Design and development of dual-Polarised photovoltaic solar antennae for Ku-band SatComsp.

The aim of this thesis is to review the state-of-the-art of transparent patch antennae and to develop design techniques for the experimental development of dual-band, dual-polarised compact transparent patch antennae integrated with solar cells for Ku-band satellite applications. It can be specifically used for Fixed-Satellite-Services (FSS) operating over the frequency range from 11.7 GHz to 12.22 GHz (downlink) and 14.0 GHz to 14.5 GHz (uplink) bands. The research reported in this thesis demonstrated a suspended meshed patch antennae serves as a basic building-block element for a Ku-band dual-polarised transparent array antennae for long distance communications. The results are shown that the use of a suspended patch above a printed radiating patch and ground plane (all transparent) provides dual-band operation for the uplink and downlink. In this work, firstly, a compact low-profile linearly polarised meshed element has been designed, and simulated in CST Microwave Studio electromagnetic simulation software. The photovoltaic antennae element was then fabricated and measured. The comparison between the experimental results and simulation by CST demonstrates good agreement between predicted and practical measurements. The developed antennae element achieved the overall broad bandwidth of more than 1GHz (500 MHz in each of the uplink and downlink bands), and the nominal element gain is 6.055 dBi (downlink) and 7.61 dBi (uplink). A good compromise between the RF performance and the transparency is also obtained with optical transparency of 84% and negligible degradation of the RF performance. The design is then extended to develop a Ku-band photovoltaic antennae element for dualpolarised operation This element could be used for frequency re-use in Ku-band satellite downlink and uplink communicationsin order to double capacity. In addition, the simulation of a 2 x2 sub-array of dual polarised transparent antennae elements (using the experimentally measured performance of the single dual-polarised element) is presented. It has yielded a narrow beam with increased gain of 13 dBi and a cross-polar discrimination of greater than 30 dB is demonstrated, which is a requirement for frequency re-use operation. Hence, the dual-polarised 4-element sub-array described herein could be utilised as the primary building block for a 2D SatCom phased array antennae. In order to meet the full requirements of Kuband SatCom communications employing frequency re-use which essentially doubles the achievable capacity, i.e. two data channels can use the same frequency bands simultaneously using the two orthogonal polarisations with high cross-polar isolation. Using these new designs providing new knowledge in the field of photovoltaic communication antennae at high frequencies, and bridge the associated drawbacks with the current PV antennae

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

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

Analyse et conception de répéteurs passifs plans à rayonnement quasi-latéral pour communications «indoor» à 60GHz

The fast development of information and consumer electronics industries creates a pressing demand for high-speed indoor communications. Traditional communication protocols are unable to support such high transmission rate, and there are no radio bands available at lower frequency. As an alternative, 60GHz communications have sparked great attention, since it enables a maximum data transmission rate more than 5Gbit/s based on its wide unlicensed bandwidth. However, practical indoor environment is usually complicated (e.g. walls, corridors, stairs, etc.), thus the non-line-of-sight (NLOS) areas cannot be covered due to the significant attenuation. Considering the requirements for signal recovery in the NLOS environment, a planar passive repeater with endfire radiation and high directivity, low profile and low cost is investigated and designed in this thesis. Based on array theory, a periodic structure for the foreseen printed repeater is derived out. It involves two reflector elements (in the spacing of 2) to provide 0° and 180°reflection phases respectively. In order to construct a proper reflector element, four topologies are proposed and analyzed. In the first part of the study, DRA (Dielectric Resonator Antenna) technology is the main focus. Two different topologies are investigated and compared, including notched DRA and DRA coupled to phase-shift stub. Different modeling strategies are also studied using either a single cell, a couple of cells with opposite phases or a small array. For each topology, a preliminary 6×6 array is simulated. Optimization at the array level is emphasized through the whole thesis. In the second part, investigations are taken on a rectangular dielectric filled waveguide element. Parametric analyses are carried out and possible fabrication technologies are discussed. Once again, a preliminary 6×6 array is designed and optimized to validate the feasibility of such a structure. In the third part, a parallel-plate groove structure is analyzed. It evolves from the rectangular waveguide, and enjoys more simplification. Further work is taken to explore the arrays’ bandwidth, oblique incidence performance and maximum radiation direction. Detailed theoretical analysis based on the simulation results are demonstrated in the end. Finally, an array based on the groove elements is fabricated in the size of 200mm×200mm. Practical measurements for 60GHz communications in NLOS environment are designed to test the array’s performance. Analyses on the experiment results are given.Le développement rapide de l’industrie des systèmes sans fil suscite une demande urgente pour des communications à haut débit, notamment en environnement « indoor ». Toutefois, les protocoles traditionnels de communications sont incapables de supporter de très hauts débits et, surtout, il n'y a pas de ressources spectrales disponibles à basse fréquence. Comme une alternative, la bande des 60GHz est préconisée parce qu’elle permet un débit de plus de 5Gbit/s, grâce à son large spectre (57GHz à 64 GHz). Toutefois, en pratique, l’environnement « indoor » est complexe et, dans les situations d’absence de visibilité directe, la couverture radio est difficile à assurer à cause des fortes atténuations. Afin de remédier à ce problème, l’utilisation de répéteurs est possible. Dans cette thèse, l’intérêt est porté sur les répéteurs passifs, plus simples à installer et compatibles avec une réalisation faible coût. Le cas critique de la couverture radio d’un couloir en T est choisi comme fil conducteur, tout au long de cette étude. Les solutions préconisées visent aussi la compacité, ce qui justifie l’utilisation de réflecteurs plans. A partir de la théorie des réseaux d’antennes, une structure périodique générique pour le répéteur est proposée. Elle implique deux cellules réfléchissantes élémentaires (espacées de /2), produisant des ondes en opposition de phase. Plusieurs topologies et technologies sont ensuite envisagées et étudiées pour la mise en oeuvre. La première utilise des antennes à résonateur diélectrique (DRA). Deux topologies différentes sont étudiées et comparées, le DRA à encoche et le DRA couplé à une ligne déphaseuse en circuit ouvert. Différentes stratégies de modélisation sont également étudiées en utilisant une cellule unique, un couple de 2 cellules avec phases opposées ou un petit réseau. Pour chaque topologie, un réseau canonique de 6×6 éléments est simulé. La deuxième technologie étudiée utilise des guides d’ondes rectangulaires chargés par un matériau diélectrique et courtcircuités. Des analyses paramétriques sont effectuées et un 6 ×6 réseau est conçu et optimisé pour valider la faisabilité de la solution. Finalement, une structure en guide à plaques métalliques parallèles est analysée. Dérivant de la solution précédente, elle permet une fabrication plus simple. Pour cette dernière solution, une analyse plus complète est menée incluant des considérations sur la bande passante, les performances en incidence oblique et la direction de rayonnement maximal. Enfin, un réseau à base de cet élément rainuré est fabriquée présentant une taille de 200 mm×200 mm. Des mesures expérimentales à 60GHz sont réalisées pour tester les performances du réseau. La preuve de concept est ainsi donnée et les résultats expérimentaux sont analysés

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

Recent Advances in Antenna Design for 5G Heterogeneous Networks

The aim of this book is to highlight up to date exploited technologies and approaches in terms of antenna designs and requirements. In this regard, this book targets a broad range of subjects, including the microstrip antenna and the dipole and printed monopole antenna. The varieties of antenna designs, along with several different approaches to improve their overall performance, have given this book a great value, in which makes this book is deemed as a good reference for practicing engineers and under/postgraduate students working in this field. The key technology trends in antenna design as part of the mobile communication evolution have mainly focused on multiband, wideband, and MIMO antennas, and all have been clearly presented, studied and implemented within this book. The forthcoming 5G systems consider a truly mobile multimedia platform that constitutes a converged networking arena that not only includes legacy heterogeneous mobile networks but advanced radio interfaces and the possibility to operate at mm wave frequencies to capitalize on the large swathes of available bandwidth. This provides the impetus for a new breed of antenna design that, in principle, should be multimode in nature, energy efficient, and, above all, able to operate at the mm wave band, placing new design drivers on the antenna design. Thus, this book proposes to investigate advanced 5G antennas for heterogeneous applications that can operate in the range of 5G spectrums and to meet the essential requirements of 5G systems such as low latency, large bandwidth, and high gains and efficiencies

Active and Reconfigurable Millimetre-Wave Antennas and Systems

PhDThe millimetre-wave (mm-wave) spectrum offers considerable advantages in terms of antenna form factor and spectrum availability. However, use of this region often requires reconfigurable antennas and systems. Initially, a review of the various applications which are taking hold in the lower regions of the mm-wave spectrum (30 to 100 GHz) is undertaken. Specifically, reconfigurable reflectarray technologies are selected for further research, and critical analysis of the reconfiguration techniques for including these in antennas is considered. Silicon as an optically activated semiconductor is chosen as the reconfiguration mechanism due to its low cost and the scope for improvement in this area. A new form of illumination is used, replacing traditional infra-red (IR) lasers with high power IR-LEDs enclosed in a cavity, increasing the efficiency of the silicon illumination. However, to make use of this novel illumination source, and subsequently integrate it into an antenna, the silicon response has to be characterised within Ka-band. This is done through measurements in a waveguide-based characterisation test cell, from which the complex electromagnetic properties of silicon under IR-LED illumination are retrieved with the aid of full-wave simulations. Using the measured conductivity properties of the illuminated silicon, reflectarrays with non-uniform amplitude distributions can be designed. Through variation of illumination intensities of IR-LEDs throughout the array, it is shown through measurements and full-wave simulations that unit cell reflections can be modified while phases are kept relatively constant. This theoretically allows switching between, for example a low side-lobe pattern binomial array, or a narrow beamwidth pattern Chebyshev array. To implement this, a novel multilayer unit-cell is designed, integrating the IR-LED. This is then used in a full reflectarray design which is measured. The key contributions of this work include the novel illumination mechanism and its integration into a reflectarray antenna, and the use of reconfigurable photoconductive materials to provide a mechanism for beam shaping and pattern synthesis at Ka-band.EPSRC DTC under grant number 135614

Metal 3D-Printing of Waveguide Components and Antennas: Guidelines and New Perspectives

This chapter intends to show the strong potential brought by metal 3D-printing to the field of waveguide components and antennas. General co-design guidelines are firstly provided. These guidelines enable to benefit from the advantages associated to metal 3D-printing. The implementation of filters and ortho-mode transducers is considered, together with horns and slotted antennas. Finally, multifunctional periodic structures benefiting from metal 3D-printing are discussed

Analysis and Design of Reflectarray Antennas for Radar System Applications

In recent years reflectarray has received more and more attention and it has been considered as a suitable candidate to replace the traditional reflectors due to its high-gain, low profile and low cost features. Reflectarray also eliminates the lossy feed network and costly transmitting and receiving modules when comparing with phased array antenna. It is desired to implement these functionalities with simple and effective techniques. Narrow bandwidth is the main issue which restricts the applications of the microstrip antennas, including the microstrip reflectarray. A broadband singlelayer reflectarray is introduced as the solutions to the issue of narrow bandwidth. A combination of two types of element configurations, including (i) ring elements and (ii) circular patch elements with ring boundary, enlarges the reflection phase range to more than 360◦ and thus enables the broadband operation of reflectarray. Blockage effect is another issue with the center-fed reflectarray. Certain obstacles, such as the feed horn, subreflector, and their supports, exist in reflectarray antennas. When these obstacles are in front of the reflectarray, the reflected wave is blocked, and the feed’s absorption also weakens the reflected power. An accurate prediction of this blockage effect in reflectarray design is essential. Five modeling schemes to account for the blockage effects in a reflectarray are described and also compared in terms of simulation time and consumed computing resource. In addition, another reflectarray with mainbeam direction steered 18◦ off broadside is also introduced to mitigate the blockage effect. Low cross-polarization performance is required for some reflectarray applications. For example, in dual-polarized weather radar the precipitation detection relies on complete isolation of orthogonal components of the fields, and thus negligible levels of cross-polarized radiation along the beam axis need to be maintained. A reflectarray design with suppressed cross-polarization is introduced in this dissertation. The directions of the surface currents can be changed by cutting gaps on the double-ring elements, so that the co-polar components of the surface currents enhance each other while the cross-polar components cancel each other, and thus a low cross-polarization level can be achieved. An X/Ku dual-band microstrip reflectarray with cosecant squared shaped beams has also been developed. The two operation frequency bands, 10 GHz and 15 GHz, are very close to each other. Thus the radiation interference between the two bands is taken into consideration and design is optimized to suppress the interference as much as possible. A dual-layer structure with cross-dipoles on the top layer and double-rings on the lower layer is adopted to suppress the interband couplings. Moreover, the dual-band elements are arranged in an interleaved manner in order to minimize element blockage. In addition, a phase-only synthesis technique is also introduced to obtain the two cosecant squared shaped beams for each operation frequency band. In summary, this dissertation presents a series of new research developments for reflectarray antennas. The results should have many applications for the modern wireless communications and radar systems