Thesis (MTech (Electrical Engineering))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2009 / This thesis presents the design, analysis and implementation of an eight-element phased array antenna for wideband X-band applications. The microstrip phased array antenna is designed using eight quasi-Yagi antennas in a linear configuration and is printed on RT/Duroid 6010LM substrate made by Rogers Corporation. The feeding network entails a uniform beamforming network as well as a non-uniform -25 dB Dolph-Tschebyscheff beamforming network, each with and without 45° delay lines, generating a squinted beam 14° from boresight. Antenna parameters such as gain, radiation patterns and impedance bandwidth (BW) are investigated in the single element as well as the array environment. Mutual coupling between the elements in the array is also predicted. The quasi-Yagi radiator employed as radiating element in the array measured an exceptional impedance bandwidth (BW) of 50% for a S11 < -10 dB from 6 GHz to 14 GHz, with 3 dB to 5 dB of absolute gain in the frequency range from 8 GHz to 11.5 GHz. The uniform broadside array measured an impedance BW of 20% over the frequency band and a gain between 9 dB to 11 dB, whereas the non-uniform broadside array measured a gain of 9 dB to 11 dB and an impedance BW of 14.5%. Radiation patterns are stable across the X-band. Beam scanning is illustrated in the E-plane for the uniform array as well as for the non-uniform array.

M.Ing. / This work considers a dual band electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR) antenna system. This system is designed with one actively fed radiating element and N-parasitic radiating elements. The radiation pattern can be electronically controlled by means of the loads terminating the parasitic elements. The antenna system is designed as ESPAR to have a minimum number of controlling elements thereby minimising the power consumed. The dual band operation of this antenna is for the frequency bands of the wireless local area network (WLAN), which are 2.412-2.482 GHz for IEEE 802.11b/g (known as the 2.4 GHz band) and 5.15-5.825 GHz for IEEE 802.11a (known as the 5 GHz band). In the upper band, only the 5.8 GHz sub-band was considered. The dual-band capability was targeted by conducting a structural parameter modification on the antenna system. The structural modification involves optimisation of the length of the active element, the length of the parasitic element, the distance of the parasitic element from the active element and most importantly, by application of a loading technique on the elements. The loading was done by using optimisation tools, such as fminsearch, fminbnd and the genetic algorithm. The specific circuit that was used for the loading was a series connection inductors inserted into the antenna’s elements at positions found via a global optimization.. The method used was to first identify the optimal length per specific resonant frequency and consider the optimal length with respect to both resonant frequencies. The second step was to load the three resulting optimised different monopoles, and the loading with results closest to the requirements. The optimum monopole of the three in the second step was then used as the fixed input parameter for the main optimisation of ESPAR antenna. Using a ground plane with a skirt, an acceptable return loss performance has been achieved for the antenna's main building M.J. Bembe ii block, a monopole element, in both frequency bands. The challenge was found in steering of the beam in different directions; it was then concluded that the usage of more elements could provide the necessary freedom for the optimisation process. Six elements were arranged symmetrically close to the active fed element in order to achieve a dual band resonance, with different designs meeting the requirements differently. This is the first report showing an ESPAR antenna optimisation which includes the loading of elements with lengths and distance optimisation.

De nos jours, les communications sans fil sont devenues un moyen incontournable et universel d'échange d'un large éventail d'informations entre différents systèmes, certains d'entre eux étant en mouvement comme des drones parmi tant d'autres. Dans le contexte de cette thèse nous considérons une liaison entre un projectile et une station de base. La géométrie de la structure ainsi que les contraintes aérodynamiques d'un tir balistique impliquent l'utilisation d'antennes patchs dans la partie conique à l'avant du projectile. Ce type d'antenne est facile à intégrer à une plate-forme en tant que réseau conformé tout en respectant les contraintes d'encombrement. Ces communications doivent être fiables et discrètes dans un environnement perturbé ou hostile. Les diagrammes de rayonnement du réseau d'antennes doivent présenter des caractéristiques spécifiques, notamment dans le cas particulier d'objets volants et possédant une rotation en roulis (rotation autour de son axe) qui impliquent l'utilisation d'un réseau phasé et commuté par rapport à sa position. Une antenne qui présenterait un rayonnement fixe assurerait une liaison avec un interlocuteur, mais rayonnerait également dans d'autres directions sensibles ce qui pourraient interférer avec la communication principale. La solution qui consiste à activer et désactiver des sous-réseaux verticaux afin d'orienter le lobe principal dans la plan orthogonal à la pointe semble être en accord avec les contraintes de la structure tournante. Un réseau conique a été étudié puis 2 prototypes ont été fabriqués, dont un à l'ISL. Les sous-réseaux sont répartis de manière égale autour de la pointe de façon à pouvoir rayonner dans toutes les directions. De plus, chaque sous-réseau est composé de trois éléments ce qui permet d'orienter également le lobe principal dans le plan longitudinal de la pointe (le long de l'axe du projectile) grâce à un dépointage électronique. Un système électronique de formation de faisceaux a été développé dans le but de contrôler 12 éléments rayonnants. Le réseau d'antennes ainsi que le circuit de répartition ont été caractérisés dans un premier temps de manière indépendante afin d'optimiser les lois de phase nécessaires à dépointer le lobe à partir des pondérations mesurées. Au final, le réseau de 12 éléments associé à son système d'alimentation dédié a été mesuré dans les chambres anéchoïques de DGA-MI et de l'ISL et les mesures sont en accord avec les simulations. / Nowadays wireless communications have become a useful and universal mean to exchange a wide range of information between different systems, some of them being moving, as UAVs among others. In this context we consider here the link between a projectile and a base station. The shape of the structure and the aerodynamic constraints involve the use of patch antennas in the conical front part. This class of antenna is easy to be integrated into the platform as a conformal array, while respecting space constraint. Communications have to be reliable and discrete in disturbed or hostile environment. Antennas array radiation patterns must have some specific characteristics, in particular in the case of flying objects with spin which involves the use of a switched phased array considering its roll position. A fixed-radiation pattern antenna may presents a relevant level or gain toward the interlocutor, but also toward sensitive directions, in which may be located others systems, interfering with the current communication. The solution to switch on and off vertical sub-arrays to steer the beam in the azimuthal plane seem convenient ant fitting the requirements of rotating platform. A conical phased array was studied and two prototypes were manufactured, one at ISL. Sub-arrays are distributed around the conical shape in order to be able to radiate in each direction. Moreover, each sub-array are composed of three radiating elements allowing to steer the main antenna beam in many direction (along the projectile fuze axes). A beam forming network was developed to control the 12 radiating elements conical array. The antenna array and the feeding network were characterized independently in order to optimized the phase of each radiating element. Finally, measurements were done on the whole system in the DGA-MI and ISL anechoic chambers and are in good agreement with simulation results.

L'objectif de cette thèse est d'exploiter les phénomènes des ondes de fuite pour améliorer les performances des antennes classiques à ouverture pour les applications spatiales. Ici, nous considérons des configurations planaires où les ondes de fuite sont excitées entre un plan de masse et un superstrat partiellement réfléchissant. Des réseaux de petites ouvertures sur le plan de masse sont utilisés pour alimenter les antennes considérées. Les structures avec superstrat sont développées en configuration réseaux simples ou réseaux à commande de phase, considérées intéressantes en termes de flexibilité du système pour des liens satellitaires de nouvelle génération.Pour étudier efficacement ces antennes, nous avons développé un outil d'analyse basé sur une approche spectrale avec fonction de Green. Cet outil permet d'analyser les structures proposées en prenant en compte l'impact du couplage mutuel entre les éléments sur les performances de rayonnement avec une réduction du temps de calcul et d'utilisation de mémoire.L'augmentation du gain des structures à ondes de fuite peut ouvrir la voie à la réduction du nombre d'éléments des réseaux associés, et donc des commandes en amplitude et phase. Dans une configuration à ondes de fuite, chaque élément du réseau rayonne avec une ouverture équivalente plus grande, augmentant ainsi l'espacement entre les éléments sans affecter le gain global de la structure. Comme largement expliqué dans le manuscrit, les solutions à ondes de fuite représentent par conséquent un avantage majeur pour les antennes du segment utilisateur.En plus de l'amélioration du gain, la technologie à ondes de fuite peut être efficacement exploitée pour synthétiser le diagramme de rayonnement, en choisissant correctement les paramètres de conception de l'antenne. Cette caractéristique peut être utilisée dans les réseaux à commande de phase, pour produire un diagramme d'élément qui minimise les pertes par dépointage et qui filtre les lobes de réseaux. Une procédure de synthèse pour des antennes réseaux raréfiés à ondes de fuite est ainsi présentée dans le manuscrit, ainsi qu'une nouvelle configuration de réseaux avec superstrat irrégulier. Ce dernier permet de réduire les lobes secondaires de l'antenne en utilisant une excitation uniforme. Cette dernière configuration montre clairement que la capacité de modifier le diagramme de rayonnement est la caractéristique la plus attrayante des antennes planaires à ondes de fuite, pour être utilisée dans des solutions de réseaux à commande de phase. / The objective of this thesis is to exploit the leaky-wave phenomena to enhance the performance of classical aperture antennas for space applications. Here, we consider planar configurations where the leaky modes are excited between a ground plane and a partially reflective superstrate. Arrangements of small apertures opening on the ground plane are used to feed the antennas under study. The superstrate-like leaky-wave structures are developed in array or phased array configurations, considered of interest in terms of flexibility of the system for next generation satellite links. In order to efficiently study planar leaky-wave arrays, we have developed an analysis tool based on a Green's function spectral approach. The developed tool allows to precisely analyze the proposed structure by taking into account the impact of the mutual coupling among the elements on the radiation performance of the whole antenna. In addition, it can handle extremely large structures in terms of wavelengths with a small computational effort with respect to commercial tools. In particular, the gain enhancement of leaky-based structures can pave the way to the reduction of the number of elements of the associated phased arrays. In a leaky-wave configuration each element of the array will radiate with a larger equivalent aperture allowing a larger spacing among elements without affecting the final gain of the whole structure. This aspect is particularly important in the case of phased arrays, where phase shifters and control cells are, typically, the most expensive components of the system. As extensively explained in the manuscript, antennas for user segment might find the highest benefit by using leaky-wave solutions. Besides the gain enhancement, the leaky-wave technology can be effectively exploited to conveniently shape the radiation pattern by properly engineering the design parameters of the antenna. This capability can be used in phased arrays to generate a convenient element pattern to minimize the scan losses and filter the grating lobes appearing in the visible space when dealing with periodicities larger than a wavelength. Therefore, a synthesis procedure for thinned leaky-wave arrays is presented in the manuscript. Also, a novel array configuration, the irregular superstrate array, is presented. The irregular superstrate allows the reduction of the side lobes of the antenna below -20 dB in the considered 2.5 % band, using a uniform excitation. This last configuration clearly shows that the shaping capability of leaky-wave antennas is the most appealing feature to be used in phased array solutions.

The principal contributions of this study include the development of a new capacitive feeding mechanism for wideband probe-fed microstrip patch antennas as well as the implementation of a spectral-domain moment-method formulation for the efficient analysis of large, but finite arrays of these elements. Such antenna configurations are very useful in the wireless communications industry, but extremely difficult to analyse with commercially available software. Probe-fed microstrip patch antennas have always been a popular candidate for a variety of antenna systems. Due to their many salient features, they are well suited for modern wireless communication systems. However, these systems often require antennas with wideband properties, while an inherent limitation of probe-fed microstrip patch antennas is its narrow impedance bandwidth. This can be overcome by manufacturing the antenna on a thick low-loss substrate, but at the same time it also complicates things by rendering the input impedance of the antenna very inductive. In this thesis, a new capacitive feeding mechanism is introduced that can be used for probe-fed microstrip patch antennas on thick substrates. It consists of a small probe-fed capacitor patch that is situated next to the resonant patch. The benefits of this configuration include the fact that only one substrate layer is required to support the antenna. It is also very easy to design and optimise. The use of full-wave methods for an accurate analysis of microstrip antennas, has basically become standard practice. These methods can become very demanding in terms of computational resources, especially when large antenna arrays have to be analysed. As such, this thesis includes a spectral-domain moment-method formulation, which was developed for the analysis of probe-fed microstrip patch antennas or antenna arrays that comprise of the new capacitive feeding mechanism. Here, entire-domain and subdomain basis functions are combined in a unique way so as to minimise the computational requirements, most notably computer memory. It is shown that, for general antenna array configurations, memory savings of more than 2500 times can be achieved when compared with typical commercial software packages where only subdomain basis functions are used. Some of the numerical complexities that are dealt with, include various methods to evaluate the spectral integrals as well as special algorithms to eliminate the recalculation of duplicate interactions. The thesis also contains a quantitative comparison of various attachment modes that are often used in the moment-method modelling of probe-to-patch transitions. Various numerical and experimental results are included in order to verify the spectral-domain moment-method formulation, to characterise the new feeding mechanism and to illustrate its use for various applications. These results show that, in terms of accuracy, the spectral-domain moment-method formulation compares well with commercial codes, while by comparison, it demands very little computer memory. The characterisation results show that the input impedance of the antenna can be fully controlled by only adjusting the size of the capacitor patch as well as the width of the gap between the capacitor patch and the resonant patch. In terms of applications, it is shown how the new antenna element can effectively be employed in linear arrays with vertical polarisation, horizontal polarisation or dual slant-polarisation. These represent some widely-used configurations for modern base-station antennas. / Thesis (PhD (Electronic Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

Over the next decade, multi-antenna radios, including phased array and multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) radios, are expected to play an essential role in the next-generation of wireless networks. Phased arrays can reject spatial interferences and provide coherent beamforming gain, and MIMO technology promises to significantly enhance the system performance in the coverage, capacity, and user data rate through the beamforming or diversity/capacity gain which can substantially increase the range in wireless links, that are challenged from the transmitter (TX) power handling, receiver (RX) noise perspectives and a multi-path environment. Furthermore, the multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) can simultaneously serve multiple users which is vital for femtocell base stations and access points (AP). Full-duplex (FD) wireless, namely simultaneous transmission and reception at the same frequency, is an emerging technology that has gained attention due to its potential to double the data throughput, as well as provide other benefits in the higher layers such as better spectral efficiency, reducing network and feedback signaling delays, and resolving hidden-node problems to avoid collisions. However, several challenges remain in the quest for the high-performance integrated FD radios. Transmitter power handling remains an open problem, particularly in FD radios that integrate a shared antenna interface. Secondly, FD operation must be achieved across antenna VSWR variations and a changing EM environment. Finally, FD must be extended to multi-antenna radios, including phased array and multi-input multi-output (MIMO) radios, as over the next decade, they are expected to play an essential role in the next generation of wireless networks. Multi-antenna FD operation, however, is challenged not only by the self-interference (SI) from each TX to its own RX but also cross-talk SI (CT-SI) between antennas. In this dissertation, first, a full-duplex phased array circulator-RX (circ.-RX) is proposed that achieves self-interference cancellation (SIC) through repurposing beamforming degrees of freedom (DoF) on TX and RX. Then, an FD MIMO circ.-RX is proposed that achieves SI and CT-SI cancellation (CT-SIC) through passive RF and shared-delay baseband (BB) canceller that addresses challenges associated with FD MIMO operation. Wireless radios at millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequencies enable the high-speed link for portable devices due to the wide-band spectrum available. Large-scale arrays are required to compensate for high path loss to form an mm-wave link. Mm-wave MIMO systems with digitization enable virtual arrays for radar, digital beamforming (DBF) for high mobility scenarios and spatial multiplexing. To preserve MIMO information, the received signal from each element in MIMO RX should be transported to ADC/DSP IC for DBF, and vice versa on the TX side. A large-scale array can be formed by tiling multiple mm-wave IC front-ends, and thus, a single-wire interface is desired between DSP IC and mm-wave ICs to reduce board routing complexity. Per-element digitization poses the challenge of handling high data-rate I/O in large-scale tiled MIMO mm-wave arrays. SERializer – DESerializer (SERDES) is traditionally being used as a high-speed link in computing systems and networks. However, SERDES results in a large area and power consumption. In this dissertation, a 60~GHz 4-element MIMO TX with a single-wire interface is presented that de-multiplexes the baseband signal of all elements and LO reference that are frequency-domain multiplexed on a single-wire coax cable.

No / The performances of two different angle of arrival estimation algorithms, phase interferometry and covariance based super resolution, and two different mutual coupling compensation methods, conventional and received mutual impedance, have been compared. Two different scenarios have been explored, firstly with a single source transmitter, and then with dual source transmitters. Different powers levels were used to estimate the performance of these algorithms in a multipath/multisource environment over a perfect ground plane. The results show greater accuracy using the covariance based technique, and also support the use of the received mutual impedance method for coupling compensation.

No / In this research work the improvement of AOA estimation accuracy by applying a decoupling matrix derived using the receiving mode approach has been investigated using data measured in an anechoic chamber. The receiver was a 4-element uniform circular array with quarter wavelength inter-element spacing deployed on a square metal plate. The performance of the angle of arrival estimation error has been observed for two groups of direction finding algorithms, namely phase comparison-based (interferometry) and covariance-based algorithms. Mutual coupling compensation on AOA was found to improve accuracy by approximately 50%.

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