3D Printed Extended Lens as a Button Antenna for Off-Body Links at 60 GHZ

This paper presents a 3D printed extended hemispherical lens antenna for Body Centric Communications in 60 GHz band. The prototype consists of a 3D printed lens made of Polylactic Acid with three planar broadside patch antenna elements used as a source for the lens. The direction of the main beam antenna is switched by changing the excitation of source elements. The measured overlapping impedance bandwidth of the fabricated antenna is from 57.27 GHz to 60 GHz with reflection coefficient better than -10 dB. The main beam direction switches in broadside direction with 3 dB angular coverage from -29.2° to +30° by changing the radiating elements at 60 GHz. The measured gain is 15.28 dBi at 60 GHz. The beam switching capabilities and high gain with broadside radiation characteristics make the proposed antenna a suitable candidate for off-body links at 60 GHz. The effect of placing the antenna structure over the body is also studied in this paper. The body to off-body link measurement is successfully demonstrated with extended lens over the body and an open-ended waveguide as an external node

Design of Monopole Antennas for UWB Applications

Presented are the design method, equations, and results of a broadband monopole antenna for UWB applications. The antenna is a fat monopole; made of rectangular and circular patches. Measured results show a passband of 2.8–11.97 GHz. Parametric studies of the effects of the ground plane and the gap between the radiating element and the ground plane were done and their results given. The gain and efficiency are also provided; with average values of 4.34 dBi and 96% respectively. The obtained radiation patterns show bi-directional patterns in the E-plane and omni-directional patterns in the H-plane

Miniaturised Inkjet-printed Quadrature Hybrid Couplers for Multiband Wireless Systems

A miniaturised multiband inkjet printed Quadrature Hybrid Coupler is proposed in this paper. The design and flexibility characterization of an inkjet-printed coupler on a flexible 50 μm polyimide film (Kapton) substrate is presented. Kapton is chosen due to its good balance of physical, chemical and electrical properties with a low loss factor of 0.0021. The coupler is designed to operate at 1.5 GHz, 4.5 GHz, 6.0 GHz, 7.5 GHz and 9.0 GHz. The circuit was simulated and the simulation results are presented. The coupler will be fabricated and test results will be presented. The proposed QHC size is 78% smaller than the conventional QHC

Substrate Integrated Coaxial Line Planar Transitions to Single-Layer Transmission Lines and Waveguides

This paper presents inline transitions from substrate integrated coaxial line (SICL) to microstrip line, coplanar waveguide (CPW), as well as substrate integrated waveguide (SIW). A common property is the conversion of transmission medium from double to single substrate layer of PCB. The first two of described transitions can be used from DC up to the presence of higher order modes if the characteristic impedances of two meeting transmission lines are matched. The transition to substrate integrated waveguide is of higher complexity, yet compact. Both sides of the SICL-SIW transition are strongly coupled to resonant cavity, and return loss greater than 20 dB is achieved in fractional bandwidth of 10.91 %. Improvements compared to the existing solutions have been made in designs of all three transitions

Inkjet Printed Bandpass Filters and Filtennas using Silver Nanoparticle Ink on Flexible Substrate

This paper presents an inkjet printed CPW filtenna designed at 5.8 GHz. The proposed structure consists of a CPW pseudo-interdigital bandpass filter and a CPW inset-fed antenna. The bandpass filter is fabricated using inkjet printing technology. The structure is printed on flexible Kapton substrate with polyimide film using silver nanoparticle ink. The filter is then used to suppress the spurious harmonics of the antenna. Measurements from the fabrication confirm the accuracy of the design method and the simulation results

Impulse Response with Correlation Study of a Broadband Bended Wearable Monopole Antenna

In this paper, the impulse response of a wide band flexible circular monopole antenna is presented. The antenna is fabricated on liquid crystalline polymer flexible substrate with a compact geometry that makes it suitable for wearable applications under different bending conditions. The antenna is fed by coplanar waveguide transmission line and has a compact total size of 40 × 22 mm2. The presented antenna has a good performance over the operating frequency range for straight and bent configurations. The design principals, simulation and experimental results are presented in this work

Active heat exchange system development for latent heat thermal energy storage

Active heat exchange concepts for use with thermal energy storage systems in the temperature range of 250 C to 350 C, using the heat of fusion of molten salts for storing thermal energy are described. Salt mixtures that freeze and melt in appropriate ranges are identified and are evaluated for physico-chemical, economic, corrosive and safety characteristics. Eight active heat exchange concepts for heat transfer during solidification are conceived and conceptually designed for use with selected storage media. The concepts are analyzed for their scalability, maintenance, safety, technological development and costs. A model for estimating and scaling storage system costs is developed and is used for economic evaluation of salt mixtures and heat exchange concepts for a large scale application. The importance of comparing salts and heat exchange concepts on a total system cost basis, rather than the component cost basis alone, is pointed out. The heat exchange concepts were sized and compared for 6.5 MPa/281 C steam conditions and a 1000 MW(t) heat rate for six hours. A cost sensitivity analysis for other design conditions is also carried out

Utilizing artificial neural networks for WLAN positioning

Short range wireless technologies such as WLAN, Bluetooth, RFID, ultrasound and IrDA can be used to supply location information in indoor areas in which their coverage is assured. With respect to outdoor techniques, these technologies are more accurate but with smaller covering areas. In this paper, we present the comparison of the existing location techniques in WLAN networks and a novel approach of utilizing artificial neural networks for positioning purposes. In addition to estimating WLAN client's position, neural networks have been employed to estimate the room and type of the room the client resides in. Extensive measurements were conducted to evaluate these approaches and the obtained results indicate performances sufficient for real case use

Experimental Verification of the Impact of the 2nd Order Injected Signals on Doherty Amplifiers Nonlinear Distortion

In this paper, an asymmetrical Doherty amplifier fabricated in microstrip technology is tested in the experiments to verify the impact of the 2nd order signal for the linearization prepared in baseband. The measurement set-up consists of three USRPs programmed by LabVIEW to generate the useful 64QAM signal and the signals for linearization that are set in amplitude and phase and modulate the 2nd harmonic of fundamental carrier. The USRPs instruments should be synchronized for performing measurements for two scenarios: the signals for linearization are injected at input of the transistor within the main Doherty amplifier or are injected at its output

Miniaturized Quadrature Hybrid Couplers based on Novel U-shaped Transmission Lines

In this paper, a miniaturized microstrip quadrature hybrid coupler (QHC) using U-shaped transmission lines (USTLs) is presented. The proposed approach replaces all arms of the conventional QHC with its equivalent USTL to achieve compactness. The proposed coupler structure is designed to operate in the 1.5 GHz (1427-1518 [MHz]) band which is one of the 5G bands of interest. At such low RF/microwave bands below 3-4 GHz, the size of the conventional coupler is considerably very large which raises a concern for the next generation networks. The pro- posed coupler is designed, simulated and fabricated using Rogers 5880 with thickness of 0.79 mm, dielectric con- stant (εr) of 2.2 and loss tangent of 0.0021. The proposed QHC size is 70% smaller in circuit area (30% relative area) than the conventional equivalent. Simulation and mea- sured results are presented and good matching between the results is observed, confirming the outstanding coupler performance properties. The proposed miniaturized QHC structure will play a vital role for next generation 4G and 5G wireless communication systems operating below 6 GHz