La radio astronomie étudie les sources cosmiques au travers de leur rayonnement dans le domaine radio. Les astronomes, utilisateurs passifs du spectre électromagnétique, ont à faire face à une pollution radio de plus en plus importante. Cette thèse s’intéresse particulièrement aux interférences radio d’origine humaine (RFI), et comment les observations radio astronomiques peuvent être réalisées en bandes de fréquences non-protégées. Les approches classiques consistent à contrôler les paramètres statistiques d’une observation. Une fois détectées, les données polluées sont retirées avant post-traitement. En plus d’autres avantages techniques par rapport aux radiotélescopes paraboliques classiques, les réseaux d’antennes offrent une information spatiale lors d’une observation astronomique. La diversité spatiale entre source cosmique d’intérêt (SCOI) et RFI peut être exploitée pour développer des traitements spatiaux d’interférences. Après la formulation d’un module de données multidimensionnel, une technique de soustraction de sous espace RFI est introduite. Cette technique consiste à soustraire la contribution des RFI aux données d’une observation. La projection orthogonale a déjà été considérée auparavant. Cependant, l’orthogonalité requise entre CSOI et RFI pour retrouver une source d’intérêt non biaisée ne peut vraisemblablement pas être satisfaite. Une approche basée sur une projection oblique est introduite afin de pallier à cette condition. Les techniques de projections sont comparées aux techniques classiques de beamforming en termes de réjection de l’interférence et de récupération de la source d’intérêt. Le sous-espace RFI est inconnu de manière générale et se doit d’être estimé. Plusieurs techniques permettant cette estimation, basées sur des propriétés statistiques des RFI et sources cosmiques, sont également présentées et comparées. Les différentes techniques ont été appliquées à des données astronomiques délivrées par le radio télescope Européen LOFAR. Enfin, une implémentation d’un algorithme de traitement spatial d’interférences sur le démonstrateur EMBRACE est présenté. / Radio astronomy studies cosmic sources through their radio emissions. As passive users, astronomers have to deal with an increasingly corrupted radio spectrum. The research presented here focuses on man-made Radio Frequency Interference (RFI), and how astronomical observations can be performed in non-protected frequency bands. Traditional approaches consist in monitoring radio telescopes output data through statistical parameters. Once detected, the corrupted data is removed before further processing. Besides other technical advantages compared to single dish radio telescopes, antenna arrays provide spatial information about astronomical observations. The spatial diversity between cosmic sources-of-interest (CSOI) and RFI can be exploited to develop spatial RFI processing. After formulating a multidimensional radio astronomical data model, an interference subspace subtraction technique is introduced. This approach consists in subtracting RFI contributions from antenna array radio telescopes data. Orthogonal projection applied to astronomical observation vector spaces has already been considered by the past. The orthogonality between RFI and CSOI subspaces is required to recover the CSOI without bias. In order to avoid this latter requirement, an oblique projection approach is here proposed. The projection techniques are compared to classic beamforming techniques in term of interference rejection and CSOI recovering. Being usually unknown, the RFI subspace has to be estimated. Several techniques allowing this estimation, based on statistical properties of RFI and cosmic sources (whiteness and cyclostationarity), are also presented and compared. The different techniques have been applied to real astronomical data, provided by the European radio telescope LOFAR. A last section presents an RFI mitigation algorithm implemented on the demonstrator EMBRACE.

La facilité de déploiement et la flexibilité des technologies sans fil ont permis une évolution considérable des normes IEEE 802.11. L'arrivée de la fibre optique à la maison a également motivé des études de recherche pour accroître les débits et la capacité. Dans ce contexte, la dernière norme IEEE 802.11ac ratifiée en 2014 a normalisé de nouvelles technologies pour atteindre des débits maximaux au-dessus de 1Obit/s. En particulier, 802 llac propose le Multiple Input Multiple Output Multi-Utilisateurs (MIMO-MU) et le Transmit Beamforming (TxBF). Ces technologies d'antennes intelligentes supposent un diagramme d'antenne d'émission qui dépend de la position des utilisateurs et des caractéristiques du canal de propagation multi-trajets correspondant. Cependant, les outils d'ingénierie et de planification radio actuels simulent une carte de couverture fixe et indépendante de tout traitement d'antennes adaptatives côté émission. Cette thèse étudie l'impact de ces techniques MIMO-MU et TxBF et propose des solutions adaptées pour l'ingénierie radio et l'optimisation du système ainsi que pour les outils de planification radio. En effet, la première partie de cette thèse consiste à affiner les gains de capacité en identifiant les configurations et les paramètres système optimaux. La deuxième partie aborde les gains de beamforming en termes du gain sur le rapport signal à bruit (SNR) et sur la réduction du niveau d'interférence pour avoir une modélisation réaliste de la couverture radio. / The deployment facility and flexibility of wireless technologies have allowed considerable evolution of IEEE 802 .11 standards. The arrival of the optical fiber to the home has further motivated the research studies to increase data rates and capacity. ln this context, the latest IEEE 802.l lac standard ratified in 2014 proposes new technologies to achieve maximum data rates above 1 Gbit/s. ln particular, 802.l lac includes the Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) and Transmit Beamforming (TxBF). These smart antenna technologies assume a variable transmit antenna pattern in function of the users' position and the corresponding multipath propagation channel characteristics. However, the actual radio planning tools give a fixed coverage map in dependent of any adaptive or smart antenna processing. This thesis studies the impact of the MU-MIMO and TxBF techniques on radio engineering, system optimization as well as radio planning tools. Indeed, the first part of this thesis deals with refining the sum rate capacity gains by identifying interesting system configurations and optimal system parameters. The second part addresses the beamforming gains in terms of the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) gain and interference level to have realistic radio coverage modeling.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology: Electrical Engineering In the Faculty of Engineering at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2013 / The French South African Institute of Technology (F’SATI) at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) began a program in Satellite Systems Engineering in 2009 and is developing its first satellites. The satellites are based on the CubeSat standard, which defines one unit (1U) as a cube with a maximum weight of 1 kg and volume of 1dm3, and can be scaled up to three units (3U) for increased functionality. ZACUBE-1, a 1U CubeSat that is being developed, will be launched into a sun synchronous orbit in 2013. The main payload of the 1U CubeSat under development is a space weather experiment (beacon transmitter). The beacon transmitter is a scientific payload, which is being developed in collaboration with SANSA Space Science (SANSA SS) in Hermanus, South Africa. The beacon signal will be used to characterise the space weather radar antenna array at the South African National Antarctic Expedition (SANAE IV) base in Antarctica. The SANAE IV radar forms part of the SuperDARN (Dual Auroral Radar Network) project. This phased array antenna network comprises 16 radiating elements, with a 3o beam width that can be steered in 16 different directions to span the azimuth sector. These antennas are spread over both the northern and southern hemispheres. They operate in the HF band between 8 to 20 MHz and are used to primarily monitor the convection of the Earth’s magnetic field by monitoring coherent scatter from it. Orbital analyses were conducted to determine how the choice of the orbit affects the coverage of the array’s field-of-view. Propagation analyses were conducted to investigate how space weather variations affect HF signal propagation. The beacon signal will be used as an active target source and will enable the determination of the phase response of the array, thereby determining the direction-of-arrival of the signal. This will allow the experimental verification of the antenna’s beam pattern. The beacon signal prototype board was developed by using an RFID transceiver that operates in the HF band, capable of delivering up to 200 mW. Position determination of the satellite will be done by using two line elements (TLE) data. Experimental data will be available once ZACUBE-1 is in orbit; therefore, the work presented here documents a feasibility study and design of the experiment that will be conducted once the satellite is in orbit.

Millimeter-wave Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) technology presents itself as the most viable solution for the development of RF systems. It is a cost-e ective solution, suitable for mass production of such systems. Like planar circuits, SIW structures are compact, light weight and easy to fabricate. They also preserve some of the major advantages of metallic waveguides, namely, low loss, high quality factor and high power handling capabilities. In RF systems, rectangular waveguide horns have found various applications due to their exceptional radiation properties. From their simple construction, ease of ex- citation, usefulness and high gain, they are readily used as feed component in various RF systems, they also aid as the standardization for calibration and gain measure- ments of other high gain antennas. We are aware that, in an H-plane horn antenna, the rectangular waveguide is flared in the direction of the H-field. A large aperture in the H-plane presents the narrower half power beamwidth whereas a small aperture in the E-plane gives a wider beamwidth. In this research, the design of a SIW H- plane horn antenna with approximately symmetric half power beamwidths in both the E- and H-planes is proposed, using the commercially available electromagnetic field solver CST Microwave Studio to design and simulate proposed antenna characteristics and performance. Also, radiation patterns are analyzed and in order to validate the simulation results, measurements are performed on a fabricated prototype antenna. / Graduate

The spatially distributed adaptive array is defined and analyzed. It is applied to both time division multiple access (TDMA) and code division multiple access (CDMA) cellular networks to improve the outage probability at either the base station or mobiles. In a TDMA network, the distributed array consists of three sub-arrays at alternate corners of a hexagonal cell. It is shown analytically that the SINR of combined beamforming of the distributed sub-arrays is greater than or equal to the SIR or independent beamforming of the sub-arrays. Closed form solutions are derived for estimating the BER performance of Rayleigh fading mobile signals received at a distributed adaptive array with combined beamforming of the sub-arrays. The simulated TDMA uplink outage probability of multiple same-cell co-channel users in a fading environment is compared between conventional, spatially distributed arrays with independent beamforming of the sub-arrays and combined beamforming of the sub-arrays. The effect of the antenna element spacing, number of elements and angular spread is also investigated. Spatially distributed arrays are formed in a CDMA network on the downlink with arrays in multi-way soft handoff with the mobiles. The outage probability performance of combined beamforming of the arrays in handoff is compared to independent beamforming of the arrays as well as to conventional sectorized antennas. The range between mobiles and distributed sub-arrays in the case of a spatially distribu-ted array can be larger than between conventional center cell arrays and mobiles. Therefore, the effect of interference on the range increase relative to an omni antenna of adaptive and phased arrays in a multipath environment for both narrowband and wideband spread spectrum systems is investigated. An analytical model for predicting the asymptotic range limitation of phased arrays when the angular spread exceeds the array beamwidth is derived. / Thesis (PhD (Electronic Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Thesis (PhD (Electronic Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / PhD / unrestricted

Slot dipole antennas fed by coplanar waveguide (CPW) on substrates consisting of a single dielectric layer exhibit various attractive qualities, including significantly wider impedance bandwidth than comparable microstrip patch antennas. For applications that call for unidirectional radiation, such as antennas on airframes, a conducting back plane is needed. A CPW on a conductor-backed single-dielectric-layer substrate will always experience power leakage into the TEM parallel-plate mode. On the other hand, it is possible to design CPW lines on conductor-backed two-layer substrates that are free from leakage into the substrate. However, once the CPW is used as feed line to a slot dipole, power leakage into the TM0 substrate mode caused by the transition between the CPW and the radiating slot, and by the radiating slot itself, may still severely compromise radiation efficiency. This study has two main contributions to offer. First, a paucity of work on CPW-fed slot antennas on conductor-backed two-layer substrates is alleviated by providing a fuller characterization of single-slot behaviour on two-layer parallel-plate substrates than is currently available, and by systematically investigating a practically feasible minimum antenna configuration, namely broadside twin slots, that is not debilitated by the problem of substrate mode leakage. Results obtained with the moment-method-based electromagnetic simulator IE3D that emphasize the trade-off between radiation efficiency and impedance bandwidth are presented; they can be used for design purposes. For instance, with respect to single slots on a substrate with an electrically thin top dielectric layer and an air bottom layer, it is shown that radiation efficiency increases and bandwidth decreases as height of the bottom substrate layer increases. For broadside twin slots, it is demonstrated that spacing close to half a wavelength of the two-layer parallel-plate TM0 mode apart can yield a large improvement in radiation efficiency over that of a single slot (a reduction in bandwidth however occurs). The second main contribution is the development of an approach for finding the mutual admittance Y12 between CPW-fed slots on conductor-backed two-layer substrates that can be more readily incorporated in an iterative array design procedure than a moment-method-based technique, yet is of comparable accuracy; it is built on a standard reciprocity-based expression. As an initial step, the mutual admittance between CPW-fed slots on a conductor-backed two-layer substrate with an air bottom layer is characterized using IE3D. This involves presenting curves for Y12 between twin slots against slot separation d along standard paths for slot half-lengths in the vicinities of the first and second resonant half-lengths of the corresponding isolated slots (such data might be used towards a first-order array design), and a study of the effect of back plane distance (i.e., bottom layer height) on mutual coupling. The bulk of the thesis however is devoted to the above reciprocity-expression approach. Simplifying assumptions are outlined that make it possible to determine Y12 against d by performing a once-only moment-method analysis of each slot in isolation, and then calculating external and internal reaction integrals at each value of d. This is significantly more economical than carrying out a full moment-method analysis of the whole twin-slot structure at every instance of d. Evaluation of the internal reaction integral requires the appropriate component of the spatial-domain Green’s function for the substrate, which is derived in a form containing Sommerfeld-type integrals; treatment of singularities is discussed. The reciprocity-expression approach is verified by comparing Y12 against d curves for twin slots and non-identical slot pairs on a variety of conductor-backed two-layer substrates to IE3D simulations. A procedure that involves judicious selection of reference planes is introduced by which agreement between the methods for the special case of twin slots with the same half-length as the corresponding isolated second-resonant slot can be even further improved. A measurement is provided that validate theoretical calculations. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

This thesis describes the basic principles of radio frequency identification, basic characteristics of patch antennas, the possibility of their feeding and design of planar antenna series. Are discussed, impedance matching options. The selected antenna arrays were realised, measuring their parameters was down and measured parameters was compared with simulation results.

Reduced-control antenna arrays reduce the number of controls required for beamforming while maintaining a given array aperture. A reduced-control array for direction finding (DF), inspired by the concept of compressive sensing (CS), was recently proposed which uses random compression weights for combining antenna-element signals into fewer measurements. However, this compressive array had not been studied in terms of traditional characteristics such as directivity, sidelobe level (SLL) or beamwidth. In this work, random compression weights are shown to be suboptimal and a need for the optimisation of compressive arrays is expressed. Existing codebook optimisation algorithms prove to be the best starting point for the optimisation of compressive arrays, but are computationally complex. A computationally efficient codebook optimisation algorithm is proposed to address this problem, which inspires the compressive-array optimisation algorithm to follow. Compressive antenna arrays are formulated as a generalisation of reduced-control arrays and a framework is presented for their optimisation in terms of SLL. By allowing arbitrary compression weights, compressive arrays are shown to improve on existing reduced-control techniques. A feed network consisting of interconnected couplers and fixed phase shifters is proposed, enabling the implementation of compressive arrays in microwave hardware. The practical feasibility of compressive arrays is illustrated by successfully manufacturing a 3-GHz prototype compressive array with integrated antenna elements. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / PhD / Unrestricted

No description available.