AN ULTRA-WIDEBAND ANTENNA FOR THE REINFORCED CONCRETE DETECTION

In this paper,an Ultra-Wideband(UWB) planar antenna is proposed for the reinforced concrete detection,which consists of a pair of planar waterdrop arms,a microstrip to coplanar parallel-strips transition and a shallow rectangular cavity.In order to overcome the disadvantages of the shallow cavity,some absorbing material is loaded to weaken the narrow-band effect of the cavity and the crosstalk interference.The simulated and measured results show that the proposed antenna has a large bandwidth from 0.48 GHz to 3.6 GHz with Voltage Standing Wave Ratio(VSWR) below 2 and a fractional bandwidth about 200% under the center frequency of 1.6 GHz,directional radiation characteristics and small late-time ringing in the time domain,which can be suitable for nondestructive detection of the reinforced concrete.

Design and Measurements of Ultra-Wideband Antenna

This paper describes the design, realization and experimental measurements of an antenna element to operate at ultra-wideband (UWB) spectrum. The type of this antenna is a circular disk monopole (CDM), with two notches opposite to each other at two sides of the disk. The feed of the antenna is a coplanar waveguide (CPW). The effect of the presence of the notches is studied through simulations and tested experimentally.

A Compact Ultra-Wideband Circularly Polarized Antenna Array for Vehicular Communications

In this paper,a new compact ultrawideband(UWB)circularly polarized(CP)antenna array for vehicular communications is proposed.The antenna array consists of a 2×2 sequentially rotated T-shaped cross dipole,four parasitic elements,and a feeding network.By loading the T-shaped cross dipoles with parasitic rectangular elements with cut corners,the bandwidth can be expanded.On this basis,the radiation pattern can be improved by the topology with sequential rotation of four T-shaped cross-dipole antennas,and the axial ratio(AR)bandwidth of the antenna also can be further enhanced.In addition,due to the special topology that the vertical arms of all Tshaped cross dipoles are all oriented toward the center of the antenna array,the gain of proposed antenna is improved while the size of the antenna is almost the same as the traditional cross dipole.Simulated and measured results show that the proposed antenna has good CP characteristics,an impedance bandwidth for S11<-10 d B of about 106.1%(3.26:1,1.57-5.12 GHz)and the 3-d B AR bandwidth of about 104.1%(3.17:1,1.57-4.98 GHz),a wide 3-d B gain bandwidth of 73.3%as well as the peak gain of 8.6 d Bic at 3.5 GHz.The overall size of antenna is 0.56λ×0.56λ×0.12λ(λrefers to the wavelength of the lowest operating frequency in free space).The good performance of this compact UWB CP antenna array is promising for applications in vehicular communications.

Electric-controlled metasurface antenna array with ultra-wideband frequency reconfigurable reflection suppression

The electric-controlled metasurface antenna array(ECMSAA)with ultra-wideband frequency reconfigurable reflection suppression is proposed and realized.Firstly,an electriccontrolled metasurface with ultra-wideband frequency reconfigurable in-phase reflection characteristics is designed.The element of the ECMSAA is constructed by loading the single electric-controlled metasurface unit on the conventional patch antenna element.The radiation properties of the conventional patch antenna and the reflection performance of electric-controlled metasurface are maintained when the antenna and the metasurface are integrated.Thus,the ECMSAA elements have excellent radiation properties and ultra-wideband frequency reconfigurable in-phase reflection characteristics simultaneously.To take a further step,a 6×10 ECMSAA is realized based on the designed metasurface antenna element.Simulated and measured results prove that the reflection of the ECMSAA is dynamically suppressed in the P and L bands.Meanwhile,high-gain and multi-polarization radiation properties of the ECMSAA are achieved.This design method not only realizes the frequency reconfigurable reflection suppression of the antenna array in the ultra-wide frequency band but also provides a way to develop an intelligent low-scattering antenna.

Isolation Enhancement in a Compact Four-Element MIMO Antenna for Ultra-Wideband Applications

Mutual coupling reduction or isolation enhancement in antenna arrays is an important area of research as it severely affects the performance of an antenna.In this paper,a new type of compact and highly isolated Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output(MIMO)antenna for ultra-wideband(UWB)applications is presented.The design consists of four radiators that are orthogonally positioned and confined to a compact 40×40×0.8 mm3 space.The final antenna design uses an inverted L shape partial ground to produce an acceptable reflection coefficient(S11<−10 dB)in an entire UWB band(3.1–10.6)giga hertz(GHz).Moreover,the inter-element isolation has also been enhanced to>20 db for majority of the UWB band.The antenna was fabricated and tested with the vector network analyzer(VNA)and in an anechoic chamber for scattering parameters and radiation patterns.Furthermore,different MIMO diversity performance metrics are also measured to validate the proposed model.The simulation results and the experimental results from the constructed model agree quite well.The proposed antenna is compared with similar designs in recently published literature for various performance metrics.Because of its low envelope correlation coefficient(ECC<0.1),high diversity gain(DG>9.99 dB),peak gain of 4.6 dB,reduced channel capacity loss(CCL<0.4 b/s/Hz),and average radiation efficiency of over 85%,the proposed MIMO antenna is ideally suited for practical UWB applications.

A Compact UHF Antenna Based on Hilbert Fractal Elements and a Serpentine Arrangement for Detecting Partial Discharg

Efforts to protect electric power systems from faults have commonly relied on the use of ultra-high frequency(UHF)antennas for detecting partial discharge(PD)as a common precursor to faults.However,the effectiveness of existing UHF antennas suffers from a number of challenges such as limited bandwidth,relatively large physical size,and low detection sensitivity.The present study addresses these issues by proposing a compact microstrip patch antenna with fixed dimensions of 100 mm×100 mm×1.6 mm.The results of computations yield an optimized antenna design consisting of 2nd-order Hilbert fractal units positioned within a four-layer serpentine arrangement with a fractal unit connection distance of 3.0 mm.Specifically,the optimized antenna design achieves a detection bandwidth for which the voltage standing wave ratio is less than 2 that is approximately 97.3%of the UHF frequency range(0.3–3 GHz).Finally,a prototype antenna is fabricated using standard printed circuit board technology,and the results of experiments demonstrate that the proposed antenna is capable of detecting PD signals at a distance of 8 m from the discharge source.

Physical design and recent experimental results of the new ICRF antenna on EAST

Two new ICRF antennas operating in the ion cyclotron radio frequency(ICRF) range have been developed for EAST to overcome the low coupling problem of the original antennas.The original ICRF antennas were limited in their power capacity due to insufficient coupling.The new antenna design takes into account both wave coupling and absorption processes through comprehensive wave coupling and absorption codes,with the dominant parallel wave number k∥of 7.5 m-1at dipole phasing.Through the use of these new ICRF antennas,we are able to achieve 3.8 MW output power and 360 s operation,respectively.The initial experimental results demonstrate the reliability of the antenna design method.

Assessment of the performance of the TOPGNSS and ANN-MB antennas for ionospheric measurements using low-cost u-blox GNSS receivers

Low-cost GNSS receivers have recently been gaining reliability as good candidates for ionospheric studies. In line with these gains are genuine concerns about improving the performance of these receivers. In this work, we present a comprehensive investigation of the performances of two antennas(the u-blox ANN-MB and the TOPGNSS TOP-106) used on a low-cost GNSS receiver known as the u-blox ZED-F9P. The two antennas were installed on two identical and co-located u-blox receivers. Data used from both receivers cover the period from January to June 2022. Results from the study indicate that the signal strengths are dominantly greater for the receiver with the TOPGNSS antenna than for the receiver with the ANN-MB antenna, implying that the TOPGNSS antenna is better than the ANN-MB antenna in terms of providing greater signal strengths. Summarily, the TOPGNSS antenna also performed better in minimizing the occurrence of cycle slips on phase TEC measurements. There are no conspicuous differences between the variances(computed as 5-min standard deviations) of phase TEC measurements for the two antennas, except for a period around May-June when the TOPGNSS gave a better performance in terms of minimizing the variances in phase TEC. Remarkably, the ANN-MB antenna gave a better performance than the TOPGNSS antenna in terms of minimizing the variances in pseudorange TEC for some satellite observations. For precise horizontal(North and East) positioning, the receiver with the TOPGNSS antenna gave better results, while the receiver with the ANN-MB antenna gave better vertical(Up) positioning. The errors for the receivers of both antennas are typically within about 5 m(the monthly mean was usually smaller than 1 m) in the horizontal direction and within about 10 m(the monthly mean was usually smaller than 4 m) in the vertical direction.

Prediction of Bandwidth of Metamaterial Antenna Using Pearson Kernel-Based Techniques

The use of metamaterial enhances the performance of a specific class of antennas known as metamaterial antennas.The radiation cost and quality factor of the antenna are influenced by the size of the antenna.Metamaterial antennas allow for the circumvention of the bandwidth restriction for small antennas.Antenna parameters have recently been predicted using machine learning algorithms in existing literature.Machine learning can take the place of the manual process of experimenting to find the ideal simulated antenna parameters.The accuracy of the prediction will be primarily dependent on the model that is used.In this paper,a novel method for forecasting the bandwidth of the metamaterial antenna is proposed,based on using the Pearson Kernel as a standard kernel.Along with these new approaches,this paper suggests a unique hypersphere-based normalization to normalize the values of the dataset attributes and a dimensionality reduction method based on the Pearson kernel to reduce the dimension.A novel algorithm for optimizing the parameters of Convolutional Neural Network(CNN)based on improved Bat Algorithm-based Optimization with Pearson Mutation(BAO-PM)is also presented in this work.The prediction results of the proposed work are better when compared to the existing models in the literature.

Microstrip Patch Antenna with an Inverted T-Type Notch in the Partial Ground for Breast Cancer Detections

This study designs a microstrip patch antenna with an inverted T-type notch in the partial ground to detect tumorcells inside the human breast.The size of the current antenna is small enough(18mm×21mm×1.6mm)todistribute around the breast phantom.The operating frequency has been observed from6–14GHzwith a minimumreturn loss of−61.18 dB and themaximumgain of current proposed antenna is 5.8 dBiwhich is flexiblewith respectto the size of antenna.After the distribution of eight antennas around the breast phantom,the return loss curveswere observed in the presence and absence of tumor cells inside the breast phantom,and these observations showa sharp difference between the presence and absence of tumor cells.The simulated results show that this proposedantenna is suitable for early detection of cancerous cells inside the breast.

Effect of antenna helicity on discharge characteristics of helicon plasma under a divergent magnetic field

The characteristics of the blue core phenomenon observed in a divergent magnetic field helicon plasma are investigated using two different helical antennas, namely right-handed and lefthanded helical antennas. The mode transition, discharge image, spatial profiles of plasma density and electron temperature are diagnosed using a Langmuir probe, a Nikon D90 camera,an intensified charge-coupled device camera and an optical emission spectrometer, respectively.The results demonstrated that the blue core phenomenon appeared in the upstream region of the discharge tube at a fixed magnetic field under both helical antennas. However, it is more likely to appear in a right-handed helical antenna, in which the plasma density and ionization rate of the helicon plasma are higher. The spatial profiles of the plasma density and electron temperature are also different in both axial and radial directions for these two kinds of helical antenna. The wavelength calculated based on the dispersion relation of the bounded whistler wave is consistent with the order of magnitude of plasma length. It is proved that the helicon plasma is part of the wave mode discharge mechanism.

A Multi-Token Sector Antenna Neighbor Discovery Protocol for Directional Ad Hoc Networks

In this paper,we propose a Multi-token Sector Antenna Neighbor Discovery(M-SAND)protocol to enhance the efficiency of neighbor discovery in asynchronous directional ad hoc networks.The central concept of our work involves maintaining multiple tokens across the network.To prevent mutual interference among multi-token holders,we introduce the time and space non-interference theorems.Furthermore,we propose a master-slave strategy between tokens.When the master token holder(MTH)performs the neighbor discovery,it decides which 1-hop neighbor is the next MTH and which 2-hop neighbors can be the new slave token holders(STHs).Using this approach,the MTH and multiple STHs can simultaneously discover their neighbors without causing interference with each other.Building on this foundation,we provide a comprehensive procedure for the M-SAND protocol.We also conduct theoretical analyses on the maximum number of STHs and the lower bound of multi-token generation probability.Finally,simulation results demonstrate the time efficiency of the M-SAND protocol.When compared to the QSAND protocol,which uses only one token,the total neighbor discovery time is reduced by 28% when 6beams and 112 nodes are employed.

Array (Smart) Antennas Improve GSM Performance

As wireless data applications over cellular networks become more widespread, the pressure to increase capacity will become even more intense. Capacity in the 800 and 900 MHz bands, where bandwidth is restricted, is already becoming a limiting factor. This paper attempts to address how the application of smart antenna systems has brought about improvements in call quality and increased capacity through reduced Interference in Mobile Communication. The smart antenna may be in a variety of ways to improve the performance of a communications system. Perhaps most importantly is its capability to cancel co-channel interference. It helps in improving the system performance by increasing the channel capacity, spectrum efficiency, extending range coverage, speech quality, enabling tighter reuse of frequencies within a cellular network and economically, feasible increased signal gain, greater, reduced multipath reflection. It has been argued that Smart antennas and the Algorithms to control them are vital to a high-capacity communication system development.

The electrical design of a membrane antenna for a lunar-based low-frequency radio telescope

Detecting primordial fluctuations from the cosmic dark ages requires extremely large low-frequency radio telescope arrays deployed on the far side of the Moon.The antenna of such an array must be lightweight,easily storable and transportable,deployable on a large scale,durable,and capable of good electrical performance.A membrane antenna is an excellent candidate to meet these criteria.We study the design of a low-frequency membrane antenna for a lunar-based low-frequency(<30 MHz)radio telescope constructed from polyimide film widely used in aerospace applications,owing to its excellent dielectric properties and high stability as a substrate material.We first design and optimize an antenna in free space through dipole deformation and coupling principles,then simulate an antenna on the lunar surface with a simple lunar soil model,yielding an efficiency greater than 90%in the range of 12-19 MHz and greater than 10%in the range of 5-35 MHz.The antenna inherits the omni-directional radiation pattern of a simple dipole antenna in the 5-30 MHz frequency band,giving a large field of view and allowing detection of the 21 cm global signal when used alone.A demonstration prototype is constructed,and its measured electrical property is found to be consistent with simulated results using|S11|measurements.This membrane antenna can potentially fulfill the requirements of a lunar low-frequency array,establishing a solid technical foundation for future large-scale arrays for exploring the cosmic dark ages.

A Combined Antenna Array Deployment with High Positioning Accuracy and Low Angular Measurement Error

In this paper,an antenna array composed of circular array and orthogonal linear array is proposed by using the design of long and short baseline“orthogonal linear array”and the circular array ambiguity resolution design of multi-group baseline clustering.The effectiveness of the antenna array in this paper is verified by sufficient simulation and experiment.After the system deviation correction work,it is found that in the L/S/C/X frequency bands,the ambiguity resolution probability is high,and the phase difference system error between each channel is basically the same.The angle measurement error is less than 0.5°,and the positioning error is less than 2.5 km.Notably,as the center frequency increases,calibration consistency improves,and the calibration frequency points become applicable over a wider frequency range.At a center frequency of 11.5 GHz,the calibration frequency point bandwidth extends to 1200 MHz.This combined antenna array deployment holds significant promise for a wide range of applications in contemporary wireless communication systems.

Optimization of the Physical Aperture of the Parabolic Reflector Antenna

In fields like astronomy and radar technology, high-gain antennas are required for long-distance communication. Due to its relatively large gain, the use of parabolic antennas has become very popular over time, because they can easily achieve gains of above 30 dB at microwave and higher frequencies. Today, most systems’ success depends on how well the antennas perform. These antennas are available in different types and sizes. Each antenna’s effective area usually has less than the actual physical area of the antenna surface. This means that the unused area of the antenna is massive, and a waste. The aim of the research is to show that the actual physical aperture of a parabolic antenna can be reduced as much as possible to equal the effective area, as given by the antenna formula, thereby saving manufacturing costs, improve the aesthetics. In other words, the focus of this work is to experimentally show that reflector antenna can be made of smaller sizes but better performance. Measurements were taken from different positions from a parabolic antenna, the signal level measured and compared with signal levels for optimal performance.

New Antenna Array Beamforming Techniques Based on Hybrid Convolution/Genetic Algorithm for 5G and Beyond Communications

Side lobe level reduction(SLL)of antenna arrays significantly enhances the signal-to-interference ratio and improves the quality of service(QOS)in recent and future wireless communication systems starting from 5G up to 7G.Furthermore,it improves the array gain and directivity,increasing the detection range and angular resolution of radar systems.This study proposes two highly efficient SLL reduction techniques.These techniques are based on the hybridization between either the single convolution or the double convolution algorithms and the genetic algorithm(GA)to develop the Conv/GA andDConv/GA,respectively.The convolution process determines the element’s excitations while the GA optimizes the element spacing.For M elements linear antenna array(LAA),the convolution of the excitation coefficients vector by itself provides a new vector of excitations of length N=(2M−1).This new vector is divided into three different sets of excitations including the odd excitations,even excitations,and middle excitations of lengths M,M−1,andM,respectively.When the same element spacing as the original LAA is used,it is noticed that the odd and even excitations provide a much lower SLL than that of the LAA but with amuch wider half-power beamwidth(HPBW).While the middle excitations give the same HPBWas the original LAA with a relatively higher SLL.Tomitigate the increased HPBWof the odd and even excitations,the element spacing is optimized using the GA.Thereby,the synthesized arrays have the same HPBW as the original LAA with a two-fold reduction in the SLL.Furthermore,for extreme SLL reduction,the DConv/GA is introduced.In this technique,the same procedure of the aforementioned Conv/GA technique is performed on the resultant even and odd excitation vectors.It provides a relatively wider HPBWthan the original LAA with about quad-fold reduction in the SLL.

Designing a Dual-Feed Circular Polarization Antenna

This paper describes a novel dual-feed circularly polarized antenna,and the dual feeding mode is realized by grooving on the antenna radiator.The antenna utilizes air dielectric material to meet the requirements of low weight and cost.Test results demonstrate that the antenna exhibits capacitive loading between the metal antenna patch and the ground floor,allowing for adjustment of the working frequency of the dual-feed circularly polarized microstrip antenna.Specifically,the original center frequency of 2.264 GHz was reduced to 1.582 GHz,facilitating antenna miniaturization and broad bandwidth.With a return loss(S11)below-10 dB,a bandwidth of 72 MHz(1.552-1.624 GHz)was obtained.Additionally,the dual-feed microstrip antenna incorporates a 90°bridge,resulting in circular polarization gains of 2.26 dBi at 1.561 GHz and 2.45 dBi at 1.575 GHz.Overall,the antenna design offers a large working bandwidth and excellent circular polarization characteristics,making it suitable for a wide range of applications in satellite navigation and positioning terminals.

Design and study of a compact planar ultra-wideband antenna

In this paper,a novel,small,and compact planar antenna for ultra-wideband(UWB)applications is proposed.The antenna is an extension of microstrip slot antenna technology.To achieve ultra-wideband characteristics,a tapered microstrip fork-shaped stub has been employed.A symmetric polygon wide slot has been placed on the antenna ground.The design was investigated numerically to obtain proper dimensions for the antenna and a prototype was constructed.The return loss,pattern and gain of the prototype antenna have been measured.The transient pulse signal fidelity has also been investigated by finite-difference time-domain(FDTD)method.Experimental results show that the proposed antenna design has promising characteristics for UWB applications.

Progress in ultra-wideband planar antennas

This paper introduces the advances of ultra-wideband （UWB） and super-wideband （SWB） planar antennas based on the printed monopole, microstrip slot and other planar antenna designs in the last decade. A brief history of the ultrawideband antennas is first provided. Several types of planar antennas for UWB systems with band-notched designs are reviewed. Special SWB planar antenna designs with the bandwidth ratio greater than 10：1 including metal-plate and printed monopole antennas and tapered slot antennas are presented and compared.