Reconfigurable Antennas and Antenna Arrays

87 Pages·2010·6.63 MB·English

by  Sean Hum

Reconfigurable
 Antennas
 and

Antenna
 Arrays:
 Architectures
 and

Technologies

Sean
 Victor
 Hum

Asst.
 Professor,
 University
 of
 Toronto,
 Canada

[email protected]

Presented
 to:
 Universidad
 Politécnica
 de
 Madrid

21
 April
 2010
About
 Myself

•  Alumnus
 of
 the
 University
 of
 Calgary,
 Canada

•  Worked
 with
 TRLabs,
 a
 large
 non-­‐profit

telecommunicaNons
 research
 consorNum
 in
 Western

Canada,
 1997-­‐2006

•  Joined
 the
 U
 of
 T
 Dept.
 of
 ECE
 in
 September
 2006

•  Research
 interests:

–  Reconfigurable
 antennas
 and
 RF
 systems

–  Reflectarrays
 and
 other
 space-­‐fed
 antennas

–  Ultra-­‐wideband
 communicaNons

–  Applied
 electromagneNcs
 in
 space
 technology

21
 April
 2010
  Universidad
 Politécnica
 de
 Madrid
  2
About
 Canada

21
 April
 2010
  Universidad
 Politécnica
 de
 Madrid
  3
About
 the
 University
 of
 Toronto

•  ECE
 dept:
 80
 faculty,

1000
 undergraduate

students,
 450
 graduate

students

•  EM
 group:
 4
 professors,

30
 graduate
 students

•  UofT
 is
 Canada’s
 largest

school
 (3
 campuses,

85,000
 students+staff)

21
 April
 2010
  Universidad
 Politécnica
 de
 Madrid
  4
EM
 Group:
 Our
 FaciliNes

•  20’
 far-­‐field
 antenna
 range
  •  120
 GHz
 wafer/board
 tesNng

capabiliNes

•  20’
 EMC
 chamber

•  Class
 100-­‐10,000
 cleanrooms

•  1.2m
 planar
 near
 field
 scanner

•  Spacecrad
 charging
 simulators

•  Semi-­‐anechoic
 mm-­‐wave
 range

•  96-­‐processor
 cluster,
 hardware

•  Rapid
 prototyping
 faciliNes

accelerators

21
 April
 2010
  Universidad
 Politécnica
 de
 Madrid
  5
Agenda

•  MoNvaNon
 and
 definiNons

•  Frequency-­‐agile
 antennas

•  Pafern-­‐reconfigurable
 high-­‐gain
 antennas

–  Reconfigurable
 reflectors

•  Passive

•  AcNve

–  Reconfigurable
 lenses

•  UWB
 beamforming
 arrays

•  Conclusions

21
 April
 2010
  Universidad
 Politécnica
 de
 Madrid
  6
Research
 MoNvaNon

•  TradiNonally,
 antennas
 are
 passive
 transducers

•  Next-­‐generaNon
 communicaNon
 systems
 will
 rely

upon/benefit
 from
 adapNve
 antennas

–  Wireless
 systems
 in
 dynamic
 scenarios
 (e.g.
 satellite
 /

terminal
 tracking)

–  AdapNve
 beam
 scanning
 (RADAR
 /
 remote
 sensing)

–  MIMO
 systems:
 acNve
 management
 of
 channel

correlaNon
 /
 diversity
 /
 interference

–  CogniNve
 /
 sodware-­‐defined
 radio

•  Can
 we
 make
 more
 intelligent
 antenna
 designs
 to

fulfill
 the
 needs
 of
 these
 systems?

21
 April
 2010
  Universidad
 Politécnica
 de
 Madrid
  7
Reconfigurable
 Antennas…

...
 have
 the
 ability
 to
 have
 their
 electrical
 and/or

radiaNon
 characterisNcs
 adapNvely

manipulated
 in
 real
 Nme

–  RadiaNon
 pafern

•  Beam
 direcNon

•  Beam
 shape
 /
 sidelobe
 level
 /
 mulNple
 beams

–  PolarizaNon

–  OperaNng
 frequency
 /
 band
 (input
 impedance)

–  etc.

21
 April
 2010
  Universidad
 Politécnica
 de
 Madrid
  8
Enabling
 Technologies

•  Electronically
 tuned

reactances

–  Varactor
 diodes,
 MEMS-­‐
tunable
 capacitors
 /

inductors

•  RF
 switches

–  PIN
 diode
 /
 FET
 switches,

MEMS

•  ExoNc
 materials

–  NemaNc
 liquid
 crystals,

S.
 V.
 Hum,
 G.
 McFeetors,
 and
 M.
 Okoniewski,

nonlinear
 materials,
  “Integrated
 MEMS
 reflectarray
 elements,”
 in

Proc.
 EuCAP
 2006.
 ESA
 SP-­‐626,
 Nov.
 2006.

ferroelectric
 films

21
 April
 2010
  Universidad
 Politécnica
 de
 Madrid
  9
21
 April
 2010
  Universidad
 Politécnica
 de
 Madrid
  10