A wideband reflectarray antenna using single‐layer dipole element attached with T‐shaped stubs

A wideband reflectarray antenna consisting of single‐layer dipole element attached with T‐shaped stubs is proposed. By varying the lengths of the T‐shaped stubs, the unit cell can provide a linear phase curve covering about 420°. Critical design parameters are analyzed to understand its wideband operating mechanism. Using this novel type of unit cells, a 441 element 25° offset‐fed reflectarray with grid spacing of λ/3 at 10 GHz is designed, fabricated, and measured. The experimental results show that the proposed reflectarray can achieve 1‐dB gain bandwidth of 24% and 1.5‐dB gain bandwidth of 37%. In addition, aperture efficiency of 66.6% and cross polarization level of 29 dB are obtained at 10 GHz, respectively.     

Design of dual‐band microstrip patch antenna with right‐angle triangular aperture slot for energy transfer application

This work focusing on the dual‐band antenna design with rectifying circuit for energy transfer system technology for enhancement gain performance. The air gap technique is applied on this microstrip antenna design work to enhance the antenna gain. The work begins with designing and analyzing the antenna via the CST Microwave Studio software. After validation on acceptable performance in simulation side is obtained, the return loss, S₁₁ of the antenna is measured using vector network analyzer equipment. The rectifier circuit is used to convert the captured signal to DC voltage. This projected dual‐band antenna has successfully accomplished the target on return loss of ?44.707 dB and ?32.163 dB at dual resonant frequencies for 1.8 GHz and 2.4 GHz, respectively. This proposed antenna design benefits in low cost fabrication and has achieved high gain of 6.31 dBi and 7.82 dBi for dual‐band functioning frequencies.     

Gain enhancement of circularly polarized antenna with dual‐polarization conversion transmitarray

A dual‐polarization conversion transmitarray is proposed for a circularly polarized (CP) transmitarray antenna. The designed transmitarray realizes the polarization conversion and gain enhancement for the circular polarization incident wave. The transmitarray can transform the left‐hand circularly polarization (LHCP) wave and the right hand circularly polarization (RHCP) wave into RHCP and LHCP waves, respectively. Two CP patch antennas are designed as source antennas to illuminate the transmitarray and form the transmitarray antenna. The experimental and simulation results show that the designed transmitarray realizes the polarization conversation and the gain enhancement for two CP antennas indeed.     

A new dual C‐shaped rectangular dielectric resonator based antenna for wideband circularly polarized radiation

This article presents a new dual C‐shaped rectangular dielectric resonator (DR) based antenna for generation of wideband circularly polarized (CP) radiation. The proposed antenna comprises of a pair of C‐shaped rectangular dielectric DR and a metal strip with a coaxial probe. By utilization of a metal strip at the side surface of C‐shaped rectangular DR, the wideband CP radiation is achieved from the proposed dielectric resonator antenna (DRA). Fundamental orthogonal modes (TE^x_δ11 and TE^y_1δ1) are excited using the rectangular DRA with a metal strip for the generation of CP fields. The proposed antenna with dual C‐shaped rectangular CP DRA provides the measured ?10 dB reflection coefficient bandwidth of 30.07% (3.22 GHz‐4.36 GHz) with measured 3‐dB axial ratio bandwidth of 14.81% (3.25 GHz‐3.77 GHz) at the boresight. The proposed antenna covers the useful Wi‐MAX band.     

A dual‐band and wideband omnidirectional circularly polarized antenna based on VO2

In this article, a dual‐band and wideband omnidirectional circularly polarized (CP) antenna based on the vanadium dioxide (VO₂) is investigated. The operating bandwidth of such an antenna can be regulated by altering the outside temperature (T), which is attained by the insulator‐metal transition of VO₂. The omnidirectional CP antenna is based on a loop antenna‐dipole model, which is composed of four tilted metal and VO₂ resonant units that are loaded around a cuboid and a feeding network for broadening bandwidth. The simulated results show that when T = 50°C (State I), the 10‐dB impedance bandwidth is 45.7% (1.67‐2.66 GHz), and the 3‐dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidth is 40% (1.9‐2.85 GHz). When T = 80°C (State II), the 10‐dB impedance bandwidth is 13.8% (1.62‐1.86 GHz), and the 3‐dB AR bandwidth is 21.8% (1.68‐2.09 GHz). In order to further characterize the concept of the proposed antenna, the related parameters of such an antenna are studied using simulation software HFSS.     

The design of radio frequency energy harvesting and radio frequency‐based wireless power transfer system for battery‐less self‐sustaining applications

In this paper, the RF energy harvesting system and RF‐based wireless power transfer system are proposed and designed for battery‐less self‐sustaining application. For energy harvesting, the designed antenna array improves the received RF power effectively and also can harvest RF energy in multi‐frequency bands. For wireless power transfer, the proposed helical antenna realizes the system design in miniaturization. Subsequently, the T shape LC matching network are designed between the antenna and the rectifying circuit to obtain more power transmission. The measured results show that the proposed Wi‐Fi rectifier and 433 MHz rectifier offer a maximum conversion efficiency of 66.8% and 76% in case of the input power is ?3 dBm and 0 dBm, respectively. Finally, the performance of the RF‐based wireless power transfer system and RF energy harvesting system are attested by experimentally measurement, the measured results indicate that these systems can be used to power electronic.     

Broadband circularly polarized Fabry‐Perot antenna utilizing Archimedean spiral radiator and multi‐layer partially reflecting surface

This article presents a method to design broadband circularly polarized (CP) Fabry‐Perot Resonator (FPR) antenna. The proposed antenna is based on multi‐layer thin dielectric slabs arranged in close proximity as a partially reflecting surface (PRS) and an Archimedean spiral as a CP radiating source. Experimental results show a broadband operation from 6 to 13 GHz, in which the reflection coefficient is less than ?10 dB and the axial ratio (AR) is lower than 3 dB. In addition, good radiation patterns and high broadside gain of better than 10.8 dBic are achieved over the operating bandwidth. The proposed antenna can be used for C‐ and X‐band satellite communications.     

MIMO H∞ control of three-axis ship-mounted mobile antenna systems

The need for on-line information in any environment has led to the development of mobile satellite communication terminals. These high data-rate terminals require inertial antenna pointing error tolerance within fractions of a degree. However, the base motion of the antenna platform in mobile applications complicates this pointing problem and must be accounted for. Gimbaled motorised pedestals are used to eliminate the effect of disturbance and maintain uninterrupted communication. In this paper, a three-axis ship-mounted antenna on a pedestal gimbal system is studied. Based on the derived dynamic model of the antenna pedestal multi input-multi output PID and H_∞ linear controllers are designed to stabilise the antenna to keep its orientation unaltered towards the satellite while the sea waves disturb the antenna. Simulation results are presented to show the stabilisation performance of the system with the synthesised controllers. It is shown through performance comparison and analysis that the proposed H_∞ control structure is preferable over PID controlled system in terms of system stability and the disturbance rejection.     

Directional Modulation Based on a Quantum Genetic Algorithm for a Multiple-Reflection Model

Directional modulation is one of the hot topics in data security researches. To fulfill the requirements of communication security in wireless environment with multiple paths, this study takes into account the factors of reflections and antenna radiation pattern for directional modulation. Unlike other previous works, a novel multiple-reflection model, which is more realistic and complex than simplified two-ray reflection models, is proposed based on two reflectors. Another focus is a quantum genetic algorithm applied to optimize antenna excitation in a phased directional modulation antenna array. The quantum approach has strengths in convergence speed and the globe searching ability for the complicated model with the large-size antenna array and multiple paths. From this, a phased directional modulation transmission system can be optimized as regards communication safety and improve performance based on the constraint of the pattern of the antenna array. Our work can spur applications of the quantum evolutionary algorithm in directional modulation technology, which is also studied.     

Tunable mid-infrared patch antennas based on VO2 phase transition

The metal-insulator phase transition in vanadium oxide makes it an attractive material for developing reconfigurable infrared optoelectronic components. In this paper, we present a tunable mid-infrared plasmonic patch antenna array based on vanadium oxide. The antennas consist of a circular gold patch array separated from a metallic ground plane by a film of vanadium dioxide. As the insulator-to-metal phase transition is thermally triggered, the resonances of the antenna array redshift with reduced absorbance before they are eventually switched off. The measured tuning range is about 10% of the resonant frequency, and the modulation depth in reflection is as high as 50%. A hysteresis loop in the tuning behavior is also observed. The XRD and XPS characterizations reveal a polycrystalline and multi-phase vanadium oxide. Our demonstrated tunable patch antennas hold promise for optical switching and modulating in mid-infrared applications.