Research on multiple antenna systems has been a hot topic in recent years due to the demands for higher transmission rate and more reliable link in rich scattering environment in wireless communications. Using multiple antennas at both the transmitter side and the receiver side increases the channel capacity without additional frequency spectrum and transmitted power. However, due to the limited space at the size-limited terminal devices, the most critical problem in designing multiple antennas is the severe mutual coupling among them. The aim of this thesis is to provide compact, decoupled and efficient multiple antenna designs for terminal devices. At the same time, we propose a simple and cost effective method in multiple antenna measurement. All these efforts contribute to the development of terminal devices for the fourth generation wireless communication. The background and theory of multiple antenna systems are introduced first, in which three operating schemes of multiple antenna systems are discussed. Critical factors influencing the performance of multiple antenna systems are also analyzed in details. To design efficient multiple antenna systems in compact terminals, several decoupling methods, including defected ground plane, current localization, orthogonal polarization and decoupling networks, are proposed. The working mechanism and design procedure of each method are introduced, and their effectiveness is compared. Those methods can be applied to most of the terminal antennas, reducing the mutual coupling by at least 6dB. In some special cases, especially for low frequency bands below 1GHz, the chassis of the device itself radiates like an antenna, which complicates the antenna decoupling. Thus, we extend the general decoupling methods to the cases when the chassis is excited. Based on the characteristic mode analysis, three different solutions are provided, i.e., optimizing antenna locations, localizing antenna currents and creating orthogonal modes. These methods are applied to mobile phones, providing a more reliable link and a higher transmission rate, which are evaluated by diversity gain and channel capacity, respectively. In order to measure the performance of multiple antenna systems, it is necessary to obtain the correlation coefficients. However, the traditional measurement technique, which requires the phase and polarization information of the radiation patterns, is very expensive and time consuming. In this thesis, a more practical and convenient method is proposed. Fairly good accuracy is achieved when it is applied to various kinds of antennas. To design a compact and efficient multiple antenna system, besides the reduction of mutual coupling, the performance of each single antenna is also important. The techniques for antenna reconfiguration are demonstrated. Frequency and pattern reconfigurable antennas are constructed, providing more flexibility to multiple antenna systems. / QC 20120604

In this thesis, two-dimensional (2-D) direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation problem is considered. Usually, DOA estimation is considered in one dimension assuming a fixed elevation angle. While this assumption simplifies the problem, both the azimuth and elevation angles, namely, the 2-D DOA estimates are required in practical scenarios. In this thesis, planar array structures are considered for 2-D DOA estimation. In this context, V-shaped arrays are discussed and some of the important features of these arrays are outlined. A new method for the design of V-shaped arrays is presented for both isotropic and directional beam patterns. The design procedure is simple and can be applied for both uniform and nonuniform V-shaped sensor arrays. Closed form expressions are presented for the V-angle in order to obtain isotropic angle performance. While circular arrays have the isotropic characteristics, V-shaped arrays present certain advantages due to their large aperture for the same number of sensors and inter-sensor distance. The comparison of circular and V-shaped arrays is done by considering the azimuth and elevation Cramer-Rao Bounds (CRB). It is shown that V-shaped and circular arrays have similar characteristics for the sensor position errors while the uniform isotropic (UI) V-array performs better when there is mutual coupling and the sources are correlated. In the literature, there are several techniques for 2-D DOA estimation. Usually, fast algorithms are desired for this purpose since a search in two dimensions is a costly process. These algorithms have a major problem, namely, the pairing of the azimuth-elevation couples for multiple sources. In this thesis, a new fast and effective technique for this purpose is proposed. In this technique, a virtual array output is generated such that when the ESPRIT algorithm is used, the eigenvalues of the rotational transformation matrix have the 2-D angle information in both magnitude and phase. This idea is applied in different scenarios and three methods are presented for these cases. In one case, given an arbitrary array structure, array interpolation is used to generate the appropriate virtual arrays. When the antenna mutual coupling is taken into account, a special type of array structure, such as circular, should be used in order to apply the array interpolation. In general, the array mutual coupling matrix (MCM) should have a symmetric Toeplitz form. It is shown that the 2-D DOA performance of the proposed method approaches to the CRB by using minimum number of antennas in case of mutual coupling. This method does not require the estimation of the mutual coupling coefficients. While this technique is effective, it has problems especially when the number of sources increases. In order to improve the performance, MCM is estimated in the third approach. This new approach performs better, but it cannot be used satisfactorily in case of multipath signals. In this thesis, the proposed idea for fast 2-D DOA estimation is further developed in order to solve the problem when mutual coupling and multipath signals jointly exist. In this case, real arrays with some auxiliary sensors are used to generate a structured mutual coupling matrix. It is shown that the problem can be effectively solved when the array structure has a special form. Specifically, parallel uniform linear arrays (PULA) are employed for this purpose. When auxiliary sensors are used, a symmetric banded Toeplitz MCM is obtained for the PULA. This allows the application of spatial smoothing and ESPRIT algorithm for 2-D DOA estimation. The proposed algorithm uses triplets and presents closed form paired 2-D DOA estimates in case of unknown mutual coupling and multipath signals. Several simulations are done and it is shown that the proposed array structure and the method effectively solve the problem.

Series-fed printed slot antenna arrays excited by microstrip lines are low profile, easy to manufacture, low cost structures that found use in applications that doesn&rsquo / t require high power levels with having advantage of easy integration with microwave front-end circuitry. In this thesis, design and analysis of microstrip line fed slot antenna arrays are investigated. First an equivalent circuit model that ignores mutual coupling effects between slots is studied. A 6-element array is designed by using this equivalent circuit model. From the measurement and electromagnetic simulation results of this array, it is concluded that mutual coupling effects should be considered in order to achieve a successful design that meets the design specifications related to the main beam direction and sidelobe levels of the antenna. Next, an improved equivalent circuit model proposed for stripline fed slot antenna arrays is studied. It is observed that, the mutual coupling effects are incorporated into the equivalent model through the utilization of active impedance concept. Finally, the design equations proposed in the improved equivalent circuit model are derived for the microstrip line fed slot antenna array structure. To demonstrate the validity and the accuracy of the derived design equations, results obtained by the proposed analysis method are compared with simulation and measurement results. It is concluded that the proposed method successfully predicts the radiation pattern of the array by including the mutual coupling effects.

The main objective of this research is to design, model and implement several antenna geometries using electromagnetic band gap (EBG) material and a defected ground plane. Several antenna applications are addressed with the aim of improving performance, particularly the mutual coupling between the elements. The EBG structures have the unique capability to prevent or assist the propagation of electromagnetic waves in a specific band of frequencies, and have been incorporated here in antenna structures to improve patterns and reduce mutual coupling in multielement arrays. A neutralization technique and defected ground plane structures have also been investigated as alternative approaches, and may be more practical in real applications. A new Uni-planar Compact EBG (UC-EBG) formed from a compact unit cell was presented, giving a stop band in the 2.4 GHz WLAN range. Dual band forms of the neutralization and defected ground plane techniques have also been developed and measured. The recorded results for all antenna configurations show good improvement in terms of the mutual coupling effect. The MIMO antenna performance with EBG, neutralization and defected ground of several wireless communication applications were analysed and evaluated. The correlation coefficient, total active reflection coefficient (TARC), channel capacity and capacity loss of the array antenna were computed and the results compared to measurements with good agreement. In addition, a computational method combining Genetic Algorithm (GA) with surface meshing code for the analysis of a 2×2 antenna arrays on EBG was developed. Here the impedance matrix resulting from the meshing analysis is manipulated by the GA process in order to find the optimal antenna and EBG operated at 2.4 GHz with the goal of targeting a specific fitness function. Furthermore, an investigation of GA on 2×2 printed slot on DGS was also done.

Un radar MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) est un système radar qui utilise plusieurs antennes émettrices et réceptrices, dans lequel les formes d'ondes émises peuvent être indépendantes. Par rapport aux radars utilisant des antennes en réseaux phasés, les radars MIMO offrent davantage de degrés de liberté, ce qui permet d'améliorer les performances du système en termes de détection et localisation. La technique MIMO offre également la possibilité de synthétiser un diagramme de rayonnement désiré par une définition judicieuse des formes d'ondes émises. Dans la mesure où les paramètres des cibles (positions, vitesses, directions d'arrivée (DOA), ...) sont estimés à partir des échos des signaux émis, on comprend aisément que les formes d'ondes employées jouent un rôle clé dans les performances du système. Cette thèse porte sur l'estimation de DOA et sur la conception des formes d'ondes pour un radar MIMO. Le cadre d'étude est restreint au cas où les antennes sont colocalisées et les cibles sont immobiles et supposées ponctuelles. La plupart des travaux antérieurs (au commencement de la thèse) portaient sur le radar MIMO bande étroite et faisaient l'hypothèse d'émetteurs-récepteurs idéaux et indépendants. Cette thèse contribue à élargir le cadre d'étude en s'intéressant d'une part au passage en large bande et d'autre part à la modélisation et à la prise en compte de la non-indépendance des émetteurs-récepteurs et autres imperfections. Dans la mesure où le recours à des signaux large bande est nécessaire lorsqu'une résolution importante est souhaitée, nous nous sommes attachés dans cette thèse à adapter le modèle d'un système de radar MIMO au cas large bande et à proposer de nouvelles techniques visant à améliorer les performances d'estimation de DOA dans le cas de signaux large bande. Cette thèse analyse également l'influence de conditions non idéales comme l'impact des phénomènes de couplage électromagnétique sur les diagrammes de rayonnement dans un réseau d'antennes. Cette étude est menée dans le cas bande étroite. En particulier, nous étudions l'influence du couplage direct entre les réseaux d'antennes d'émission et de réception (appelé « crosstalk ») sur les performances des techniques proposées. Nous établissons un modèle du signal permettant de prendre en compte ce phénomène et proposons une technique de réduction du « crosstalk » qui permet une estimation efficace des DOA des cibles. Nous montrons par ailleurs comment améliorer les performances d'estimation de DOA en présence de diagrammes de rayonnement incluant le couplage entre antennes. Le dernier apport principal de cette thèse est la conception et réalisation d'une plateforme expérimentale comportant une seule architecture d'émetteur-récepteur, qui permet de simuler un système MIMO utilisant des antennes colocalisées en appliquant le principe de superposition. Cette plateforme nous a permis d'évaluer les performances des techniques proposées dans des conditions plus réalistes / A Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) radar is a system employing multiple transmitters and receivers in which the waveforms to be transmitted can be totally independent. Compared to standard phased-array radar systems, MIMO radars offer more degrees of freedom which leads to improved angular resolution and parameter identifiability, and provides more flexibility for transmit beampattern design. The main issues of interest in the context of MIMO radar are the estimation of several target parameters (which include range, Doppler, and Direction-of-Arrival (DOA), among others). Since the information on the targets is obtained from the echoes of the transmitted signals, it is straightforward that the design of the waveforms plays an important role in the system accuracy. This document addresses the investigation of DOA estimation of non-moving targets and waveform design techniques for MIMO radar with colocated antennas. Although narrowband MIMO radars have been deeply studied in the literature, the existing DOA estimation techniques have been usually proposed and analyzed from a theoretical point of view, often assuming ideal conditions. This thesis analyzes existing signal processing algorithms and proposes new ones in order to improve the DOA estimation performance in the case of narrowband and wideband signals. The proposed techniques are studied under ideal and non-ideal conditions considering punctual targets. Additionally, we study the influence of mutual coupling on the performance of the proposed techniques and we establish a more realistic signal model which takes this phenomenon into account. We then show how to improve the DOA estimation performance in the presence of distorted radiation patterns and we propose a crosstalk reduction technique, which makes possible an efficient estimation of the target DOAs. Finally, we present an experimental platform for MIMO radar with colocated antennas which has been developed in order to evaluate the performance of the proposed techniques under more realistic conditions. The proposed platform, which employs only one transmitter and one receiver architectures, relies on the superposition principle to simulate a real MIMO system

Práce se zabývá buzením vyšších módů v kvádrových a válcových dielektrických rezonátorových anténách pro účely zvýšení zisku. Pomocí numerických simulací jsou studovány vlastnosti a limity anténních prvků. Je zkoumáná vzájemní vazba mezi dielektrickými rezonátorovými anténami pracujícími s vyššími vidy a na základě výsledků je možno usuzovat o vhodnosti těchto prvků k popužití v anténních řadách. V práci je popsán analytický model efektivní permitivity perforovaných dielektrik, který respektuje anizotropní povahu tohoto materiálu. Model je založen na Maxwell Garnettové aproximácií nehomogenních materiálů. Dále jsou studovány povrchové vlny na perforovaných substrátech a je ověřena použitelnost teoretického modelu i v tomto případě. Nakonec jsou studovány dielektrické rezonátorové antény vytvořené pomocí perforací v dielektrickém substrátu a je demonstrováno zhoršení určitých vlastností takových antén.

Wireless power transfer (WPT) systems are important in many areas, such as medical, communication, transportation, and consumer electronics. The underlying WPT system is comprised of a transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX). For biomedical applications, such systems can be implemented on rigid or flexible substrates and can be implanted or wearable. The efficiency of a WPT system is based on power transfer efficiency (PTE). Many WPT system optimization techniques have been explored to achieve the highest PTE possible. These are based on either a figure-of-merit (FOM) approach, quality factor (Q-factor) maximization, or by sweeping values for coil geometries. Four WPT systems for biomedical applications are implemented with inductive coupling. The thesis later presents an optimization technique for finding the maximum PTE of a range of frequencies and coil shapes through frequency, geometry and shape sweeping. Five optimized TX coil designs for different operating frequencies are fabricated for three shapes: square, hexagonal, and octagonal planar-spirals. The corresponding RX is implemented on polyimide tape with ink-jet-print (IJP) silver. At 80 MHz, the maximum measured PTE achieved is 2.781% at a 10 mm distance in the air for square planar-spiral coils.

The angle of arrival estimation of multiple sources plays a vital role in the field of array signal processing as MIMO systems can be employed at both the transmitter and the receiver end and the system capacity, reliability and throughput can be significantly increased by using array signal processing. Almost all applications require accurate direction of arrival (DOA) estimation to localize the sources of the signals. Another important parameter of localization systems is the array geometry and sensor design which can be application specific and is used to estimate the DOA. In this work, various array geometries and arrival estimation algorithms are studied and then a new scheme for multiple source estimation is proposed and evaluated based on the performance of subspace and non-subspace decomposition methods. The proposed scheme has shown to outperform the conventional Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) estimation and Bartlett estimation techniques. The new scheme has a better performance advantage at low and high signal to noise ratio values (SNRs). The research work also studies different array geometries for both single and multiple incident sources and proposes a geometry which is cost effective and efficient for 3, 4, and 5 antenna array elements. This research also considers the shape of the ground plane and its effects on the angle of arrival estimation and in addition it shows how the mutual couplings between the elements effect the overall estimation and how this error can be minimised by using a decoupling matrix. At the end, a novel miniaturised multi element reconfigurable antenna to represent the receiver base station is designed and tested. The antenna radiation patterns in the azimuth angle are almost omni-directional with linear polarisation. The antenna geometry is uniplanar printed logspiral with striplines feeding network and biased components to improve the impedance bandwidth. The antenna provides the benefit of small size, and re-configurability and is very well suited for the asset tracking applications.

The main objective of this research is to design, model and implement several antenna geometries using electromagnetic band gap (EBG) material and a defected ground plane. Several antenna applications are addressed with the aim of improving performance, particularly the mutual coupling between the elements. The EBG structures have the unique capability to prevent or assist the propagation of electromagnetic waves in a specific band of frequencies, and have been incorporated here in antenna structures to improve patterns and reduce mutual coupling in multielement arrays. A neutralization technique and defected ground plane structures have also been investigated as alternative approaches, and may be more practical in real applications. A new Uni-planar Compact EBG (UC-EBG) formed from a compact unit cell was presented, giving a stop band in the 2.4 GHz WLAN range. Dual band forms of the neutralization and defected ground plane techniques have also been developed and measured. The recorded results for all antenna configurations show good improvement in terms of the mutual coupling effect. The MIMO antenna performance with EBG, neutralization and defected ground of several wireless communication applications were analysed and evaluated. The correlation coefficient, total active reflection coefficient (TARC), channel capacity and capacity loss of the array antenna were computed and the results compared to measurements with good agreement. In addition, a computational method combining Genetic Algorithm (GA) with surface meshing code for the analysis of a 2×2 antenna arrays on EBG was developed. Here the impedance matrix resulting from the meshing analysis is manipulated by the GA process in order to find the optimal antenna and EBG operated at 2.4 GHz with the goal of targeting a specific fitness function. Furthermore, an investigation of GA on 2×2 printed slot on DGS was also done. / Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia and Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)

The proliferation of modern wireless networks increases demand for high capacity and throughput in order to provide faster, more robust, efficient and broadband services to end users. Mobile WiMAX and LTE are examples of such networks in which for some cases they have exposed limited connectivity due to harsh environment. Relay stations are preferred to overcome problems of weak or no access for such network devices, that are placed in specific positions to maintain high quality of data transfer at low cost and provide the required connectivity anywhere anytime. These stations should be equipped with an antenna system capable of establishing communication between base station (backhaul link) and end users (access link). This thesis focuses on the design and development of a new antenna system that is suitable for a relay-based wireless network. Planar geometries of microstrip patch antennas are utilized. The antenna system comprises two antenna modules: a new design of a single antenna for access link and a new design of an antenna array for backhaul link realization. Both antenna specifications are compatible with the IEEE802.16j protocol standard. Hence, relay station should be capable of pointing its radiation pattern to the base station antenna, thus to achieve the desired radiation pattern of the relay station, a new beam-forming module is proposed, designed and developed to generate the proper radiation pattern. The beam-forming module incorporating digital phase shifters and attenuator chips is fabricated and tested. The optimization process using the Least Mean Square (LMS) algorithm is considered in this study to assign the proper phase and amplitude that is necessary to each radiation element excitation current, to produce the desired steered radiation pattern. A comprehensive study on the coupling effects for several relative positions between two new backhaul and access link antenna elements is performed. Two new antenna configurations for coupling reduction are tested and the simulated and measured results in terms of antenna radiation performances were compared and commented.