Transparent patch antennas are microstrip patch antennas that have a certain level of optical transparency. Highly transparent patch antennas are potentially suitable for integration with solar panels of small satellites, which are becoming increasingly important in space exploration. Traditional patch antennas employed on small satellites compete with solar cells for surface area. However, a transparent patch antenna can be placed directly on top of solar cells and resolve the issue of competing for limited surface real estate. For such an integration, a high optical transparency of the patch antenna is required from the solar cells' point of view. On the other hand, the antenna should possess at least acceptable radiation properties at the same time. This dissertation focuses on some of the most important concerns from the perspective of small satellite applications. For example, an optimization method to simultaneously improve both optical transparency and radiation efficiency of the antenna is studied. Active integrated antenna design method is extended to meshed patch applications in an attempt to improve the overall power efficiency of the front end communication subsystem. As is well known, circular polarization is immune from Faraday rotation effect in the ionosphere and thus can avoid a 3-dB loss in geo-satellite communication. Therefore, this research also aims to present design methods for circularly polarized meshed patch antennas. Moreover, a meshed patch antenna capable of supporting a high communication data rate is investigated. Lastly, other types of transparent patch antennas are also analyzed and compared to meshed patches. In summary, many properties of transparent patch antennas are examined in order to meet different design requirements.

Inkjet printing is an attractive patterning technology that has received tremendous interest as a mass fabrication method for a variety of electronic devices due to its manufacturing exibility and low-cost feature. However, the printing facilities that are being used, especially the inkjet printer, are very expensive. This thesis introduces an extremely cost-friendly inkjet printing method using a printer that costs less than $100. In order to verify its reliability, linearly and circularly polarized (CPd) planar and conformal microstrip antennas were fabricated using this printing method, and their measurement results were compared with copper microstrip antennas. The result shows that the printed microstrip antennas have similar performances to those of the copper antennas except for lower efficiency. The effects of the conductivity and thickness of the ink layer on the antenna properties were studied, and it is found that the conductivity is the main factor affecting the radiation efficiency, though thicker ink yields more effective antennas. This thesis also presents the detailed antenna design for a sub-payload. The sub-payload is a cylindrical structure with a diameter of six inches and a height of four inches. It has four booms coming out from the surface, which are used to measure the variations of the energy flow into the upper atmosphere in and around the aurora. The sub-payload has two types of antennas: linearly polarized (LPd) S-band antennas and right-hand circularly polarized (RHCPd) GPS antennas. Each type of antenna has various requirements to be fully functional for specific research tasks. The thesis includes the design methods of each type of antenna, challenges that were confronted, and the possible solutions that were proposed. As a practical application, the inkjet printing method was conveniently applied in validating some of the antenna designs.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第20153号 / 理博第4238号 / 新制||理||1609(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科数学・数理解析専攻 / (主査)教授 坂上 貴之, 教授 上田 哲生, 教授 國府 寛司 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・論文博士 / 博士(医学) / 乙第13232号 / 論医博第2172号 / 新制||医||1036(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 山下 潤, 教授 江藤 浩之, 教授 木村 剛 / 学位規則第4条第2項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

A novel microstrip patch antenna topology is presented for achieving a dual-band response with arbitrarily closely spaced resonances. This topology is based on a coupled transmission line structure in order to take advantage of the separation in propagation constants for parallel (even-mode) and anti-parallel (odd-mode) current modes. Applying a metamaterials inspired design approach, periodic reactive load­ings are used to design the underlying transmission line to have specific propagation constants necessary to realize a desired separation between two resonant frequencies. Using a single probe feed for a finite coupled line segment, both even-and odd-mode resonances can be excited to radiate efficiently at their respective design frequencies. The efficiency of the odd-mode radiation is enhanced by separating the two lines, while strong coupling is maintained by inserting a series of narrowly-separated thin loops between them. Several example resonant antenna designs, in the 2.45 GHz band, are presented. The directivities of these microstrip patch antennas are enhanced by optimizing the physical length of the resonant structure. For a resonant antenna obtained by cas­cading several unit cells of reactively loaded microstrip segments, dispersion analysis is employed for the unit-cell design. Maximum directivity is achieved by choosing the overall physical length to be slightly less than a half wavelength in free space at the design frequency. This gain optimization is applied to three coupled-line antennas, as well as a single resonance patch. Excellent agreement is observed between simulated and measured responses across all designs. The potential of loading the coupled line structure with active components is also explored. Varactor diodes are placed on coupled-line structures in two configurations. In one configuration, both resonant frequencies are affected. In the other configura­tion, only the odd-mode characteristics are reconfigured. In this way, the resonant frequency of either one or both modes can be adjusted by applying a DC bias voltage to the varactor diode loading elements. Two antennas, one employing each of these topologies, were designed and fabricated. Control of the resonant frequency over the predicted range through applying a bias voltage is observed with the fabricated prototypes.