This thesis presents design, fabrication and testing of a number of multi-frequency band microstrip-fed re-configurable microstrip patch antennas. All re-configurable antennas are designed to change from one resonance frequency to another by an electronic control of RF MEMS switches, one at a time. Besides a fixed size slot on the patch, switches are placed in insets for satisfying better input match at each resonance frequency individually. Also some switches are placed into the slot for adding another resonance frequency to change the effective slot-length like effective inset length changing.To actuate the RF MEMS switches in the configured way, DC-stubs are also designed to apply required potential difference between switch ports and the carrier. These stubs exhibit RF-open at switch side to prevent any RF leakage, and DCground on the other side. That RF short-to-open conversion is accomplished together with feed structure / with a taper depending on the feed network selected. All devices introduced here are built by Microwave Research Group in Electrical and Electronics Department, Middle East Technical University. Depending on the sensitivity of structure, some devices are built by RF MEMS group in Microelectronic Production Plant for MEMS (METU &amp / #8211 / MET) during the thesis study. Therefore this study is the continuation of the first national work on fabrication of RF MEMS devices.

This thesis provides novel contribution to the field of body-centric wireless communications (BCWC) with the development of a measurement methodology for wearable antenna characterisation on the human body, the implementation of fully-textile wearable antennas and the on-body channel modelling considering different antenna types and user's dynamic effects. More specifically, a measurement methodology is developed for characterising wearable antennas on different locations of the human body. A cylindrical near-field (CNF) technique is employed, which facilitates wearable antenna measurements on a full-body solid anthropomorphic mannequin (SAM) phantom. This technique allows the fast extraction of the full spherical radiation pattern and the corresponding radiation efficiency, which is an important parameter for optimising wearable system design. It appears as a cost- effective and easy to implement solution that does not require expensive positioning systems to rotate the phantom, in contrast to conventional roll-over-azimuth far-field systems. Furthermore, a flexible fully-textile wearable antenna is designed, fabricated and measured at 2.4 GHz that can be easily integrated in smart clothing. It supports surface wave propagation and exhibits an omni-directional radiation pattern that makes it suitable for on-body communications. It is based on a multilayer low-profile higher-mode patch antenna (HMMPA) design with embroidered shorting vias. Emphasis is given to the fabrication process of the textile vias with conductive sewing thread that play an important role in generating the optimal mode for on-body radiation. The radiation pattern shape of the proposed fully-textile antenna was found to be similar to a copper rigid antenna, exhibiting a high on-body radiation efficiency of 50 %. The potential of the embroidery technique for creating wearable antennas is also demonstrated with the fabrication of a circularly polarised spiral antenna that achieves a broadband performance from 0.9-3 GHz, which is suitable for off-body communications. By testing the textile spiral antenna on the SAM phantom, the antenna-body interaction is examined in a wide frequency range. Finally, a statistical characterisation of on-body communication channels is undertaken both with EM simulations and channel measurements including user's dynamic movement (walking and running). By using antenna types of different polarisation, the on-body channels are examined for different propagation conditions. Four on-body channels are examined with the one part fixed on the waist of the human body while the other part located on the chest, back, wrist and foot. Channel path gain is derived, while large-scale and small-scale fading are modelled by best-fit statistical distributions.

Wearable technology has attracted global attention in the last decade and the market is experiencing an unprecedented growth. Wearable devices are designed to be low-profile, light-weight and integrated seamlessly into daily life. Comfort is one of the most important requirements for wearable devices. Fabric based antennas are soft, flexible and can be integrated into clothing. State of the art textile manufacturing techniques such as embroidery, combined with advanced conductive textile materials can be used to fabricate flexible fabric based on-body antennas. In this thesis, the feasibility of using computerised embroidery in the fabrication of wearable, flexible yet functional fabric based antennas have been examined. The fabric based antennas are embroidered using conductive threads. The most suitable materials for fabricating embroidered antennas have been identified. The embroidered fabric based antenna systems including transmission lines and low-profile detachable connectors have been fabricated and their RF performances have been tested. The optimal manufacturing parameters related to embroidery such as stitch direction, spacing and length have been examined. The repeatability of embroidered antennas, cost estimation, and complexity of manufacturing process have been clearly presented. The results can be used to inform and provide guidelines for the development of representative products that can be mass manufactured. A new simulation approach has been introduced to analyse the anisotropic properties of embroidered conductive threads. Simulations and measurements indicate that the performances of embroidered antennas are affected by the anisotropic surface current due to the embroidered stitches. Exploiting the current direction, a novel non-uniform meshed patch antenna has been designed. Representative results show that the non-uniform meshed structure can significantly reduce more than 75% of the usage of conductive materials for the microstrip antennas with negligible effect on the antenna performance.

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.

In this dissertation, a Method of Moments (MoM) Volume Integral Equation (VIE)-based modeling approach suitable for a patch or slot antenna on a thin finite dielectric substrate is developed and validated. Two new key features of this method are the use of proper dielectric basis functions and proper VIE conditioning, close to the metal surface, where the surface boundary condition of the zero tangential-component must be extended into adjacent tetrahedra. The extended boundary condition is the exact result for the piecewise-constant dielectric basis functions. The latter operation allows one to achieve a good accuracy with one layer of tetrahedra for a thin dielectric substrate and thereby greatly reduces computational cost. The use of low-order basis functions also implies the use of low-order integration schemes and faster filling of the impedance matrix. For some common patch/slot antennas, the VIE-based modeling approach is found to give an error of about 1% or less in the resonant frequency for one-layer tetrahedral meshes with a relatively small number of unknowns. This error is obtained by comparison with fine finite- element method (FEM) simulations, or with measurements, or with the analytical mode matching approach. Hence it is competitive with both the method of moments surface integral equation approach and with the FEM approach for the printed antennas on thin dielectric substrates. Along with the MoM development, the dissertation also presents the models and design procedures for a number of practical antenna configurations. They in particular include: i. a compact linearly polarized broadband planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA); ii. a circularly polarized turnstile bowtie antenna. Both the antennas are designed to operate in the low UHF band and used for indoor positioning/indoor geolocation.

Wideband and dual band stacked microstrip patch antennas are investigated for the new wideband and dual band applications in the area of telecommunications. In this thesis, aperture-coupled stacked patch antennas are used to increase the bandwidth of the microstrip patch antenna. By this technique, antennas with 51% bandwidth at 6.1 GHz and 43% bandwidth at 8 GHz satisfying S11&lt / -15 dB are designed, manufactured and measured. A dual-band aperture coupled stacked microstrip patch antenna operating at 1.8 GHz with 3.8% bandwidth and at 2.4 GHz with 1.6% bandwidth is designed, produced and measured for mobile phone and WLAN applications. In addition, an aperture coupled stacked microstrip patch antenna which operates at PCS frequencies in 1.7-1.95 GHz band is designed. Dual and circularly polarized stacked aperture coupled microstrip patch antennas are also investigated. A triple band dual polarized aperture coupled stacked microstrip patch antenna is designed to operate at 900 MHz, at 1.21 GHZ and at 2.15 GHz. Mutual coupling between aperture coupled stacked microstrip patch antennas are examined and compared with the coupling of aperture coupled microstrip patch antennas

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:54:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RanilsonCF_TESE.pdf: 2036029 bytes, checksum: f7ba8fa789f5420decc75fb98f14f807 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-07-27 / The main purpose of this work was the development of ceramic dielectric substrates of bismuth niobate (BiNbO4) doped with vanadium pentoxide (V2O5), with high permittivity, used in the construction of microstrip patch antennas with applications in wireless communications systems. The high electrical permittivity of the ceramic substrate provided a reduction of the antenna dimensions. The numerical results obtained in the simulations and the measurements performed with the microstrip patch antennas showed good agreement. These antennas can be used in wireless communication systems in various frequency bands. Results were satisfactory for antennas operating at frequencies in the S band, in the range between 2.5 GHz and 3.0 GHz. / O objetivo principal deste trabalho foi o desenvolvimento de substratos diel?tricos cer?micos de niobato de bismuto (BiNbO4) dopados com pent?xido de van?dio (V2O5), com alta permissividade el?trica, usados na constru??o de antenas patch de microfita com aplica??es em sistemas de comunica??es sem fio. A alta permissividade el?trica do substrato cer?mico proporcionou uma redu??o no tamanho das antenas. Os resultados num?ricos obtidos nas simula??es e medi??es realizadas com as antenas patch de microfita mostraram boa concord?ncia. Essas antenas podem ser usadas em sistemas de comunica??es sem fio em v?rias faixas de freq??ncias. Foram obtidos resultados satisfat?rios em antenas com freq??ncias de opera??o na banda S, na faixa compreendida entre 2,5 GHz e 3,0 GHz.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:55:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LincolnMA.pdf: 1667449 bytes, checksum: b8113389f31903ba22cf94dbc22192c1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-08-13 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico / This work presents a theoretical and numerical analysis of structures using frequency selective surfaces applied on patch antennas. The FDTD method is used to determine the time domain reflected fields. Applications of frequency selective surfaces and patch antennas cover a wide area of telecommunications, especially mobile communications, filters and WB antennas. scattering parameters are obteained from Fourier Transformer of transmited and reflected fields in time domain. The PML are used as absorbing boundary condition, allowing the determination of the fields with a small interference of reflections from discretized limit space. Rectangular patches are considered on dielectric layer and fed by microstrip line. Frequency selective surfaces with periodic and quasi-periodic structures are analyzed on both sides of antenna. A literature review of the use of frequency selective surfaces in patch antennas are also performed. Numerical results are also compared with measured results for return loss of analyzed structures. It is also presented suggestions of continuity to this work / Este trabalho apresenta uma an?lise te?rica e num?rica de estruturas que utilizam superf?cies seletivas de frequ?ncia aplicadas a antenas do tipo patch. Para isso, ? utilizado o m?todo das diferen?as finitas no dom?nio do tempo (FDTD) visando determinar os campos refletidos a partir de uma onda plana incidente no dom?nio do tempo. As aplica??es das superf?cies seletivas de freq??ncia e antenas patch abrangem uma grande ?rea das Telecomunica??es, principalmente em comunica??es m?veis e v?o desde filtros at? as antenas banda larga. Especificamente, a an?lise usa os campos transmitidos e refletidos obtidos no dom?nio do tempo, em conjunto com transformada de Fourier permitindo a obten??o dos par?metros de transmiss?o da antena. A condi??o de contorno absorvedora utilizada foi a de camada perfeitamente casada (PML), permitindo a determina??o num?rica dos campos com uma quantidade menor de interfer?ncias provenientes de reflex?es nos limites do espa?o discretizado. S?o considerados patches retangulares condutores sobre uma camada diel?trica e alimentados por linha de microfita. Foram analisadas superf?cies seletivas de frequ?ncia peri?dicas e quase peri?dicas tanto no plano de terra quanto no plano do pr?prio patch. ? realizada uma revis?o bibliogr?fica a respeito da utiliza??o de superf?cies seletivas de frequ?ncia em antenas patch. Tamb?m s?o comparados resultados num?ricos e medidos para a perda de retorno das estruturas analisadas. S?o apresentadas, ainda, sugest?es de continuidade para este trabalho