Yes / This study aims to introduce a new phased array design with improved radiation properties for future cellular networks. The procedure of the array design is simple and has been accomplished on a low-cost substrate material while offering several interesting features with high performance. Its schematic involves eight air-filled slot-loop metal-ring elements with a 1 × 8 linear arrangement at the top edge of the 5G smartphone mainboard. Considering the entire board area, the proposed antenna elements occupy an extremely small area. The antenna elements cover the range of 21–23.5 GHz sub-mm-wave 5G bands. Due to the air-filled function in the configurations of the elements, low-loss and high-performance radiation properties are observed. In addition, the fundamental characteristics of the introduced array are insensitive to various types of substrates. Moreover, its radiation properties have been compared with conventional arrays and better results have been observed. The proposed array appears with a simple design, a low complexity profile, and its attractive broad impedance bandwidth, end-fire radiation mode, wide beam steering, high radiation coverage, and stable characteristics meet the needs of 5G applications in future cellular communications. Additionally, the smartphone array design offers sufficient efficiency when it comes to the appearance and integration of the user’s components. Thus, it could be used in 5G hand-portable devices.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / The United States Navy requires radical and innovative ways to model and design multifunction phased array radars. This thesis puts forth the concept that Genetic Algorithms, computer simulations that mirror the natural selection process to develop creative solutions to complex problems, would be extremely well suited in this application. The capability of a Genetic Algorithm to predict adequately the behavior of an array antenna with randomly located elements was verified with expected results through the design, construction, development and evaluation of a test-bed array. The test-bed array was constructed of commercially available components, including a unique and innovative application of a quadrature modulator microchip used in commercial communications applications. Corroboration of predicted beam patterns from both Genetic Algorithm and Method of Moments calculations was achieved in anechoic chamber measurements conducted with the test-bed array. Both H-plane and E-plane data runs were made with several phase steered beams. In all cases the measured data agreed with that predicted from both modeling programs. Although time limited experiments to beam forming and steering with phase shifting, the test-bed array is fully capable of beam forming and steering though both phase shifting and amplitude tapering. / Outstanding Thesis / Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy

[pt] Os Ensaios Não-Destrutivos são técnicas utilizadas na inspeção de materiais e equipamentos sem dano a integridade física, podendo ser executados nas etapas de pós-fabricação, montagem, operação e manutenção. São utilizados pela indústria como ferramenta de controle e garantia da qualidade de materiais, produtos e processos. Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo identificar trincas e estimar o seu comprimento em corpos de prova de aço DIN 42CrMo4, adotando diferentes técnicas de END. Os corpos de prova foram de um eixo virabrequim de um motor Diesel, utilizado como unidades geradora em usinas termoelétricas, que falhou por fadiga de baixo ciclo. Os corpos de prova foram projetados de acordo com as normas ASTM E1820, ASTM E1290 e ISO 15653, bem como adotando sugestões de inspetores de ultrassom quanto a uma geometria que otimizasse a eficiência das medições. Subsequente ao trincamento dos corpos de prova em fadiga, os mesmos foram inspecionados com o emprego das técnicas de Radiografia Digital (RD), Ultrassom Phased Array (UT-PA), métodos Pulso-Eco (PE) e Time os Flight Diffraction (TfOD), e Tomografia Computadorizada (TC). Em sequência, os corpos de prova foram fraturados com o uso de uma carga em flexão e nitrogênio liquido, o que permitiu a medição real dos comprimentos das trincas. As técnicas de UTPA, RD e TC indicaram tamanhos de trincas próximos entre si. Nos métodos de PE e ToFD, de UT-PA, se observou que a indicação das trincas sofre influência da distancia entre o cabeçote do equipamento e a posição da trinca. Em trincas menores, essa influência é mais acentuada, levando a uma medição errônea do comprimento da trinca. A técnica de RD apresentou um bom resultado da medida lateral da trinca, porem foi necessário um processamento digital da imagem para obtenção de melhores resultados, explicado devido a sensibilidade do ensaio à geometria do corpo de prova e da densidade do material utilizado. Já a TC apresentou imagens melhores e medidas de trinca similares se comparada com a RD, o que pode influenciar em outros tipos/dimensões de defeitos. Em compensação, sofre mais influencia do volume de material presente no entorno do defeito, o que impossibilitou a detecção de defeitos em algumas amostras. / [en] Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) are techniques applied to materials and equipment inspection without integrity degradation and can be performed in the post-manufacture, assembly, operation and maintenance stages. Those techniques are used by the industry to control a guarantee the quality of materials, products and processes. The aim of this research was to identify cracks and estimate their length on DIN 42CrMo4 steel specimens adopting different NDT techniques. The material to the test specimen was taken from a crankshaft of a Diesel engine, utilized as generating units in thermoelectric power plant, which has failed due to low cycle fatigue. The test specimen were designed according to ASTM E1820, ASTM E1290 and ISO 15653 standards, as well as suggestions made by NDT inspectors for a geometry that optimized the efficiency of the measurement. Subsequent to the fatigue induced crack on the specimens, they were inspected using, Digital Radiography (RD), Phased Array Ultrasound (UT-PA), Pulse-Echo (PE) and Time of Flight Diffraction (ToFD) methods, and Digital Tomography (TC). The specimens were then fractured with a bending load and liquid nitrogen, which allowed the measurement of the real crack length. UT-PA, PE and ToFD, and RD techniques showed a closer estimate crack size among then. It was observed that both UT-PA methods, PE and ToFD, presented an influence of the distance between the equipment head and the crack position, on the crack measurement. This was more pronounced in smaller cracks, leading to an erroneous measurement of the crack length. The RD technique presented a good a good result of lateral crack length, but a good digital image processing was necessary to obtain these results, explained by the sensitivity of the test to the geometry to the geometry of the specimen and to the material density. TC presented better imaging and similar lateral crack lengths when compared to RD, which could influence the detection of other types/dimensions of defects. In contrast, it is more influenced by the volume of material around the object, which made it impossible to detect defects in some samples.

Multi-standard RF front-end is a critical part of legacy and future emerging mobile architectures, where the size, the efficiency, and the integration of the elements in the RF front-end will affect the network key performance indicators (KPIs). This chapter discusses power amplifier design for both handset and base station applications for 5G and beyond. Also, this chapter deals with filter-antenna design for 5G applications that include a synthesis-based approach, differentially driven reconfigurable planar filter-antenna, and an insensitive phased array antenna with air-filled slot-loop resonators.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 18-21, 2004 / Town & Country Resort, San Diego, California / This paper describes a system of Total Border Surveillance, which is cost effective, closes existing gaps and is less manpower intensive than the current techniques. The system utilizes a fleet of commercially available aircraft converted to unmanned capability, existing GPS and surveillance systems and autonomous ground stations to provide the desired coverage.

Le contrôle non destructif (CND) a pour but de détecter et de caractériser d’éventuels défauts présents dans des pièces mécaniques. Les techniques ultrasonores actuelles utilisent des capteurs multiéléments associés à des chaînes d’instrumentations et d’acquisitions de données multi capteurs en parallèles. Compte tenu de la masse de données à traiter, l’analyse de ces dernières est généralement effectuée hors ligne. Des travaux en cours, au Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA), consistent à développer et évaluer différentes méthodes d’imageries avancées, basées sur la focalisation synthétique. Les algorithmes de calculs induits nécessitent d’importantes opérations itératives sur un grand volume de données, issues d’acquisition multiéléments. Ceci implique des temps de calculs important, imposant un traitement en différé. Les contraintes industrielles de caractérisation de pièces mécaniques in situ imposent de réaliser la reconstruction d’images lors de la mesure et en temps réel. Ceci implique d’embarquer dans l’appareil de mesure, toute l’architecture de calcul sur les données acquises des capteurs. Le travail de thèse a donc consisté à étudier une famille d’algorithmes de focalisation synthétique pour une implantation temps réel sur un instrument de mesure permettant de réaliser l’acquisition de données. Nous avons également étudié une architecture dédiée à la reconstruction d’images par la méthode de Focalisation en Tout Point (FTP). Ce travail a été réalisé dans le cadre d’une collaboration avec l’équipe ACCIS de l’institut d’Electronique Fondamentale, Université de Paris Sud. Pour ce faire, notre démarche s’est inspirée de la thématique de recherche d’Adéquation Algorithme Architecture (A3). Notre méthodologie, est basée sur une approche expérimentale consistant dans un premier temps en une décomposition de l’algorithme étudié en un ensemble de blocs fonctionnels (calculs/transferts). Cela nous a permis de réaliser l’extraction des blocs pertinents de calculs à paralléliser et qui ont une incidence majeure sur les temps de traitement. Nous avons orienté notre stratégie de développement vers une conception flot de donnée. Ce type de modélisation permet de favoriser les flux de données et de réduire les flux de contrôles au sein de l’architecture matérielle. Cette dernière repose sur une plateforme multi-FPGA. La conception et l’évaluation de telles architectures ne peuvent se faire sans la mise en place d’outils logiciels d’aide à la validation tout au long du processus de la conception à l’implantation. Ces outils faisant partie intégrante de notre méthodologie. Les modèles architecturaux des briques de calculs ont été validés au niveau fonctionnel puis expérimental, grâce à la chaîne d’outils développée. Cela inclus un environnement de simulation nous permettant de valider sur tables les briques partielles de calculs ainsi que le contrôle associé. Enfin, cela a nécessité la conception d’outils de génération automatique de vecteurs de tests, à partir de données de synthèses (issues de l’outil simulation CIVA développé par le CEA) et de données expérimentales (à partir de l’appareil d’acquisition de la société M2M-NDT). Enfin, l’architecture développée au cours de ce travail de thèse permet la reconstruction d’images d’une résolution de 128x128 pixels, à plus de 10 images/sec. Ceci est suffisant pour le diagnostic de pièces mécaniques en temps réel. L’augmentation du nombre d’éléments capteurs ultrasonores (128 éléments) permet des configurations topologiques plus évoluées (sous forme d’une matrice 2D), ouvrant ainsi des perspectives vers la reconstruction 3D (d’un volume d’une pièce). Ce travail s’est soldé par une mise en œuvre validée sur l’instrument de mesure développé par la société M2M-NDT. / Non-destructive Evaluation (NDE) regroups a set of methods used to detect and characterize potential defects in mechanical parts. Current techniques uses ultrasonic phased array sensors associated with instrumentation channels and multi-sensor data acquisition in parallel. Given the amount of data to be processed, the analysis of the latter is usually done offline. Ongoing work at the French “Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique” (CEA), consist to develop and evaluate different methods of advanced imaging based on synthetic focusing. The Algorithms induced require extensive iterative operations on a large volume of data from phased array acquisition. This involves important time for calculations and implies offline processing. However, the industrial constraint requires performing image reconstruction in real time. This involves the implementation in the measuring device, the entire computing architecture on acquired sensor data. The thesis has been to study a synthetic focusing algorithm for a real-time implementation in a measuring instrument used to perform ultrasonic data acquisition. We especially studied an image reconstruction algorithm called Total Focusing Method (TFM). This work was conducted as part of collaboration with the French Institute of Fundamental Electronics Institute team of the University of Paris Sud. To do this, our approach is inspired by research theme called Algorithm Architecture Adequation (A3). Our methodology is based on an experimental approach in the first instance by a decomposition of the studied algorithm as a set of functional blocks. This allowed us to perform the extraction of the relevant blocks to parallelize computations that have a major impact on the processing time. We focused our development strategy to design a stream of data. This type of modeling can facilitate the flow of data and reduce the flow of control within the hardware architecture. This is based on a multi- FPGA platform. The design and evaluation of such architectures cannot be done without the introduction of software tools to aid in the validation throughout the process from design to implementation. These tools are an integral part of our methodology. Architectural models bricks calculations were validated functional and experimental level, thanks to the tool chain developed. This includes a simulation environment allows us to validate partial calculation blocks and the control associated. Finally, it required the design of tools for automatic generation of test vectors, from data summaries (from CIVA simulation tool developed by CEA) and experimental data (from the device to acquisition of M2M –NDT society). Finally, the architecture developed in this work allows the reconstruction of images with a resolution of 128x128 pixels at more than 10 frames / sec. This is sufficient for the diagnosis of mechanical parts in real time. The increase of ultrasonic sensor elements (128 elements) allows more advanced topological configurations (as a 2D matrix) and providing opportunities to 3D reconstruction (volume of a room). This work has resulted in implementation of validated measurement instrument developed by M2M -NDT.

Radio astronomy is used to study stars, galaxies, black holes and gas clouds radiation at radio frequencies. Detecting extremely weak signals from deep space radio sources requires high sensitive feed system associated with large dish antennas. The key figure of merit is survey speed, or the time required to map a region of the sky to a given source flux density. Survey speed is proportional to the frequency bandwidth, the field of view or observable region of the sky, and the squared sensitivity, where sensitivity is related to reflector aperture efficiency and system noise temperature. Compared to the traditional single feed, phased array feeds with significantly expanded field of view are considered as the next generation feed for radio telescope. This dissertation outlines the design, analysis and measurement of high sensitivity L-band and mm-wave phased array feeds for the 100-meter Green Bank Telescope. Theoretical works for radio astronomy includes design guideline for high sensitivity phased array feed, fundamental frequency bandwidth limit, array antenna loss influenced by mutual coupling and beamformer coefficients and possibility of superdirectivity for radio telescopes and other antennas. These study are helpful to understand and guide the design of a phased array feed system. In the absence of dish antennas, sparse phased arrays with aperiodic structure have been developed for satellite communications. A compromise between the peak side lobe level, array element density, directivity and design complexity is studied. We have found that the array peak side lobe level can be reduced by enhancing the array element direction at the main lobe direction, increasing the array element density and enlarging the array size. A Poynting streamline approach develops to understand the properties of a receiving antenna and the mutual coupling effects between array elements. This method has been successfully used to generate effective area shape for many types of antennas and guide the design of a superdirective antenna. Motivated by this method, a superdirective antenna is experimental demonstrated.

In this thesis, based on the indoor channel measurements and ray-tracing modeling for the indoor mm-wave wireless communications, the challenges of the design of the radio in this band is studied. Considering the recently developed standards such as IEEE 802.15.3c, ECMA and WiGig at 60 GHz, the link budget of the system design for different classes of operation is done and the requirement for the antenna and other RF sections are extracted. Based on radiation characteristics of mm-wave and the fundamental limits of low-cost Silicon technology, it is shown that phased-array is the ultimate solution for the radio and physical layer of the mobile millimeter wave multi-Gb/s wireless networks. Different phased-array configurations are studied and a low-cost single-receiver array architecture with RF phase-shifting is proposed. A systematic approach to the analysis of the overall noise-figure of the proposed architecture is presented and the component technical requirements are derived for the system level specifications. The proposed on-chip antennas and antenna-in-packages for various applications are designed and verified by the measurement results. The design of patch antennas on the low-cost RT/Duroid substrate and the slot antennas on the IPD technologies as well as the compact on-chip slot DRA antenna are explained in the antenna design section. The design of reflective-type phase shifters in CMOS and MEMS technologies is explained. Finally, the design details of two developed 60 GHz integrated phased-arrays in CMOS technology are discussed. Front-end circuit blocks such as LNA, continuous passive reflective-type phase shifters, power combiner and variable gain amplifiers are investigated, designed and developed for a 60 GHz phased-array radio in CMOS technology. In the first design, the two-element CMOS phased-array front-ends based on passive phase shifting architecture is proposed and developed. In the second phased-array, the recently developed on-chip dielectric resonator antenna in our group in lower frequency is scaled and integrated with the front-end.

True time delay networks are one of the most critical structures of wideband phased-array antenna systems which are frequently used in self-protection and electronic warfare applications. In order to direct the main beam of a wideband phased-array antenna to the desired direction / phase values, which are linearly dependent to frequency, are essential. Due to the phase characteristics of the true-time delay networks, beam squint problems for broadband phased array systems are minimized. In this thesis, different types of true-time delay structures are investigated for wideband phased array applications and a tunable S-band true-time delay network having delay over 1ns with high resolution is developed, designed, fabricated and measured. Lower-cost, smaller occupied area, digital/analog control mechanism and ease of implementation are the other features of the developed network. High delay values with high resolutions for wideband operation are achieved through the combination of several techniques / therefore the desired S-band TTD network is constructed with the synthesis of switched-transmission lines, constant-R networks and periodically-loaded transmission lines. Higher delay states are realized by the switched-transmission lines technique, while the method of constant R-network is used for the intermediate delay states. To increase the tuning flexibility, smaller delay states are accomplished by analog-voltage controlled periodically loaded transmission lines. A step-by-step procedure is followed during the design process of the S-band true time delay network. Firstly, each method used in the TTD network is analyzed in detail and developed for PCB implementation and the use of COTS components. Then, the designed structures are verified via linear and EM simulations performed by ADS2011&reg / . After that, the effects of production tolerances are examined to optimize each design for S-band operations. Moreover, the designed structures are fabricated by using PCB technology and measured. Finally, a software code is developed in MATLAB to generate the overall cascaded network with the help of measured data.

The focus of this work involves optical and RF (radio frequency) applications of novel microactuation and self-assembly techniques in MEMS (Microelectromechanical systems). The scaling of physical forces into the micro domain is favorably used to design several types of actuators that can provide large forces and large static displacements at low operation voltages. A self-assembly method based on thermally induced localized plastic deformation of microstructures has been developed to obtain truly three-dimensional structures from a planar fabrication process. RF applications include variable discrete components such as capacitors and inductors as well as tunable coupling circuits. Optical applications include scanning micromirrors with large scan angles (>90 degrees), low operation voltages (<10 Volts), and multiple degrees of freedom. One and two-dimensional periodic structures with variable periods and orientations (with respect to an incident wave) are investigated as well, and analyzed using optical phased array concepts. Throughout the research, permanent tuning via plastic deformation and power-off latching techniques are used in order to demonstrate that the optical and RF devices can exhibit zero quiescent power consumption once their geometry is set.