No

Wireless communication is part of our daily life in several applications, such as cell phones, wireless printers, sensors, etc. Each wireless device requires at least one antenna to communicate with other devices. In 2002, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) assigned a frequency spectrum from 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz for ultra-wideband communications. Several narrowband antennas require to cover the entire range. Unlike narrowband antennas, ultra-wideband antennas need to cover the wide frequency band. This research mainly focuses on physically small antenna designs. The first antenna discussed in this dissertation is a dual, triple trident antenna with dimensions 24 mm × 28 mm × 0.785 mm, which will operate from 3 GHz to 12.15 GHz [58]. The first antenna consists of six tridents symmetrical along the vertical direction. The second antenna design is a novel rectangular ring ultra-wideband antenna [59]. Large antennas operate for low frequency, and small antennas work for high frequency. The number of rings increased in wideband antenna to 9 from 4 to check the design methodology. The rectangular ring ultra-wideband antenna has dimensions 24 mm × 26 mm × 1.52 mm. This antenna operates from 3.12 GHz to 12.85 GHz. The third antenna design is an ultra-wideband dual square trident planar antenna. This antenna’s overall size is 26 mm × 24 mm × 1.56 mm [60]. This antenna has impedance bandwidth from 3.65 GHz to 12.50 GHz. The fourth antenna design is an ultra-wideband antenna with a band notch from 5.05 GHz to 5.9 GHz [61]. This antenna consists of two tridents and two split-ring resonators along the microstrip feed line. The overall size of this antenna 26 mm ×24 mm × 1.53mm. Simulations are carried out using the CST microwave studios® to analyze the antenna performance. Experiments are conducted to verify the simulated results using vector network analyzers for impedance and anechoic antenna chamber for radiation characteristics of the antenna. All four antennas are excellent for the wireless device due to their compact size and planar designs.

Un des enjeux majeurs dans l'intégration de nouveaux systèmes de guerre électronique (GE) dans les avions d'armes est notamment la réduction de l'encombrement des antennes. En GE, La bande passante des antennes peut être de l'ordre de la décade et la fréquence basse peut être voisine de la centaine de MHz, ce qui rend l'intégration des antennes difficile voire impossible selon les cas. Les antennes de GE font habituellement appel à des antennes dites "indépendantes de la fréquence" placées au-dessus d'une cavité absorbante. La fabrication des matériaux absorbants est à ce jour encore "artisanale" et donc onéreuse. De plus, ces matériaux sont lourds et ils ne présentent pas les mêmes caractéristiques électriques d'une fabrication à l'autre. Les travaux présentés dans ce manuscrit sont dédiés à la réalisation d'antennes à très large bande passante de très faible épaisseur et sans absorbant. Nous avons proposé et validé une nouvelle structure basée sur les matériaux à bandes interdites électromagnétiques (BIE). Le nouveau dispositif permet de remplacer les matériaux absorbants, de réduire l'épaisseur des antennes large bande et de réduire les coûts de fabrication grâce à un procédé industriel de fabrication. La nouvelle structure présente contrairement à toutes les autres structures BIE l'avantage d'être ultra large bande et compacte (de l'ordre de 1/100ième de longueur d'onde d'épaisseur). Nous avons montré l'intérêt d'utiliser un tel dispositif pour réduire l'épaisseur et améliorer les performances des antennes planaires de forme et de polarisation quelconque.

In the future, space solar power transmission and wireless power transmission will play an important role in gathering clean and infinite energy from space. The rectenna, i.e., a rectifying circuit combined with an antenna, is one of the most important components in the wireless power transmission system. To obtain high power and high output voltage, the use of a large rectenna array is necessary. Many novel rectennas and rectenna arrays for microwave and millimeter-wave wireless power transmission have been developed. Unlike the traditional rectifying circuit using a single diode, dual diodes are used to double the DC output voltage with the same circuit layout dimensions. The rectenna components are then combined to form rectenna arrays using different interconnections. The rectennas and the arrays are analyzed by using a linear circuit model. Furthermore, to precisely align the mainbeams of the transmitter and the receiver, a retrodirective array is developed to maintain high efficiency. The retrodirective array is able to track the incident wave and resend the signal to where it came from without any prior known information of the source location. The ultra-wideband radio has become one of the most important communication systems because of demand for high data-rate transmission. Hence, ultra-wideband antennas have received much attention in mobile wireless communications. Planar monopole ultra-wideband antennas for UHF, microwave, and millimeter-wave bands are developed, with many advantages such as simple structure, low cost, light weight, and ease of fabrication. Due to the planar structures, the ultra-wideband antennas can be easily integrated with other circuits. On the other hand, with an ultra-wide bandwidth, source power can be transmitted at different frequencies dependent on power availability. Furthermore, the ultra-wideband antenna can potentially handle wireless power transmission and data communications simultaneously. The technologies developed can also be applied to dual-frequency or the multi-frequency antennas. In this dissertation, many new rectenna arrays, retrodirective rectenna arrays, and ultra-wideband antennas are presented for microwave and millimeter-wave applications. The technologies are not only very useful for wireless power transmission and communication systems, but also they could have many applications in future radar, surveillance, and remote sensing systems.

Yes / A tunable band-notch printed monopole antenna is presented, exhibiting a wide impedance bandwidth from 1.5 to 5.5 GHz with good impedance matching (VSWR ≤ 2) and a tunable rejected frequency band from 2.38 to 3.87 GHz. The band-notching is achieved by adding an inner chorded crescent element within a driven element of a similar shape. By varying the value of the varactor which is placed between the inner and outer arcs, the desired variable rejected can be obtained. Simulated and measured results show wide impedance bandwidth with a tunable band notch, stable radiation patterns, and consistent nearly constant gain. The antenna is suitable for mobile and portable applications.

Recent technologies enable wireless communication devices to become physically smaller in size. Antenna size is obviously a major factor that limits miniaturization. In the past few years, new designs of low-profile antennas for handheld wireless devices have been developed. The major drawback of many low-profile antenna designs is their narrow impedance bandwidth. Furthermore, the market trend of personal wireless devices is moving toward a universal system that can be used anywhere and rapid expansion of the wireless communication industry has created a need for connectivity among various wireless devices using short-range wireless links in the Bluetooth operating band to get rid of the cable connections. This requires therefore multiple frequency band operation. In summary, physically small size, wide bandwidth, and high efficiency are the desired characteristics of antennas in mobile systems. This dissertation presents a comprehensive analysis of a new wide-bandwidth compact antenna, called WC J-pole antenna, covering 50 % impedance fractional bandwidth. A set of guidelines is also provided for a bandwidth-optimized design at any frequency. A few design variations of the proposed antenna are also presented for existing commercial wireless applications. Efficiency is perhaps the most important characteristic of small antennas for mobile systems. An extension of the Wheeler cap method to moderate-length and wideband antennas is developed to measure quickly efficiency. The dissertation also provides a review of human operator interaction with handset antennas. Since the proposed antenna is intended to be used in the proximity of human body and in a casing, coupling effects of human body and casing on the antenna characteristics and radio frequency (RF) energy absorption into the human body are investigated. / Ph. D.

Broadband wireless communications require wideband antennas to support large number of users and higher data rates. Desirable features of a wideband antenna are low-profile, dual-polarization and wide bandwidth in a compact size. Many existing wideband antennas are large in size and some have only circular polarization. On the other hand low-profile, dual-polarized antennas frequently have limited bandwidth. This dissertation reports on results from original research into several new wideband antennas. All are compact and planar, and many are low-profile and dual-polarized. Since 1994, Virginia Tech Antenna Group (VTAG) has performed research on the wideband, low-profile and dual-polarized antennas of compact size. This research resulted in the following antenna innovations: the Fourpoint, Fourtear, PICA (Planar Inverted Cone Antenna), diPICA (dipole PICA) and LPdiPICA (Low-Profile diPICA) antennas. They are all planar in geometry so one can easily construct them in a compact size. The antennas were characterized and investigated with extensive simulations and measurements. The computed and measured data demonstrates that some of the antennas appear to have the characteristics of the self-complementary antenna and most of the proposed antennas provide more than a 10:1 impedance bandwidth for a VSWR < 2. Patterns, however, are degraded at the high end of the frequency. Several tapered ground planes were proposed to improve the radiation pattern characteristics without degrading the impedance performance. A simulation result proposed a possibility of another antenna inventions providing 10:1 pattern bandwidth with the 10:1 impedance bandwidth. Research into wideband antennas demonstrated that the newly invented antennas are closely related each other and are evolved from a primitive element, PICA. Not only the comprehensive investigation but also a practical antenna design has been done for commercial base-station array antennas and to phased array antennas for government applications. This dissertation presents results of comprehensive investigation of new planar wideband antennas and its usefulness to the broadband wireless communications. / Ph. D.

Acquisition of ultra-wideband signals by means of array antennas requires essentially frequency-independent radiation characteristics over the entire bandwidth of the signal in order to avoid distortions. Factors contributing to bandwidth limitation of arrays include array factor, radiation characteristics of the array element, and inter-element mutual coupling. Strictly speaking, distortion-free transmission or reception of ultra-wideband signals can be maintained if the magnitude of the radiated field of the array remains constant while its phase varies linearly with frequency over the bandwidth of interest. The existing wideband-array synthesis methods do not account for all factors affecting the array bandwidth and are often limited to considering the array factor and not the total field of the array in the synthesis process. The goal of this study is to present an ultra-wideband array synthesis technique taking into account all frequency-dependent properties, including array total pattern, phase of the total radiated field, element field, element input impedance, and inter-element mutual coupling. The proposed array synthesis technique is based on the utilization of frequency-adaptive element excitations in conjunction with expressing the total radiated field of the array as a complex Fourier series. Using the proposed method, element excitation currents required for achieving a desired radiation pattern, while compensating for frequency variations of the element radiation characteristics and the inter-element mutual coupling, are calculated. An important consideration in the proposed ultra-wideband array design is that the "phase bandwidth", defined as the frequency range over which the phase of the total radiated field of the array varies linearly with frequency, is taken into account as a design requirement in the synthesis process. Design examples of linear arrays with desired radiation patterns that are expected to remain unchanged over the bandwidth of interest are presented and simulated. Two example arrays, one with a wire dipole as its element and another using an elliptically-shaped disc dipole as the element are studied. Simulation results for far-field patterns, magnitude and phase characteristics, and other performance criteria such as side-lobe level and scanning range are presented. Synthesis of two-dimensional planar arrays is carried out by employing the formulations developed for linear arrays but generalized to accommodate the geometry of planar rectangular arrays. As example designs, planar arrays with wire dipoles and elliptical-shaped disc dipoles are studied. The simulation results indicate that synthesis of ultra-wideband arrays can be accomplished successfully using the technique presented in this work. The proposed technique is robust and comprehensive, nonetheless it is understood that the achieved performance of a synthesized array and how closely the desired performance is met also depends on some of the choices the array designer makes and other constraints, such as number of elements, type of element, size, and ultimately cost. / Ph. D.

This thesis presents a novel antenna structure that satisfies the challenging requirements of an air coupled high speed ground penetrating radar (GPR). The desired GPR system is to achieve high spatial resolution and accurate inspection results while scanning at relatively high speed for highway pavement and bridge deck inspection. This work utilizes the Ultra Wide Band (UWB) antenna design to achieve both physical and electrical requirements imposed. The design procedure starts with a short survey to discuss typical UWB antennas used for GPR applications, and various tradeoffs of each type specifically when used for Air Coupled GPR applications. Our structure anatomy is presented, followed by a theory introduction that mainly focuses on achieving good impedance matching throughout the proposed antenna structure. A proof-of-concept MATLAB model is created to evaluate the preliminary physical dimensions that can achieve minimum reflections at antenna's feed point. These dimensions are then used in SolidWorks to create a 3D model that is imported later in HFSS to obtain accurate electromagnetic characteristics. Furthermore, fine tunings are performed to the antenna structure to optimize both gain and impedance matching. The SolidWorks 3-D structural model is finally used for antenna fabrication. The measurements recorded from the field experiments using the prototypes manufactured are compared to the simulation results confirming our initial findings. Both measurements and simulation results demonstrated very small reflection loss across the 700 MHz ~ 6 GHz frequency band with a very high directed gain and radiation efficiency.

Les besoins techniques et opérationnels des porteurs navals, terrestres et aériens conduisent à la conception et à l'implantation d'un nombre de plus en plus élevé d'antennes dédiées aux communications. Parallèlement, les matériaux composites sont utilisés depuis de nombreuses décennies dans les panneaux structuraux de ces porteurs en raison de leurs qualités naturelles (légèreté, performances mécaniques élevées, insensibilité à la corrosion…). L'objet de ce manuscrit concerne l'étude et le développement de matériaux composites pour des applications antennaires en hyperfréquences. Après un recensement exhaustif des caractéristiques diélectriques des différents éléments constitutifs de ces matériaux composites, la caractérisation diélectrique des matériaux composites fabriqués au Laboratoire a été réalisée via deux méthodes distinctes dans deux bandes de fréquence différentes. Parallèlement, la caractérisation électrique des tissus à base de fibres de carbone a permis d'évaluer leur possible utilisation dans la fabrication des éléments rayonnants. Dans un premier temps, deux topologies antennaires « tout composite » de géométrie carrée à base de tissus de fibres de carbone, de fibres de verre et de résine (polyester ou époxy) ont été conçues, fabriquées et caractérisées. Leurs performances similaires à celles d'antennes métalliques de référence démontrent tout l'intérêt de l'utilisation des matériaux composites en hyperfréquences. Puis, trois topologies antennaires ultra large bande en matériaux « tout composite » ont été développées spécifiquement dans le cadre du projet FUI SAMCOM (/Systèmes Antennaires en Matériaux COMposites/). La première de type Rugby-Ball couvre une octave et demi avec un gain positif et un encombrement limité à λ/4 x λ/4 x λ/10 (longueur x largeur x hauteur). La seconde configuration volumique de type dipôle et d'encombrement λ/3 x λ/3 x λ/10 couvre deux octaves et demi avec un gain toujours positif. Enfin, la troisième de structure planaire a été développée spécifiquement pour la réception de la Télévision Numérique Terrestre (TNT) et sera, à terme, intégrée dans un panneau structural d'un véhicule. / The technical and operational requirements of naval, terrestrial and aerial vehicles lead to the design and installation of a great number of antennas for communications. At the same time, composite materials have been used for many decades in structural panels of vehicles for their intrinsic qualities (lightness, high mechanical performance, insensitivity to corrosion ...). The purpose of this manuscript is the study and engineering of composite materials for antenna applications at microwaves. After an exhaustive survey of the dielectric characteristics of the various elements of composite materials, dielectric characterization of composite materials manufactured in the Laboratory was carried out using two different methods in two different frequency bands. Meanwhile, an analysis of their conductive characteristics allows carbon-fiber tissues to be used in the design of radiating elements. First, two "full-composite" square shaped antennas based on carbon-fiber tissues, glass-fiber tissues and polyester or epoxy resin have been developed, fabricated and measured. Their performance, similar to that of reference metal antennas demonstrates their relevance for microwave applications. Then, three different topologies of ultra wideband "full-composite" antennas have been specifically developed for the SAMCOM (/Antenna Systems in COMposite Materials)/ FUI project. The first, a Rugby-Ball shaped antenna, has one octave and a half of bandwidth with a positive gain and λ/4 x λ/4 x λ/10 dimensions (length x width x height). The second, a 3D dipole antenna with λ/3 x λ/3 x λ/10 dimensions, has two octaves and a half of bandwidth also with a positive gain. At last, the third antenna with a planar structure has been specifically developed for the reception of digital terrestrial television (DTT) and will be, at the end, integrated into a structural panel of a terrestrial vehicle.