Investigation of the Double-Y Balun for Feeding Pulsed Antennas Jaikrishna Venkatesan 232 Pages Directed by Dr. Waymond Scott, Jr. In this research, a double-y balun implemented with coplanar waveguide (CPW) and coplanar strip (CPS) was investigated for use with pulsed antennas. The balun was modeled using two commercial electromagnetic simulators: Momentum and HFSS. Using these numerical solvers, design information such as the design of CPW bridges, aspect ratio of the double-y balun, and stub lengths of the CPW and CPS open and short stubs were studied. A dipole, along with the outer conductor of a coaxial line was modeled in NEC. The model was used to study the currents along the arms and feedline of balanced and unbalanced dipoles. Normalized amplitude patterns were generated along the azimuth and elevation planes for balanced and unbalanced dipoles. These patterns were used later for comparison with measured patterns. Experimental work was conducted to measure the performance of a double-y balun designed to feed a resistively loaded V-dipole. The performance of the balun was investigated via VSWR, insertion loss, and antenna pattern measurements. Antenna pattern measurements along the azimuth plane were conducted for a 5 cm dipole fed without a balun, a 5 cm dipole fed with the double-y balun, a 5 cm dipole fed with the sleeve balun, a 12 cm dipole fed without a balun, and a 12 cm dipole fed with the double-y balun. The dipoles fed without a balun were fed directly with a 50 W coaxial line. An optical link, consisting of a laser modulator (LM) unit and a laser receiver (LR) unit, was constructed to measure the patterns along the elevation plane of the above dipoles. Resulting patterns agreed closely with patterns generated with NEC models. In addition, the patterns of a resistively loaded V-dipole were measured along the E-plane using the optical link. The measured patterns for the V-dipole were compared with numerical results obtained from literature. The experimental work conducted in this research illustrates the improvement obtained in the patterns of a dipole and a resistively loaded V-dipole with the use of the double-y balun.

Simulation and experiments quantify the effect of moving a horizontal dipole antenna close to a metal ground plane. Solutions to the radiation problems are offered.

This thesis presents an analysis of the behavior of an equiangular spiral antenna using a mixture of numerical and measurement techniques. The antenna is studied as an isolated element and as a part of a spiral-based ground-penetrating radar (GPR) detection system. The numerical modeling was based on the parallelized finite-difference time-domain method and the model was validated by comparison with a prototype antenna and detection system. The intention is to isolate the effect of varying different geometrical parameters that define the spiral element or the spiral GPR system. With some notion of each parameter's effect, systems that use the spiral antenna can be designed more easily. The analysis of the spiral antenna in isolation provides a set of design graphs for the antenna. A set of design graphs are constructed that allow one to better understand the effect of the chosen dielectric substrate on the characteristic impedance of the antennas. A second set of design graphs give very specific data about the lower cut-off frequency possible for the antennas given a requirement on its minimum boresight gain, axial ratio, or voltage standing-wave ratio when matched with an appropriate transmission line. The analysis of the spiral antenna in the context of a detection system provides information on the effect of the ground on the GPR system and to what extent the circular polarization properties of the spiral antenna play a role in GPR. It is shown that a spiral antenna used in a monostatic radar configuration will reject a symmetric scatterer well into the near-field. The importance of a resistive loading to the spiral arms is demonstrated for this rejection to be optimal. In addition, it is shown that increasing the dielectric constant of the ground narrows the pattern and polarization properties, making the antenna more directive towards boresight when the spiral antennas radiate into a flat ground. In addition to this work, a method for reducing the truncation error when calculating the planewave spectrum of an antenna is described.

Thesis (M.Eng.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2000. / Bibliography: p. 96-104.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 73).

As the demand for compact, portable communication electronics increases, the technology of miniaturization has made great progress. A beneficiary of that progress has been research into new concepts for the antenna, one of the essential components in wireless communications. As the size of an antenna becomes smaller, however, the antenna suffers from high Q and low radiation resistance. The results are narrow bandwidth, poor matching, low efficiency, and, more generally, poor performance throughout the communication system. First, the design of a small antenna for HF/VHF communications is described. As the operating frequency of an antenna decreases, for example, into the HF and low VHF regions, the physical size of the antenna becomes a critical issue. It is desirable to design a truly electrically small antenna by reducing the ground plane size. Moreover, when the antenna size is very small, the bandwidth of the antenna is extremely narrow, which is critical to various deployment variances and propagation effects such as multi-path fading. The new design, which is an inductively coupled, top-loaded, monopole structure optimized by a genetic algorithm (GA), maximizes transmission of HF/VHF waves. Electrically small, spiral ground planes for the monopole and the electrically small antenna are designed for HF ground-wave transmission. In addition, a tunable small antenna is investigated that overcomes the narrow-bandwidth limitation of electrically small antennas. Second, new design methodologies for electrically small antennas are discussed. Use of an inductively coupled feed is one of the well-known methods for boosting input resistance. As the antenna size becomes smaller, however, it is found that the efficiency of an antenna using an inductively coupled feed is lower than an antenna using multiple folds. After a comparison of the two methods, the design of a thin, multiply folded, electrically small antenna is proposed for achieving high efficiency in a physically compact size. The GA is used to assess the effect of geometry on the performance (in terms of efficiency and bandwidth) of the electrically small antennas, including the folded conical helix and folded spherical helix. Finally, the prospects of using the new Yagi antennas to achieve small size are explored. Yagi antennas are used widely to obtain high gain in a simple structures. The antenna is composed of the driven element and the parasitic elements, which include a reflector and one or more directors. Typically, sufficient spacing on the order of 0.15[lambda] to 0.4[lambda] between the driven element and the parasitic elements is needed for the Yagi antenna to operate well. For some applications, however, it is desirable to reduce the spacing and the length of the elements to achieve a physically more compact size. In this dissertation, closely spaced, folded Yagi antennas in both three dimensions and two dimensions are investigated, and a design for an electrically small Yagi antenna is suggested. / text

M. Tech. Electrical Engineering. / Produces findings, based on scientific methods, to verify or refute electromagnetic propagation, generated with Synthetic Poynting Vector formation, that will enable small but efficient electrical antennas.

This thesis presents a wide spectrum of novel extensions and enhancements to critical components of modern electromagnetic analysis and design systems. These advancements are achieved through the use of computational intelligence, which comprises neural networks, evolutionary algorithms, and fuzzy systems. These tools have been proven in myriad industrial applications ranging from computer network optimization to heavy machinery control. / The analysis module of an electromagnetic analysis and design system typically comprises mesh generation and mesh improvement stages. A novel method for discovering optimal orderings of mesh improvement operators is proposed and leads to a suite of novel mesh improvement techniques. The new techniques outperform existing methods in both mesh quality improvement and computational cost. / The remaining contributions pertain to the design module. Specifically, a novel space mapping method is proposed, which allows for the optimization of response surface models. The method is able to combine the accuracy of fine models with the speed of coarse models. Optimal results are achieved for a fraction of the cost of the standard optimization approach. / Models built from computational data often do not take into consideration the intrinsic characteristics of the data. A novel model building approach is proposed, which customizes the model to the underlying responses and accelerates searching within the model. The novel approach is able to significantly reduce model error and accelerate optimization. / Automatic design schemes for 2D structures typically preconceive the final design or create an intractable search space. A novel non-preconceived approach is presented, which relies on a new genome structure and genetic operators. The new approach is capable of a threefold performance improvement and improved manufacturability. / Automatic design of 3D wire structures is often based on "in-series" architectures, which limit performance. A novel technique for automatic creative design of 3D wire antennas is proposed. The antenna structures are grown from a starting wire and invalid designs are avoided. The high quality antennas that emerge from this bio-inspired approach could not have been obtained by a human designer and are able to outperform standard designs.

In order to improve efficiency and reliability of the world's power grids, sensors are being deployed for constant status monitoring. Placing inexpensive wireless sensors on high-voltage power lines presents a new challenge to the RF engineer. Large electric field intensities can exist around a wireless sensor antenna on a high-voltage power line, leading to the formation of a corona plasma. A corona plasma is a partially ionized volume of air formed through energetic electron-molecule collisions mediated by a strong electric field. This corona can contain large densities of free electrons which act as a conducting medium, absorbing RF energy and detuning the sensor's antenna. Through the use of low-profile antennas and rounded geometries, the possibility for corona formation on the antenna surface is greatly reduced, as compared with wire antennas. This study looks at the effects of a corona plasma on a patch antenna, which could be used in a power line sensor. The corona's behavior in the presence of an electromagnetic plane wave is analyzed mathematically to understand the dependence of attenuation on frequency and electron density. A Drude model is used to convert plasma parameters such as electron density and collision frequency to a complex permittivity that can be incorporated in antenna simulations. Using CST Microwave Studio, a 5.8 GHz patch antenna is simulated with a plasma material on its surface, of varying densities and thicknesses. Power absorption by the plasma dominates the power loss, as opposed to detuning. A wideband patch is simulated to show that the detuning effects by the plasma can be further reduced. Power absorption by the plasma is significant for electron densities greater than 10¹⁸ m⁻³. However, small point corona are found to have little effect on antenna radiation.

The work reported in this thesis is motivated by the need for wireless powering of a miniaturized implantable device for neurophysiological research and possible clinical applications. The antenna used in such applications must be studied in the context of biological tissue media. In this thesis, we perform a preliminary study of antenna behaviour in the complex tissue environment. Our test cases are the wire dipole antenna chosen for its structural simplicity and the spiral antenna, selected for its wide bandwidth. The simulation tool SEMCAD-X, is based on the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method and is used throughout this work. To have an in-depth understanding of the characteristics of different solvers implemented in SEMCAD-X and relevant for our applications, we first simulate the antenna structures in the free-space region using both SEMCAD-X and HFSS (a Finite-Element Method (FEM) simulation software). The cross-platform comparison between these two simulation tools helps us identify the advantages of using conformal FDTD solver over the conventional staircase FDTD solver in SEMCAD-X. We then embed the antennas in tissue-like non-homogeneous lossy media to observe the terminal voltages induced by an impinging plane-wave. These numerical experiments will help us with the assessment of the following: variations of antenna properties with the in-tissue locations, and more importantly the dependence of the induced voltage on the depth of the implant.