<p>The demand of small size electronic systems has been increasing for several decades. The physical size of systems is reduced due to advancements in integrated circuits. With reduction in size of electronic systems, there is also an increasing demand of small and low cost antennas. Patch antennas are one of the most attractive antennas for integrated RF front end systems due to their compatibility with microwave integrated circuits. To fulfil the demand of integrated RF front end systems, a design of microstrip patch antenna with optimum performance at 70GHz is investigated. The procedure could be extended to design other planar antennas that act in a similar way.</p><p>In this work, three different design methods to design patch antennas for applications at 70GHz are investigated that include use of analytical models, numerical optimization, and numerical variation of dimensions. Analytical models provide a basic understanding of the operation of a patch antenna and they also provide approximate dimensions of a patch antenna for a targeted frequency without using numerical simulations. However, as the operating frequencies of RF systems reach mm-wave frequencies, we expect that the accuracy of analytical models become less accurate. For example, the excitation of substrate modes and effect of ground size are not predicted in simple analytical models.</p><p>Due to these expected limitations of the analytical design methods, the accuracy of these models is investigated by numerical electromagnetic field simulations. In this work, CST Microwave Studio Transient Solver is used for that purpose. In order to make sure that the appropriate settings of the solver are applied, the simulation settings such as mesh density, boundary conditions and the port dimensions are investigated. The simulation settings may affect computation time and convergence of the results. Here, in this work, the accuracy of the simulator for a specific design of inset feed rectangular patch antenna is verified. The patch dimensions obtained from analytical calculations are optimized at 70GHz by using the optimizer of the transient solver. The patch dimensions obtained from optimizer are verified by varying the patch dimensions in equidistant steps around the found result of the optimizer.</p><p>In a rectangular microstrip patch antenna design, the use of a width of 1.5 times the length is an approximate rule of thumb [1] for low dielectric constant substrates. It is also investigated how the performance properties of a microstrip patch antenna are affected by varying the width to length ratio of the patch. There are occasions where a different ratio is required because of space limitations, or to change the input impedance. The patch designs having various width to length ratios were optimized with the feed location.</p><p>The analytically calculated dimensions provided good initial values of the rectangular patch antenna for further optimization using more accurate techniques. The design have been optimized at 70GHz for the investigated mesh density, boundary conditions and the port dimensions. The numerical variation of dimensions is found to be most reliable among the investigated design methods but it is more complicated with many parameters.</p>

The demand of small size electronic systems has been increasing for several decades. The physical size of systems is reduced due to advancements in integrated circuits. With reduction in size of electronic systems, there is also an increasing demand of small and low cost antennas. Patch antennas are one of the most attractive antennas for integrated RF front end systems due to their compatibility with microwave integrated circuits. To fulfil the demand of integrated RF front end systems, a design of microstrip patch antenna with optimum performance at 70GHz is investigated. The procedure could be extended to design other planar antennas that act in a similar way. In this work, three different design methods to design patch antennas for applications at 70GHz are investigated that include use of analytical models, numerical optimization, and numerical variation of dimensions. Analytical models provide a basic understanding of the operation of a patch antenna and they also provide approximate dimensions of a patch antenna for a targeted frequency without using numerical simulations. However, as the operating frequencies of RF systems reach mm-wave frequencies, we expect that the accuracy of analytical models become less accurate. For example, the excitation of substrate modes and effect of ground size are not predicted in simple analytical models. Due to these expected limitations of the analytical design methods, the accuracy of these models is investigated by numerical electromagnetic field simulations. In this work, CST Microwave Studio Transient Solver is used for that purpose. In order to make sure that the appropriate settings of the solver are applied, the simulation settings such as mesh density, boundary conditions and the port dimensions are investigated. The simulation settings may affect computation time and convergence of the results. Here, in this work, the accuracy of the simulator for a specific design of inset feed rectangular patch antenna is verified. The patch dimensions obtained from analytical calculations are optimized at 70GHz by using the optimizer of the transient solver. The patch dimensions obtained from optimizer are verified by varying the patch dimensions in equidistant steps around the found result of the optimizer. In a rectangular microstrip patch antenna design, the use of a width of 1.5 times the length is an approximate rule of thumb [1] for low dielectric constant substrates. It is also investigated how the performance properties of a microstrip patch antenna are affected by varying the width to length ratio of the patch. There are occasions where a different ratio is required because of space limitations, or to change the input impedance. The patch designs having various width to length ratios were optimized with the feed location. The analytically calculated dimensions provided good initial values of the rectangular patch antenna for further optimization using more accurate techniques. The design have been optimized at 70GHz for the investigated mesh density, boundary conditions and the port dimensions. The numerical variation of dimensions is found to be most reliable among the investigated design methods but it is more complicated with many parameters.

A compact multiband antennas for Long Term Evolution (LTE) applications is a challenge. Both the frequencies of new wireless technologies and new frequency bands must be covered. The lower end of the 0.7- 3.5 GHz band is especially difficult to handle for miniaturized terminal devices. A single layer, line-feed rectangular microstrip patch antenna is small enough for the LTE handsets. Our project proposes size reduction and bandwidth enhancement through adapted feeding techniques. By means of slits the return loss and gain can be optimized with the aid of HFSS (High Frequency Structure Simulator).

No / In this study, a planar 4×4 phased array including modified E-shaped radiation elements is designed and fabricated to be incorporated in a Relay Station (RS) for realizing the communication with the super-ordinate Base Station. The proposed array provides 12.4% bandwidth at the 3.5GHz frequency band and gain of 21.2dB. Moreover a beamforming module is designed and simulated, aimed to be connected to the proposed array and realizing beamforming applications. This module provides 650 MHz bandwidth around 3.5GHz frequency band and is used for proper power division and controlling the amplitude/phase of the excitation currents.

No / In this study, a planar 4×4 phased array including modified E-shaped radiation elements is designed and fabricated to be incorporated in a Relay Station (RS) for realizing the communication with the super-ordinate Base Station. The proposed array provides 12.4% bandwidth at the 3.5GHz frequency band and gain of 21.2dB. Moreover a beamforming module is designed and simulated, aimed to be connected to the proposed array and realizing beamforming applications. This module provides 650 MHz bandwidth around 3.5GHz frequency band and is used for proper power division and controlling the amplitude/phase of the excitation currents.

In this thesis, a wideband dual polarized microstrip antenna is designed, manufactured and measured. Slot coupled patch antenna structure is considered in order to achieve the wideband characteristic. Although rectangular shaped slot coupled patch antennas are widely used in most of the applications, their utilization in dual polarized antenna structures is not feasible due to space limitations regarding the positioning of two separate coupling slots for each polarization. For a rectangular slot, the parameter that affects the amount of coupling is the slot length. On the other hand when a H-shaped slot is considered, both the length of the center arm and the length of the side legs determine the coupling efficiency. This flexibility about the optimization parameters of the H-shaped slot makes it possible to position the two coupling slots within the boundaries of the patch antenna. Therefore, H-shaped slot coupled patch antennas are studied in this thesis. In order to investigate the effects of slot and antenna dimensions on the radiation characteristics of the antenna, a parametric study is performed by analyzing the antenna structure with a planar electromagnetic field simulation software (Ansoft Designer). By the help of the experience gained through this parametric study, a dual polarized patch antenna that can be used at the base station of a cellular system (DCS: 1710&ndash / 1880 MHz) is designed. Before manufacturing the antenna, dimensions of the antenna are re-tuned by considering a finite sized ground plane in the simulations. Finally, the antenna is manufactured and measured. An acceptable agreement is obtained between the measurement and the simulation results.

The project is aimed to design an antenna array for an aircraft positioning system at an airport. The system operates at frequencies 1030 MHz and 1090 MHz. The antenna is also used by the DME/TACAN system operating in frequency range from 1025 MHz to 1150 MHz. The required impedance bandwidth of the antenna array is 125 MHz, i.ee from 1025 MHz to 1150 MHz. The theoretical part of the thesis analyses properties of different patch antennas and discusses the possibility of extending the impedance bandwidth. The practical part is focused on the development of the numerical model of the broadband stacked patch antennas. In addition, properties of the 3-element and 4-element antenna array are compared. At the end, results of the thesis are summarized.

Radiation Efficiency improvement of miniaturized microstrip antenna is studied in this thesis. It is shown that, the loss reduction in miniaturized Microstrip Antenna can be achieved through two possible ways. The first is by modifying the materials used for building the antenna, and the second method is by increasing the radiation conductance of the antenna. Material modification at nano/micro scale by replacing conductors with Metallo-Dielectric one dimensional medium for applications in loss reduction is investigated first. It is shown by the Transfer Matrix Method and using simulations that, for a one dimensional medium replacing very thin conductors (less than skin depth) by laminated multilayered conductors reduce losses. However, the improvement does not exceed the case of single conductor which is a few times thicker than skin depth. Secondly, the efficiency improvement of a small H-Shaped patch antenna by using closely coupled stacked parasitic resonators is studied. It is shown that significant improvement in efficiency can be achieved with minimal changes in the foot print, radiation pattern and cross polarization levels of the antenna. The effect of the overall thickness and superstrate dielectric constant on the efficiency improvement is studied parametrically. It is shown that by using 5 radiating resonators and appropriate choice of inter-conductor dielectric constant, for a small increase in thickness of 0.127mm (5mil), the radiation efficiency can be increased from 2.34% to 6.3%. This efficiency improvement can be made very significant from 2.4% to 33%, by increasing the height to 1.27mm (50mil). These translate to a gain improvement of 4dB and 13dB, respectively. This technique is also demonstrated experimentally in H-Shaped antennas with two different levels of miniaturizations. / October 2015

This thesis work presents the feasibility of integrating meshed patch antennas directly onto the solar cell assembly to save valuable surface real estate of a small satellite. The solar cell cover glass is used as the substrate for the patch antenna. The antenna topology is chosen to be a meshed patch so that it is transparent to light to ensure the proper operation of solar cells. We found that although there is a compromise between the antenna efficiency and see-through percentage, one is able to optimize the antenna by carefully designing the mesh. To verify the design and integration, a meshed antenna operating at around 2.3 GHz is printed with conductive ink on a plastic substrate and placed on-top of solar cells attached to an aluminum ground plane. The printed solar cell antenna is measured with Nearfield Systems Inc. spherical near-field range and the measurements agree well with the design.

This thesis work presents a new harmonic suppression technique for microstrip patch antennas. Harmonic suppression in active integrated antennas is known as an effective method to improve the efficiency of amplifiers in transmitter side. In the proposed design, the antenna works as the radiating element and, at the same time, as the tuning load for the amplifier circuit that is directly matched to the antenna. The proposed active antenna architecture is easy to fabricate and is symmetric, so it can be conveniently mass-produced and designed to have circular polarization, which is preferred in many applications such as satellite communications. The antenna simulations were performed using Ansoft High Frequency System Simulator (HFSS) and all amplifier design steps were simulated by Advanced Design System (ADS). The final prototypes of the linearly polarized active integrated antenna and the circularly polarized active integrated antenna were fabricated using a circuit board milling machine. The antenna radiation pattern was measured inside Utah State University's anechoic chamber and the results were satisfactory. Power measurements for the amplifiers' performance were carried out inside the chamber and calculated by using the Friis transmission equation. It is seen that a significant improvement in the efficiency is achieved compared to the reference antenna without harmonic suppression. Based on the success in the single element active antenna design, the thesis also presents a feasibility of applying the active integrated antenna in array configuration, in particular, in scanning array design to yield a low-profile, low-cost alternative to the parabolic antenna transmitter of satellite communication systems.