It is well known that quad-ridged horn antennas in general have impedance and radiation characteristics that are significantly worse than that of their double-ridged counterparts. Normally a voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) of 3 over the operational bandwidth is used for the design specification of quad-ridged horn antennas. The bandwidth of operation is severely restricted due to the excitation of higher order modes in the co-axial to waveguide transition of the antenna. The higher order modes cause a break-up in the radiation pattern of the antenna and large dips in the boresight gain. The performance of the quad-ridged horn antenna with pyramidal sidewalls is improved by separating the antenna into the transition and flared horn sections, and optimizing these sections individually. It is shown that a transition section with a pyramidal cavity and steps, and a flared horn section with an exponential profile with a circular segment for the ridges deliver the best performance. These configurations for the transition and flared horn sections are combined in the complete antenna. The optimized antenna has a 12.5:1 operational bandwidth with improved performance in terms of the VSWR, the coupling between the ports and the boresight gain. A prototype of this antenna is manufactured. Good agreement between the measured and simulated performance is achieved. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

Ground-based radars are instruments commonly used to surveil the precipitation climate of the surrounding areas. Weather events are characterized by collecting backscatter data and analyzing computed products such as the Reflectivity Factor, the Doppler Velocity, the Spectrum Width, the Differential Reflectivity, the Co-polar Correlation Coefficient and the Differential Propagation Phase. The ability of the radar to transmit different polarization waves, such as horizontal and vertical polarization, allow for further analysis of the weather given the capability to perform co-polar and cross-polar measurements. The Linear Depolarization Ratio is another computed product based on the difference in power between the co-polarized and cross-polarized channel used to, for example, classify and characterize the ice crystal types. In order to obtain this variable, the radar has to be able to receive in both horizontal and vertical polarizations but transmit in either of them. This thesis presents the modifications performed on the MA-1 prototype radar from the CASA (Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere) Engineering Center to support cross-polarization measurement studies. The new radar, now known as UMass eXperimental X-Band (UMaXX) Radar is a dual-polarization radar able to transmit in both horizontal and vertical polarizations or single horizontal polarization and receive in both, making it able to compute LDR. The radar is installed atop of a tower located on Orchard Hill at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where it operates at all times. This thesis also presents the analysis of sample weather phenomena captured with the radar, including rain events and the Hardwick tornado, recorded on October 23rd 2018 and registered by the weather services.

The Electronically Steered Phased Array is one of the most versatile antennas used in radars applications. Some of the advantages of electronic steering are faster scan, no moving parts and higher reliability. However, the cost of phased arrays has always been prohibitive - in the order of $1M per square meter. The cost of a phased array is largely impacted by the cost of the high frequency electronics at each element and the cost of packaging. Advances in IC integration will allow incorporating multiple elements such as low noise amplifier, power amplifier, phase shifters and up/down-conversion into one or two ICs. Even though the cost for large quantities of ICs (both Silicon and GaAs) has lowered, the high cost of IC packaging and the array backplane still make the use of phase arrays for radar applications costly. The focus of this research is on techniques that reduce the packaging and the backplane cost of large electronically steered arrays. These techniques are based on simplified signal distributions schemes, reduction of layers in the backplane and use of inexpensive materials. Two architectures designed based on these techniques, as well as a novel BGA active antenna package for dual polarized phased arrays are presented. The first architecture, called the series fed row-column architecture, focuses on the reduction of phase shifters and control signals used in the backplane of the array. The second architecture, called the parallel plate feed architecture, is based on a simplified scheme for distribution of the local oscillator signal. A prototype making use of each one of these architectures is presented. Analysis of advantages and disadvantages of each of these architectures is described. The necessity of cost reduction is a factor that can possibly impact the polarization performance of the antenna. This factor is a motivation to study and develop calibration techniques that reduce the cross-polarization of electronically steered phased arrays. Advances on Interleaving Sparse Arrays, a beam forming technique for polarization improvement/correction in phased arrays, are also presented.

No description available.

Root biomass accounts for about 25% of the carbon storage in mid-latitude forests. Estimation of root biomass for carbon cycling studies requires either direct measurement by excavation of root systems, or remote measurement using ground penetrating radar (GPR) or other geophysical methods. This study evaluated the ability of a 2-GHz multi-channel GPR system (IDS Hi-BrigHT) to detect and map white pine roots in managed forest near Turkey Point, southern Ontario. The GPR system employed eight dual-polarized antenna pairs separated at 10 cm intervals. GPR data were acquired as overlapping swaths (2 cm line spacing, 0.4 cm inline) across a 25-m2 test site (TP74-R) containing a juvenile white pine tree. Radargrams were processed to full 3-D radar volumes for time slicing and interpretation of root architecture and comparison with the excavated root network. Radargram signal processing was successful in suppressing airwave and other background noise and improved the detection of root diffractions on radargrams. The majority of roots were found in the rooting zone at a depth of 5-40 cm. Roots as small as 0.5 cm were detected with the 2-GHz frequency, but many roots <1.5 cm diameter could not be detected as continuous root structures. Root detection was strongly dependent on root orientation; large, coarse roots (>3-5 cm) were imaged as continuous root segments when oriented perpendicular to GPR profiles. Roots intersecting GPR profiles at angles <30-45 degrees were either imaged incompletely or not detected on radargrams. The highest rate of root detection was achieved with horizontally polarized (HH) antennas (dipole axis parallel with the root structures). Isosurface root models constructed from the Hilbert-transformed radargrams allowed mapping of the 3-D dimensional root architecture for large (> 3-5 cm diameter) roots. Isosurface models provide a means for estimating the coarse root volume for large roots and could be employed in future work to monitor temporal changes in root biomass by repeat survey at the same measurement site. Radargram signal processing was successful in suppressing airwave and other background noise and improved the detection of root diffractions on radargrams. The majority of roots were found in the rooting zone at a depth of 5-40 cm. Roots as small as 0.5 cm were detected with the 2-GHz frequency, but many roots <1.5 cm diameter could not be detected as continuous root structures. Many roots were not detected due to dependence of root reflection amplitude on root orientation. Roots oriented at >30-45 degrees to the survey swaths were imaged incompletely or not detected. Most large coarse roots (>5 cm diameter) were mapped as continuous structures when the root orientation was either parallel to, or perpendicular to the GPR transects. The highest rate of root detection was achieved with the horizontally polarized (HH) antennas, with the dipole axis perpendicular to the root structures. Isosurface root models constructed from the Hilbert-transformed radargrams allowed mapping of the 3-D dimensional root architecture for large (> 3-5 cm diameter) roots. The isosurface models provide a means for estimating the coarse volume and belowground biomass but further work is required to improve 3-D image resolution to allow detection of the entire root network. The method could be employed to measure the temporal changes in root biomass by conducting repeat surveys at the same measurement site. Radargram signal processing was successful in suppressing airwave and other background noise and improved the detection of root diffractions on radargrams. The majority of roots were found above a depth of 40 cm with the root zone being detected at a depth of10-15 cm. Roots as small as 0.5 cm were detected with the 2-GHz frequency, but many roots <1.5 cm diameter could not be detected as continuous root structures. Many roots were not detected due to dependence of root reflection amplitude on root orientation. Roots oriented at >30-45 degrees to the survey swaths were imaged incompletely or not detected. Most large coarse roots (>5 cm diameter) were mapped as continuous structures when the root orientation was either parallel to, or perpendicular to the GPR transects. The highest rate of root detection was achieved with the horizontally polarized (HH) antennas, with the dipole axis perpendicular to the root structures. Isosurface root models constructed from the Hilbert-transformed radargrams allowed mapping of the 3-D dimensional root architecture for large (> 3-5 cm diameter) roots. The isosurface models provide a means for estimating the coarse volume and belowground biomass but further work is required to improve 3-D image resolution to allow detection of the entire root network. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Forests play an important role in the global carbon cycle by removing carbon from the Earth’s atmosphere and storing it in tree tissues as biomass. Estimation of the amount of biomass and carbon stored in forests is critical to predictive climate change models, and increasingly employs remote sensing methods to detect both the above ground biomass (e.g. leaves, tree branches) and the belowground carbon in the tree root system. Measurement of the belowground biomass is most difficult, as it cannot be directly observed without destructive excavation of the tree root system. This study investigated the application of new technology, multi-channel ground penetrating radar (GPR), for mapping tree root systems. The GPR system (IDS Hi-BrigHT) employs ‘swath mapping’ using high frequency pulsed radio waves and multiple transmitting and receiving antennas to produce detailed maps of roots structure. The GPR capabilities were evaluated at a test site at the Turkey Point Flux Station (TPFS) in southern Ontario. The root system of a juvenile white pine tree (20-30 cm diameter) was swath mapped over a 25-m2 area with a line spacing of 2 cm. The GPR data were processed to produce a 3-dimensional radar volume, which can be ‘sliced’ in various orientations to reveal the root structure. The time slice maps show that roots as small as 1-cm can be detected and roots larger than 3 cm in diameter can be mapped as continuous root segments.

Ce travail porte sur la conception de réseaux large bande à double polarisation basées sur des antennes spirales d'Archimède. Ces antennes sont connues pour avoir une bande passante très large. Mais, dans un réseau, la bande passante est diminuée du fait de l'apparition de lobes de réseaux. Pour que le réseau fonctionne à double polarisation, il est nécessaire d'utiliser des éléments de polarisations opposées, ce qui accroit encore la distance entre les éléments possédant la même polarisation. Ceci fait ainsi apparaître les lobes de réseaux à des fréquences inférieures par rapport au cas à mono polarisation. Dans ce travail, une méthode analytique a été développée pour estimer la bande passante des réseaux d'antennes spirales. Cette méthode a montré que la bande passante maximale d'un réseau à distribution spatiale uniforme est d'environ une octave pour le cas à mono polarisation et inexistant pour le cas à double polarisation. Pendant la validation de la méthode d'estimation quelques résonances ont été observées. Des explications de ce phénomène sont présentées, ainsi que des possibles solutions. Pour élargir la bande passante du réseau, nous montrons qu'il est possible d'utiliser en même temps les deux tendances actuelles de conception de réseaux d'antennes large bande. En utilisant deux techniques issues de ces deux tendances, nous avons pu réaliser un réseau présentant une bande passante de 6:1. Des perspectives sont aussi présentées. / This work focuses on the design of wideband dual polarized arrays using spiral antennas. These antennas are known for having wideband properties. But, due to the presence of the grating lobes, the bandwidth is decreased when using an array instead of a single antenna. In order to obtain a dual polarized array, it is needed to use elements of opposite polarization, which creates great distances between same polarization elements, meaning an earlier presence of the grating lobes. In this work, an analytic method was developed to estimate the bandwidth of the spiral arrays. This method showed that the maximum bandwidth of uniform spiral arrays is about an octave, for the mono-polarized case, and nonexistent for the dual polarized case. Working on the validation of the method, some resonances were observed. Explanations are presented, as well as possible solutions. Trying to expand the bandwidth of the array, it was found that it is possible and suitable to use at the same time the two current design paradigms for wideband arrays. Using this idea, a 6:1 bandwidth concentric rings array using connected spirals was achieved. Perspectives are also presented.

This paper deals with sinuous broadband antenna, witch operating frequency 1 to 6 GHz. The antenna parameters, which change their physical dimension were shown in this paper. Antenna structure is planar and feeding network line have to be planar too. There are different ways to describe and construct from unbalanced to balanced line by baluns. There are also design impedance transform to match antenna in this paper. The simulation and measured results are showen the antenna has wideband character.

The desire to counter multipath effects and improve communication links between mobile wireless systems in dense environment has led to much research in implementing antenna diversity. Space diversity, utilizing two or more antennas separated several wavelengths from one another, is one of the most popular method to achieve this operation. Meanwhile, polarization diversity, utilizing two orthogonal polarizations, has become more attractive in reducing cost and size of antenna systems. Polarization diversity is achieved using two orthogonal feeds to excite the two orthogonal polarization planes of the antenna. The challenge associated with designing dual polarized antennas is the need to reduce isolation between the feed and cross polarization level while maintaining a high efficiency. While a number of studies are successful in realizing polarization diversity, their antenna structure typically present more complex structures involving multiple layers. This thesis presents a novel method to implement polarization diversity on a miniature antenna using a simple planar structure. The antenna structure uses two crossed slots further miniaturized using a method derived from a recent study on miniaturized spiral slot antenna. At an operating frequency of ~ 1 GHz, the antenna is capable of achieving efficiency greater than 90% with a size as small as 0.08 .? x 0.08? The dual polarization operation is achieved by exciting the magnetic currents of the crossed slots with two orthogonal coplanar waveguide feeds. Simulation results of the proposed antenna yield an isolation > 15 dB with cross polarization levels > 10 dB. Theantenna structure was designed using CST Microwave Studio and the simulations were performed using IE3D simulation software.

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