transmitters. This thesis provides simulation and measured results for all balanced PA cases with substantial efficiency and linearity improvements observed even for higher bandwidths (above 5 MHz). Additionally, the coupler is successfully integrated with rectifiers for improved energy harvesting performance and gave improved RF-dc conversion efficienc

Design and characterization of antennas for wireless communications systems

In this PhD thesis the author has dealt with the design and characterization of novel antenna layouts for modern communication systems. Specific attention has been devoted to cost-effective and compact solutions; also, some of the proposed antenna layouts have been designed facing with severe integration constraints. A novel slot-coupling feeding technique for dual-polarized patch antennas is presented in Chapter I. A square patch is fed through a square ring slot excited by two non-overlapping feed lines printed on the same side of a single-layer substrate. This technique was used to implement a wideband dual-polarized 2x1 microstrip stacked patch array working in the GSM band (1710 – 1910 MHz), UMTS band (1920 - 2170 MHz), ISM band (2400 - 2484 MHz) and UMTS 3G expansion band (2500 - 2690 MHz) or, alternatively, WIMAX™ band (2300 – 2700 MHz), with a resulting 45% percentage bandwidth. Moreover a circularly polarized 2x2 microstrip array, where each array element is fed through two microstrip lines which are excited 90° out-of-phase, has been realized for the WiMAX (3300 - 3800 MHz) band, resulting in excellent Axial Ratio performance. In Chapter II, a compact dual-band Planar Inverted-F Antenna (PIFA) working in both the DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial) and the WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) IEEE 802.11b,g frequency bands is presented. It has been designed to be integrated in a monitor-equipped device, exhibiting reduced electrical size with respect to similar PIFA solutions, also in a L-shape configuration. In the context of compact wideband antenna design, Chapter III presents a numerical analysis of a novel wideband two-arm Archimedean spiral antenna whose arms are made of vertical metallic strips. An advantage of this spiral is that the input impedance and polarization purity can be effectively controlled by varying the strip width and turn thickness. Also, when the antenna is embedded in a dielectric block, miniaturization is more effective than in conventional planar Archimedean spirals. In Chapter IV, two configurations of slot antennas suitable for integration into a class of commercial large photovoltaic (PV) panels are presented. The basic idea is to exploit the room available between adjacent PV cells, also taking advantage of the presence of the cover glass layer that gives a valuable miniaturization effect. As test cases, two antenna designs are presented for stand-alone communication systems operating in the GSM/UMTS (1710-2170 MHz) and WIMAX (3300-3800 MHz) frequency bands. Finally, a top-loaded vertical monopole antenna was designed to be integrated in a wireless sensor of a car park monitoring system operating at 433MHz, and it is described in Chapter V. The final design came out from a careful analysis of the effects on the antenna input impedance of nearby elements (photovoltaic cells, battery, sensor cover, ultrasonic transducer). A performance comparison between the proposed vertically polarized antenna and a commercial ceramic antenna has been carried out, showing an average increase of the received power level at the reader of about 2.2dB, when measurements are performed on a distance range of 10-60m between the sensor and the reader antenna of the car park monitoring system