A new strategy to design SIW-fed arrays

In this work, a new full-wave strategy, with very low iteration times, is proposed for the optimization and design of antenna arrays fed by substrate integrated waveguides. The device is decomposed into fixed and modifiable (to be optimized) sections, whose generalized scattering matrices are precomputed. The response of the array is calculated by considering firstly only the interactions between the fixed sections, which are then coupled to the modifiable ones in each iteration of an optimization process. To validate the proposed strategy, a transversal 16-slot antenna array, placed on the top plate of a substrate integrated waveguide, has been designed. A speed-up factor of over 2000 times, compared to general purpose commercial software, has been obtained in this optimization process. The final design presents a 1.05 GHz bandwidth under - 10 dB in terms of |S11|, a maximum realized gain of 17.5 dBi at 17 GHz, and a 99.95% maximum efficiency (without dielectric and conductor losses). Index Terms—Addition theorems, cylindrical modes, spherical modes, optimization process, antenna array, substrate integrated waveguide (SIW)

European collaboration in conformal antenna research

The work carried out within Work Package 2.4-3 of the EU network "Antenna Centre of Excellence" (ACE) is presented in this paper. This work package is concerned with structuring research on conformal antennas. In more details, the work is focused on the problems associated with full benchmarking of conformal antennas, on development of hybrid programs for analyzing different classes of conformal antennas, and on investigation of properties of algorithms for optimizing beam synthesis and beam-steering for conformal arrays

Structuring research on conformal antennas a European collaboration

The topic of this paper is the work carried out within work package 2.4-3 of the EU network "antenna centre of excellence" (ACE). This work package is concerned with structuring research on conformal antennas. In particular, the work is focused on the problems associated with full benchmarking of conformal antennas, on development of hybrid programs for analyzing different classes of conformal antennas, and on investigation of properties of algorithms for optimizing beam synthesis and beam-steering for conformal arrays

Waveguide manufacturing technologies for next-generation millimeter-wave antennas

International audienceSome recent waveguide-based antennas are presented in this paper, designed for the next generation of communication systems operating at the millimeter-wave band. The presented prototypes have been conceived to be manufactured using different state-of-the-art techniques, involving subtractive and additive approaches. All the designs have used the latest developments in the field of manufacturing to guarantee the required accuracy for operation at millimeter-wave frequencies, where tolerances are extremely tight. Different designs will be presented, including a monopulse antenna combining a comparator network, a mode converter, and a spline profile horn; a tunable phase shifter that is integrated into an array to implement reconfigurability of the main lobe direction; and a conformal array antenna. These prototypes were manufactured by diverse approaches taking into account the waveguide configuration, combining parts with high-precision milling, electrical discharge machining, direct metal laser sintering, or stereolithography with spray metallization, showing very competitive performances at the millimeter-wave band till 40 GHz. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland