Although current head imaging technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) are capable of providing accurate diagnosis of brain injuries such as stroke and brain tumour, they have several limitations including high cost, long scanning time, bulky and mostly stationary. On the other hand, radar-based microwave imaging technology can offer a low cost, non-invasive and non-ionisation method to complement these existing imaging techniques. Moreover, a compact and wearable device for microwave head imaging is required to facilitate frequent or real-time monitoring of a patient by providing more comfort to the patient. Therefore, a wearable head imaging device would be a significant advantage compared to the existing wideband microwave head sensing devices which typically utilise rigid antenna structure. Furthermore, the wearable device can be integrated into different microwave imaging setups such as real-time wearable head imaging systems, portable systems and conventional stationary imaging tools for use in hospitals and clinics. This thesis presents the design and development of wearable devices utilising flexible antenna arrays and compact radio frequency (RF) switching circuits for wideband microwave head imaging applications. The design and characterisation of sensing antennas using flexible materials for the wearable head imaging device are presented in the first stage of this study. There are two main variations of monopole antennas that have been developed in this research, namely trapezoidal and elliptical configurations. The antennas have been fabricated using different flexible substrate materials such as flexible FR-4, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and textile. Wideband performances of the antennas have been achieved by optimising their co-planar waveguide feeding line structures. Importantly, the efficiencies of the fabricated antennas have been tested using a realistic human head phantom by evaluating their impedance matching performances when operating in close proximity to the head phantom. The second stage of the study presents the development of wearable antenna arrays using the proposed flexible antennas. The first prototype has been built using an array of 12 flexible antennas and a conformal absorbing material backed with a conductive sheet to suppress the back lobe radiation of the monopole antennas. Additionally, the absorber also acts as a mounting base to hold the antennas where the wearable device can be comfortably worn like a hat during the measurement and monitoring processes. The effect of mutual coupling between adjacent antennas in the array has been investigated and optimised. However, the use of the absorbing material makes the device slightly rigid where it can only be fitted on a specific head size. Thus, a second prototype has been developed by using a head band to realise a stretchable configuration that can be mounted on different sizes of human heads. Furthermore, due to the stretchable characteristic of the prototype, the antennas can be firmly held in their positions when measurements are made. In addition, fully textile based sensing antennas are employed in this prototype making it perfectly suitable for monitoring purposes. Low cost and compact switching circuits to provide switching mechanism for the wearable antenna array are presented in the third stage of this study. The switching circuit is integrated with the antenna array to form a novel wearable microwave head imaging device eliminating the use of external bulky switching network. The switching circuit has been built using off-the-shelf components where it can be controlled wirelessly over Bluetooth connection. Then, a new integrated switching circuit prototype has been fabricated using 6-layer printed circuit board (PCB) technology. For the purpose of impedance matching for the radio-frequency (RF) routing lines on the circuit, a wideband Microstrip-to-Microstrip transition is utilised. The final stage of this study investigates the efficacy and sensitivity of the proposed wearable devices by performing experiments on developed realistic human head phantoms. Initially, a human head phantom has been fabricated using food-based ingredients such as tap water, sugar, salt, and agar. Subsequently, lamb's brains have been used to improve the head phantom employed in the experiments to better mimic the heterogeneous human brain. In terms of imaging process, an interpolation technique developed using experimental data has been proposed to assist the localisation of a haemorrhage stroke location using the confocal delay-and-sum algorithm. This new technique is able to provide sensible accuracy of the location of the blood clot inside the brain. The wearable antenna arrays using flexible antennas and their integrations with compact and low cost switching circuits reported in this thesis make valuable contribution to microwave head imaging field. It is expected that a low-cost, compact and wearable radar-based microwave head imaging can be fully realised in the future for wide range of applications including static scanning setup in hospitals, portable equipment in ambulances and as a standalone wearable head monitoring system for remote and real-time monitoring purposes.

<p>This thesis is concerned with the use of multiple antenna elements in wireless communication over frequency non-selective radio channels. Both measurement results and theoretical analysis are presented. New transmit strategies are derived and compared to existing transmit strategies, such as beamforming and space-time block coding (STBC). It is found that the best transmission algorithm is largely dependent on the channel characteristics, such as the number of transmit and receive antennas and the existence of a line of sight component. Rayleigh fading multiple input multiple output (MIMO) channels are studied using an eigenvalue analysis and exact expressions for the bit error rates and outage capacities for beamforming and STBC is found. In general are MIMO fading channels correlated and there exists a mutual coupling between antenna elements. These findings are supported by indoor MIMO measurements. It is found that the mutual coupling can, in some scenarios, increase the outage capacity. An adaptive antenna testbed is used to obtain measurement results for the single input multiple output (SIMO) channel. The results are analyzed and design guidelines are obtained for how a beamformer implemented in hardware shall be constructed. The effects of nonlinear transmit amplifiers in array antennas are also analyzed, and it is shown that an array reduces the effective intermodulation distortion (IMD) transmitted by the array antenna by a spatial filtering of the IMD. A novel frequency allocation algorithm is proposed that reduces IMD even further. The use of a low cost antenna with switchable directional properties, the switched parasitic antenna, is studied in a MIMO context and compared to array techniques. It is found that it has comparable performance, at a fraction of the cost for an array antenna.</p>

This thesis is concerned with the use of multiple antenna elements in wireless communication over frequency non-selective radio channels. Both measurement results and theoretical analysis are presented. New transmit strategies are derived and compared to existing transmit strategies, such as beamforming and space-time block coding (STBC). It is found that the best transmission algorithm is largely dependent on the channel characteristics, such as the number of transmit and receive antennas and the existence of a line of sight component. Rayleigh fading multiple input multiple output (MIMO) channels are studied using an eigenvalue analysis and exact expressions for the bit error rates and outage capacities for beamforming and STBC is found. In general are MIMO fading channels correlated and there exists a mutual coupling between antenna elements. These findings are supported by indoor MIMO measurements. It is found that the mutual coupling can, in some scenarios, increase the outage capacity. An adaptive antenna testbed is used to obtain measurement results for the single input multiple output (SIMO) channel. The results are analyzed and design guidelines are obtained for how a beamformer implemented in hardware shall be constructed. The effects of nonlinear transmit amplifiers in array antennas are also analyzed, and it is shown that an array reduces the effective intermodulation distortion (IMD) transmitted by the array antenna by a spatial filtering of the IMD. A novel frequency allocation algorithm is proposed that reduces IMD even further. The use of a low cost antenna with switchable directional properties, the switched parasitic antenna, is studied in a MIMO context and compared to array techniques. It is found that it has comparable performance, at a fraction of the cost for an array antenna.

OFDM is a promising technique for high-data-rate wireless communications because it can combat inter-symbol interference (ISI) caused by the dispersive fading of wireless channels. The proposed research focuses on techniques that improve the performance of OFDM-based wireless communications and its commercial and military applications. In particular, we address the following aspects of OFDM: inter-channel interference (ICI) suppression, interference suppression for clustered OFDM, clustered OFDM based anti-jamming modulation, channel estimation for MIMO-OFDM, MIMO transmission with limited feedback. For inter-channel interference suppression, a frequency domain partial response coding (PRC) scheme is proposed to mitigate ICI. We derive the near-optimal weights for PRC that is independent on the channel power spectrum. The error floor resulting from ICI can be reduced significantly using a two-tap or a three-tap PRC. Clustered OFDM is a new technique that has many advantages over traditional OFDM. In clustered OFDM systems, adaptive antenna arrays are used for interference suppression. To calculate weights for interference suppression, we propose a polynomial-based parameter estimator to combat the severe leakage of the DFT based estimator due to the small size of the cluster. An adaptive algorithm is developed to obtain optimal performance. For high data rate military communications, we propose a clustered OFDM base spread spectrum modulation to provide both anti-jamming and fading suppression capability. We analyze the performance of uncoded and coded system. Employing multiple transmit and receive antennas in OFDM systems (MIMO-OFDM) can increase the spectral efficiency and link reliability. We develop a minimum mean-square-error (MMSE) channel estimator that takes advantage of the spatial-frequency correlations in MIMO-OFDM systems to minimize the estimation error. We investigate the training sequence design and two optimal training sequence designs are given for arbitrary spatial correlations. For a MIMO system, the diversity and array gains can be obtained by exploiting channel information at the transmitter. For MIMO-OFDM systems, we propose a subspace tracking based approach that can exploit the frequency correlations of the OFDM system to reduce the feedback rate. The proposed approach does not need recalculate the precoding matrix and is robust to multiple data stream transmission.

The objective of the proposed research is to develop solutions for High-Performance Low-Cost Passives for Radar, Identification, and Communication Applications up to mm-Wave Frequencies. This research will bring to the table potential solutions that will meet three main requirements: small size (or low weight), high performance, and low cost. This research embarks on antenna design and development for passive RFID tags on LCP substrates, and then a transition towards lower cost modules investigates and explores the possibilities of using paper as RF substrates with inkjet printing as a low cost fabrication technology. Modules such as dual band antenna for Wifi frequencies (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) and UWB (up to 10GHz) on paper substrate using inkjet printing are presented. This work then bridges into developing higher frequency modules. These include: highly selective filter design on LCP for X-band Radar application to be used as a benchmark for an easy adjustment for higher frequencies, and antenna modules LCP using inkjet printing for communication such as mm-Wave WLAN or WPAN. A transition into mm-Wave Modules then takes place for the general realization of low-cost high-performance mm-Wave modules and more specifically the low cost automotive radar. After proposing an architecture for integrated mm-Wave module, this work then investigates 2D/3D interconnections (and their integration with antennas) on LCP using conventional etching design guidelines up to 100GHz. Antenna arrays that are implemented with phase shifters for beam steering are then designed using edge fed and multilayer technology. Furthermore, crosstalk reductions for highly dense transmission lines are analyzed via simulations for the optimum performance and space saving of such mm-Wave modules such as the IC interface where space restrictions are strictly enforced.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e TecnolÃgico / In the last two decades, multiple input multiple output (MIMO) wireless systems have been subject of intense research due to the theoretical promise of the proportional increase of the communications channel capacity as the number of antennas increases. This outstanding property supposes an efficient use of spatial diversity at both the transmitter and receiver. An important and not well explored path towards improving MIMO system performance using spatial diversity takes into account the interactions among the antennas and the (physical) propagation medium. By understanding these interactions, the transmit and receive antenna arrays can be designed to best âmatchâ the propagation medium so that the link quality and capacity can be further improved in a MIMO system. In this work, we consider the use of spherical harmonics and tensor decompositions in the problem of MIMO channel modeling and estimation. The use of spherical harmonics allows to represent the radiation patterns of antennas in terms of coefficients of an expansion, thus decoupling the transmit and receive antenna array responses from the physical propagation medium. By translating simple propagation-motivated channel models with polarization information into the spherical harmonics domain, we study how propagation parameters themselves and antenna configurations affect MIMO performance in terms of capacity and correlation. A second part of this work addresses the problem of estimating directional MIMO channels in the spherical harmonics domain using tensor decompositions. Considering both single-scattering and double-scattering propagation scenarios, we make use of the parallel factor (PARAFAC) and PARATUCK-2 decompositions, respectively, to estimate the propagating spherical modes, from which the directions of arrival (DoA) and directions of departure (DoD) can be extracted. Finally, we propose and compare two methods for optimizing the coefficients of the spherical harmonics expansion of an antenna array for a prespecified MIMO channel response. / Nas Ãltimas dÃcadas, sistemas de comunicaÃÃo sem fio de mÃltiplas antenas (MIMO - Multiple Input Multiple Output) tÃm sido objetos de intensas pesquisas devido à promessa teÃrica do aumento proporcional da capacidade com o aumento do nÃmero de antenas. Esta propriedade excepcional supÃe um uso eficiente da diversidade espacial no transmissor e receptor. Um caminho importante e nÃo bem explorado no sentido de melhorar o desempenho de sistemas MIMO usando diversidade espacial leva em conta a interaÃÃo entre as antenas e meio de propagaÃÃo (fÃsico). AtravÃs da compreensÃo dessas interaÃÃes, arranjos de antenas de recepÃÃo e transmissÃo podem ser projetados para melhor "casar" com o meio de propagaÃÃo, tal que a qualidade do link de comunicaÃÃo e capacidade possam ser melhoradas em um sistema MIMO. Neste trabalho, consideramos o uso de harmÃnicos esfÃricos e decomposiÃÃes tensoriais no problema de modelagem de canal MIMO e estimaÃÃo. O uso de harmÃnicos esfÃricos permite representar os padrÃes de radiaÃÃo de antenas em termos de coeficientes de uma expansÃo, assim desacoplando as respostas dos arranjos de antenas (transmissoras e receptoras) do meio de propagaÃÃo fÃsica. Traduzindo modelos simples de canais baseados em propagaÃÃo, com informaÃÃes de polarizaÃÃo, para o domÃnio dos harmÃnicos esfÃricos, estudamos como os parÃmetros de propagaÃÃo si e configuraÃÃes especÃficas de antenas afetam o desempenho do sistema MIMO em termos de capacidade e de correlaÃÃo. A segunda parte deste trabalho aborda o problema de estimar canais direcionais MIMO no domÃnio dos harmÃnicos esfÃricos usando decomposiÃÃes por tensores. Considerando tanto cenos de espalhamento simples e de duplo espalhamento, fazemos uso das decomposiÃÃes PARAFAC e PARATUCK2, respectivamente, para estimar os modos esfÃricos propagantes, a partir das quais as direÃÃes de chegada (DoA) e as direÃÃes de saÃda (DoD) podem ser extraÃdas. Finalmente, propomos e comparamos dois mÃtodos de otimizaÃÃo dos coeficientes da expansÃo em harmÃnicos esfÃricos de arranjos de antenas para respostas de canais MIMO prÃ-especificados .

Cette thèse est basée sur un brevet réalisé chez XLIM Systèmes RF. La thèse précédente se concentre sur la partie théorique MARPEM et une certaine validation en polarisation linéaire. Dans cette thèse, nous avons visé à introduire le système MARPEM aux applications de polarisation circulaire en général et aux applications spatiales en particulier. Dans toute la thèse, MARPEM à polarité circulaire avec une architecture différente est réalisée avec la conception de circuits de polarisation et de diviseurs de puissance. On présente la formation de faisceau du motif Isoflux large avec le taux d'ellipticité, ainsi que des faisceaux de balayage sont réalisés pour grand azimut angles avec un bon taux d'ellipticité. Tous les résultats sont comparés à l'antenne réseau classique AESA. La fabrication de MARPEM à polarité circulaire et les circuits de polarisation et le diviseur de puissance sont effectués et les mesures correspondantes sont présentées. Ensuite, dans les perspectives, on s'attend à des défis différents dans un travail futur pour l'amélioration de système MARPEM. / This thesis is based on a patent done at XLIM RF-Systems. Previous thesis focuses on the ARMA theoretical part and some validation in linear polarization. In this thesis we aimed to introduce the system ARMA to the circular polarization applications in general and to space applications especially. In the entire thesis circularly polarized ARMA with different architecture are achieved with the design of polarization circuits and power dividers. Beam forming of the wide Isoflux pattern with the axial ratio are presented, also scanning beams are achieved for far angles with good axial ratio. All the results are compared with the classical array antenna AESA. Manufacturing of circularly polarized ARMA and the polarization circuits and the power divider are done and the corresponding measurements are presented. Then in the perspectives different challenges are expected to be in a future work for enhancement of the whole ARMA system.

Abstract This dissertation presents complete parameterizations for a three-dimensional (3-D) geometry-based stochastic radio channel model (GSCM) at 10 GHz based on measurement campaigns. The thesis is divided into the following main parts: radio channel measurements, the characterization of model parameters, and model validation. Experimental multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel measurements carried out in two-story lobby and urban small cell scenarios are first described. The measurements were performed with a vector network analyzer and dual polarized virtual antenna arrays with a bandwidth over 500 MHz. The measurement data was post-processed using the ESPRIT algorithm and the post-processed data was verified using a semi-deterministic map-based model. The results showed a good match between estimated and modeled multipath components (MPCs). In addition, single-input single-output outdoor-to-indoor measurements were executed through a standard multi-pane glass window and concrete wall. A statistical analysis was carried out for defining full 3-D characterization of the propagation channel in both line-of-sight (LOS) and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) propagation conditions. The delay and angular dispersions of MPCs are smaller in comparison to lower frequency bands due to the higher attenuation of the delayed MPCs. Moreover, specular reflection is observed to be the more dominant propagation mechanism in comparison to diffuse scattering, leading to smaller cluster angle spreads in comparison to lower frequency bands. The penetration loss caused by a standard multi-pane glass window is on the same level as in the lower frequency bands, whereas the loss caused by the concrete wall is a few dBs higher than at lower frequency bands. Finally, the GSCM with determined parameters is validated. A MIMO channel was reconstructed by embedding 3-D radiation patterns of the antennas into the propagation path estimates. Equivalently the channel simulations were performed with a quasi deterministic radio channel generator (QuaDRiGa) using the defined parameters. The channel capacity, Demmel condition number, and relative condition numbers are used as the comparison metrics between reconstructed and modeled channels. The results show that the reconstructed MIMO channel matches the simulated MIMO channel well. / Tiivistelmä Tämä väitöskirja esittää parametroinnit kolmiulotteiselle geometriaan perustuvalle stokastiselle radiokanavamallille 10 GHz:n taajuusalueella perustuen mitattuun radiokanavaan. Väitöskirja koostuu kolmesta pääalueesta: radiokanavamittaukset, radiokanavamallin parametrien määrittäminen ja mallin validointi. Aluksi kuvataan kaksikerroksisessa aula ja kaupunkipiensolu ympäristöissä monilähetin monivastaanotin (MIMO) järjestelmällä tehdyt kanavamittaukset. Mittaukset tehtiin vektoripiirianalysaattorilla ja kaksoispolaroiduilla virtuaaliantenniryhmillä 500 MHz kaistanleveydellä. Mittausdata jälkikäsiteltiin käyttämällä ESPRIT-algoritmia ja jälkikäsitelty data varmennettiin osittain deterministisellä mittausympäristön karttaan pohjautuvalla radiokanavamallilla. Tulokset osoittivat hyvän yhteensopivuuden mitattujen ja mallinnettujen moniteiden välillä. Lisäksi toteuttiin yksi-lähetin yksi-vastaanotin mittaukset ulko-sisä etenemisympäristössä monikerroksisen lasin ja betoniseinän läpi. Tilastollinen analyysin avulla määritettiin täysi kolmiulotteinen kuvaus radioaallon etenemiskanavasta näköyhteys ja näköyhteydettömässä tilanteissa. Moniteiden suuremmista vaimennuksista johtuen viive ja kulmahajonnat ovat pienemmät verrattaessa matalempiin taajuuksiin. Peiliheijastus on diffuusisirontaa merkittävämpi radioaallon etenemismekanismi johtaen pienempiin klustereiden kulmahajeisiin matalempiin taajuuksiin verrattuna. Monikerroksisen lasin läpäisyvaimennus on samankaltainen kuin alemmilla taajuuksilla, kun sitä vastoin betoniseinän vaimennus on muutaman desibelin suurempi kuin alemmilla taajuuksilla. Lopulta geometriaan perustava stokastinen radiokanavamalli validoidaan määritellyillä parametreilla. MIMO kanava uudelleen rakennetaan lisäämällä kolmiulotteiset antennien säteilykuviot estimoituihin radioaallon etenemisteihin. Vastaavasti radiokanava simuloidaan näennäisesti deterministisellä radiokanavageneraattorilla (QuaDRiGa) käyttäen määriteltyjä mallin parametreja. Kanavakapasiteettia, Demmel ehtolukua ja suhteellista ehtolukua käytetään vertailumittareina uudelleen rakennetun ja simuloidun kanavan välillä. Tulosten perusteella uudelleen rakennettu MIMO kanava on yhteensopiva simuloidun radiokanavan kanssa.

Pour faire cohabiter les nombreuses technologies radios, les terminaux mobiles nécessitent une miniaturisation de plus en plus poussée des antennes. Toutefois, les performances d'antennes ont des limites fondamentales liées à leurs dimensions physiques. La littérature met en évidence que les réseaux superdirectifs permettent de dépasser la limite de Harrington sur la directivité et que des antennes adaptées par des circuits non-Foster peuvent dépasser la limite de Bode-Fano sur la bande passante. Les contributions essentielles de ce travail de thèse consistent en la conception deréseaux d'antennes superdirectifs et d'antennes adaptées par des circuits non-Foster comme solutions possibles pour l'amélioration des performances des Antennes Electriquement Petites (AEP). Dans une première partie, un convertisseur d'impédance négative est réalisé pour obtenir des condensateurs de valeurs négatives de façon à adapter des antennes miniatures sur une large bande de fréquence. Dans la deuxième partie de ces travaux, les limites théoriques des réseaux d'antennes superdirectifs sont évaluées et une approche simple et pratique permettant la conception de ces réseaux à partir d'éléments parasites est proposée. L'intégration des AEP superdirectives sur des cartes de circuit imprimé est étudiée et les difficultés de mesure de ce type d'antenne sont évaluées. A partir de ces résultats, une nouvelle stratégie pour réaliser des réseaux compactes 3D ou planaires à polarisation linéaire ou circulaire en utilisant des éléments superdirectifs est présentée. / For supporting different wireless technologies, mobile terminals require significant miniaturization of antennas. However, antennas performance has some fundamental limits related to their physical dimensions. The available theory shows that superdirective arrays can exceed Harrington’s limit on antenna directivity and non-Foter matched antennas can surpass Bode-Fano limit on antenna bandwidth. Therefore, this work focuses on the design of superdirective antenna arrays and non-Foster matched antennas as possible solutions for improving the performance of Electrically Small Antennas (ESAs). In the first part: a Negative Impedance Converter (NIC) is designed to have a very small negative capacitor. The circuit is evaluated in terms of gain, stability and linearity. Then, the circuit is used to match several small antennas in the UHF band. In the second part: the theoretical limits of superdirective antenna arrays are studied. A simple and practical approach to design parasitic antenna arrays is proposed. The integration of superdirective ESAs in Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) is studied and the difficulties of measuring this type of antennasare evaluated. A new strategy for the design of 3D or planar compact arrays, with linear or circular-polarization, using superdirective elements is presented.

This work focuses on the design circularly polarized serial antennas array operate in the ISM band (5.725 GHz to 5.875 GHz). Design of antennas is divided into three parts. In the first part is designed feeding system, followed by two types of circularly polarized antennas and at the last point, these components are integrated. Furthermore, these antennas are fabricated, measured their parameters and used for experimental verification of the influence of multipath transmission in-vehicle.