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Near field imaging using microwave in medical applications has gain much attention recently as various researches show its high ability and accuracy in illuminating object comparing to the well-known screening tools such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), digital mammography, ultrasound etc. This has encourage and motivate scientists continue to exploit the potential of microwave imaging so that a better and more powerful sensing tools can be developed. This thesis documents the development of antenna design for microwave imaging application such as breast cancer detection. The application is similar to the concept of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) but operating at higher frequency band. In these systems a short pulse is transmitted from an antenna to the medium and the backscattered response is investigated for diagnose. In order to accommodate such a short pulse, a very wideband antenna with a minimal internal reflection is required. Printed monopole and planar metal plate antenna is implemented to achieve the necessary operating wide bandwidth. The development of new compact printed planar metal plate ultra wide bandwidth antenna is presented. A generalized parametric study is carried out using two well-known software packages to achieve optimum antenna performance. The Prototype antennas are tested and analysed experimentally, in which a reasonable agreement was achieved with the simulations. The antennas present an excellent relative wide bandwidth of 67% with acceptable range of power gain between 3.5 to 7 dBi. A new compact size air-dielectric microstrip patch-antenna designs proposed for breast cancer detection are presented. The antennas consist of a radiating patch mounted on two vertical plates, fed by coaxial cable. The antennas show a wide bandwidth that were verified by the simulations and also confirmed experimentally. The prototype antennas show excellent performance in terms the input impedance and radiation performance over the target range bandwidth from 4 GHz to 8 GHz. A mono-static model with a homogeneous dielectric box having similar properties to human tissue is used to study the interaction of the antenna with tissue. The numerical results in terms the matching required of new optimised antennas were promising. An experimental setup of sensor array for early-stage breast-cancer detection is developed. The arrangement of two elements separated by short distance that confined equivalent medium of breast tissues were modelled and implemented. The operation performances due to several orientations of the antennas locations were performed to determine the sensitivity limits with and without small size equivalent cancer cells model. In addition, a resistively loaded bow tie antenna, intended for applications in breast cancer detection, is adaptively modified through modelling and genetic optimisation is presented. The required wideband operating characteristic is achieved through manipulating the resistive loading of the antenna structure, the number of wires, and their angular separation within the equivalent wire assembly. The results show an acceptable impedance bandwidth of 100.75 %, with a VSWR < 2, over the interval from 3.3 GHz to 10.0 GHz. Feasibility studies were made on the antenna sensitivity for operation in a tissue equivalent dielectric medium. The simulated and measured results are all in close agreement.

O substrato de nanofios (MnM) é uma nova tecnologia de interposers visando aplicações em ondas-mm que vêm recebendo atenção devido à facilidade de se fabricar vias de interconexão e estruturas de onda lenta de alto desempenho com resultados no estado-da-arte. Entretanto, embora as estruturas de interconexão, como vias e linhas de transmissão, já estejam bem definidas, ainda não se verificou a viabilidade de se usar essa tecnologia como base para antenas planares, uma parte vital de qualquer aplicação de transmissão de dados sem fio. Esse trabalho visa preencher essa lacuna, apresentando métodos para se realizar a caracterização elétrica do substrato através da extração de sua constante dielétrica relativa e tangente de perdas, e para se projetar antenas de uso frequente em aplicações de ondas-mm através de softwares de simulação eletromagnética. Esse trabalho apresenta também as etapas de fabricação da tecnologia numa visão geral e aplicada às estruturas desenvolvidas, seguida da caracterização das estruturas até 110 GHz. Os resultados mostraram um substrato com constante dielétrica relativa de 7 ± 0,2 e com tangente de perdas de 0,03 ± 0,005. Simulações das antenas projetadas mostraram que o substrato MnM é um candidato viável para antenas do tipo end-fire, cuja irradiação acontece paralela ao plano do substrato, devido ao fato dos parâmetros do substrato não interferirem demasiadamente na eficiência de irradiação desse tipo de antena. Entretanto, as simulações também mostraram que esse substrato é um candidato ruim para antenas tipo back-fire, com irradiação perpendicular ao plano do substrato, devido às baixas figuras de eficiência de irradiação e ganho. / The nanowire substrate (MnM) is a novel interposer technology for mm-waves applications that has been receiving more and more attention thanks to the ease of fabricating high performance interconnection vias and slow-wave structures, whose results are in the state-of-the-art. However, even though the interconnection structures, such as transmission lines and vias, are already well-defined, no one has analyzed the potential of the MnM substrate as a planar antenna substrate, a core component of any wireless communications application. This work aims to fill this gap by presenting substrate characterization methods, that involves determining its dielectric constant and loss tangent, and by presenting planar antenna design methods using electromagnetic simulation softwares. This work presents also a general overview of the manufacturing processes being developed, followed by structure measurement up until 110 GHz. The results showed a substrate with a dielectric constant of 7 ± 0.2 and with a loss tangent of 0.03 ± 0.005. Simulations of the designed antennas indicated that this substrate is a viable choice for end-fire antennas, whose radiation is parallel to the plane of the substrate, because the substrate parameters doesn\'t seem to degrade the radiation efficiency of this kind of antenna. However, simulations also showed that the MnM substrate is a poor candidate for back-fire antennas, whose radiation is perpendicular to the plane of the substrate, given the low figures of radiation efficiency and gain.

O substrato de nanofios (MnM) é uma nova tecnologia de interposers visando aplicações em ondas-mm que vêm recebendo atenção devido à facilidade de se fabricar vias de interconexão e estruturas de onda lenta de alto desempenho com resultados no estado-da-arte. Entretanto, embora as estruturas de interconexão, como vias e linhas de transmissão, já estejam bem definidas, ainda não se verificou a viabilidade de se usar essa tecnologia como base para antenas planares, uma parte vital de qualquer aplicação de transmissão de dados sem fio. Esse trabalho visa preencher essa lacuna, apresentando métodos para se realizar a caracterização elétrica do substrato através da extração de sua constante dielétrica relativa e tangente de perdas, e para se projetar antenas de uso frequente em aplicações de ondas-mm através de softwares de simulação eletromagnética. Esse trabalho apresenta também as etapas de fabricação da tecnologia numa visão geral e aplicada às estruturas desenvolvidas, seguida da caracterização das estruturas até 110 GHz. Os resultados mostraram um substrato com constante dielétrica relativa de 7 ± 0,2 e com tangente de perdas de 0,03 ± 0,005. Simulações das antenas projetadas mostraram que o substrato MnM é um candidato viável para antenas do tipo end-fire, cuja irradiação acontece paralela ao plano do substrato, devido ao fato dos parâmetros do substrato não interferirem demasiadamente na eficiência de irradiação desse tipo de antena. Entretanto, as simulações também mostraram que esse substrato é um candidato ruim para antenas tipo back-fire, com irradiação perpendicular ao plano do substrato, devido às baixas figuras de eficiência de irradiação e ganho. / The nanowire substrate (MnM) is a novel interposer technology for mm-waves applications that has been receiving more and more attention thanks to the ease of fabricating high performance interconnection vias and slow-wave structures, whose results are in the state-of-the-art. However, even though the interconnection structures, such as transmission lines and vias, are already well-defined, no one has analyzed the potential of the MnM substrate as a planar antenna substrate, a core component of any wireless communications application. This work aims to fill this gap by presenting substrate characterization methods, that involves determining its dielectric constant and loss tangent, and by presenting planar antenna design methods using electromagnetic simulation softwares. This work presents also a general overview of the manufacturing processes being developed, followed by structure measurement up until 110 GHz. The results showed a substrate with a dielectric constant of 7 ± 0.2 and with a loss tangent of 0.03 ± 0.005. Simulations of the designed antennas indicated that this substrate is a viable choice for end-fire antennas, whose radiation is parallel to the plane of the substrate, because the substrate parameters doesn\'t seem to degrade the radiation efficiency of this kind of antenna. However, simulations also showed that the MnM substrate is a poor candidate for back-fire antennas, whose radiation is perpendicular to the plane of the substrate, given the low figures of radiation efficiency and gain.

<p>This thesis considers integration of antennas and active electronics manufactured on the same substrate. The main topic is on-chip antennas for commercial silicon processes, but hybrid integration using printed circuit board technology is also addressed.</p><p>The possible use of micromachining techniques as a means of reducing substrate losses of antennas manufactured on low resistivity silicon wafers is investigated. Compact dipole, loop, and inverted-F antennas for the 20-40 GHz frequency range are designed, implemented, and characterized. The results show significantly improved antenna efficiency when micromachining is used as a post-processing step for on-chip antennas manufactured in silicon technology.</p><p>High resistivity wafers are used in a commercial silicon germanium technology to improve the efficiency of dipole antennas realized using the available circuit metal layers in the process. Monolithically integrated 24 GHz receivers with on-chip antennas are designed and evaluated with regard to antenna and system performance. No noticeable degradation of the receiver performance caused by cross talk between the antenna and the integrated circuit is observed.</p><p>For low frequency antenna arrays, such as base station antennas, hybrid integration of active devices within the antenna aperture is treated. A compact varactor based phase shifter for traveling wave antenna applications is proposed and evaluated. Electrically steerable traveling wave patch antenna arrays, with the phase shifters implemented in the same conductor layer as the radiating elements, are designed and manufactured in microstrip technology. It is experimentally verified that the radiation from the feed network and phase shifters in the proposed antenna configuration is small.</p>

This thesis considers integration of antennas and active electronics manufactured on the same substrate. The main topic is on-chip antennas for commercial silicon processes, but hybrid integration using printed circuit board technology is also addressed. The possible use of micromachining techniques as a means of reducing substrate losses of antennas manufactured on low resistivity silicon wafers is investigated. Compact dipole, loop, and inverted-F antennas for the 20-40 GHz frequency range are designed, implemented, and characterized. The results show significantly improved antenna efficiency when micromachining is used as a post-processing step for on-chip antennas manufactured in silicon technology. High resistivity wafers are used in a commercial silicon germanium technology to improve the efficiency of dipole antennas realized using the available circuit metal layers in the process. Monolithically integrated 24 GHz receivers with on-chip antennas are designed and evaluated with regard to antenna and system performance. No noticeable degradation of the receiver performance caused by cross talk between the antenna and the integrated circuit is observed. For low frequency antenna arrays, such as base station antennas, hybrid integration of active devices within the antenna aperture is treated. A compact varactor based phase shifter for traveling wave antenna applications is proposed and evaluated. Electrically steerable traveling wave patch antenna arrays, with the phase shifters implemented in the same conductor layer as the radiating elements, are designed and manufactured in microstrip technology. It is experimentally verified that the radiation from the feed network and phase shifters in the proposed antenna configuration is small.

In this dissertation, a series of printed multiband antennas for slim mobile communication devices are presented. The study mainly focuses on how to effectively enhance the impedance bandwidth. With the equivalent LC matching circuit integrated in the antennas, wide impedance bandwidth can be obtained without increasing the size of the antennas. Note that the equivalent matching circuit can be formed by the coupling strip and the shorting strip to generate capacitance and inductance, respectively. In addition, the effects on the user's hand, head and whole body will be analyized. Also, the issue of the hearing aid compatibility will be discussed in this dissertation.

In this thesis, a comparison of the body SAR value of five planar WLAN antennas including two coupled-fed shorted monopole antennas, a coupled-fed loop antenna, a monopole antenna, and a monopole slot antenna for tablet PC applications are presented. A required minimum distance between the antenna and the testing flat phantom to meet the 1-g body SAR requirement of 1.6 W/kg has been determined. Results show that the body SAR results of the coupled-fed loop antenna are lowest among the five tested antennas. Detailed results and discussion are presented in this thesis. Also, a comparison of the body SAR value of a planar antenna and an antenna with 3-D bent structure are presented.

In this thesis, WWAN/LTE and LTE MIMO antennas for ultrabook computers are presented. The MIMO antenna system comprises an eight-band LTE/WWAN antenna and a three-band LTE antenna. The bandwidth of the eight-band LTE/WWAN antenna is enhanced by using an embedded parallel resonant circuit, which can result in dual-resonance excitation of the lowest resonant mode of the antenna. The bandwidth of the antenna¡¦s lower band can hence cover the LTE700/GSM850/900 operation. A design technique of improving the isolation of the MIMO antenna system is also presented. The isolation enhancement is obtained by embedding a 0.5-wavelength slot in the conductive supporting plate of the upper cover of the ultrabook computer. The embedded slot can attract the excited surface currents in the conductive supporting plate and decrease the coupling between the MIMO antennas through the coupling of the surface currents. The isolation between the MIMO antennas can hence be enhanced. Moreover, this technique will not lead to decreased radiation efficiency and impedance matching of the MIMO antennas, which is attractive for practical applications.

The novel designs of circular microstrip antennas have been investigated in this dissertation. In the linearly polarized designs, the study of single-feed dual-frequency circular microstrip antenna with an open-ring slot has been firstly presented. As for the broadband circular microstrip antenna designs, antennas with two open-ring slots, embedded reactive loading by probe feed and microstrip-line feed have been presented. The antenna bandwidth of them can be enhanced about 4% to 6%. In the circularly polarized designs, we have proposed a circularly polarized microstrip antenna with a spur line. By choosing a suitable length of the spur line, CP operation can be obtained. And then, such a design can be applied to a compact circular patch antenna with bent slots. These reduced the antenna size to be 40%~50% of that of the simple case. Finally, we use the ideas of CP operation with elliptic patch and dual-frequency operation with stacked patch to propose a dual-band circularly polarized stacked elliptic microstrip antenna design. The frequency ratio of this design is about 1.39.