Integrated Test System for Large-aperture Telescopes Based on Astrophotonics Interconnections

This study aims to improve the integrated testing of large-aperture telescopes to clarify the fundamental principles of an integrated testing system based on astrophotonics.Our demonstration and analyses focused on element-position sensing and modulation based on spatial near-geometric beams,high-throughput step-difference measurements based on channel spectroscopy,distributed broadband-transmittance testing,and standard spectral tests based on near-field energy regulation.Comprehensive analyses and experiments were conducted to confirm the feasibility of the proposed system in the integrated testing process of large-aperture telescopes.The results demonstrated that the angular resolution of the light rays exceeded 5arcsec,which satisfies the requirements for component-position detection in future large-aperture telescopes.The measurement resolution of the wavefront tilt was better than 0.45μrad.Based on the channel spectral method—which combined a high signal-to-noise ratio and high sensitivity,along with continuous-spectral digital segmentation and narrowband-spectral physical segmentation—a resolution of 0.050μm and a range of 50μm were obtained.After calibration,the measurement resolution of the pupil deviation improved to exceed 4%accuracy,and the transmission measurements achieved a consistency of over 2%accuracy.Regarding fringe-broadband interferometry measurements,the system maintained high stability,ensuring its operation within the coherence length,and robustly detected the energy without unwrapping the phase.The use of a projector for calibrating broadband-spectrum measurements led to a reduction in contrast from 0.8142 to 0.6038,which further validates the system's applicability in the integrated testing process of large-aperture telescopes.This study greatly enhanced the observational capabilities of large-aperture telescopes while reducing the integrated system's volume,weight,and power consumption.

Physics-data-driven intelligent optimization for large-aperture metalenses

Metalenses have gained significant attention and have been widely utilized in optical systems for focusing and imaging,owing to their lightweight,high-integration,and exceptional-flexibility capabilities.Traditional design methods neglect the coupling effect between adjacent meta-atoms,thus harming the practical performance of meta-devices.The existing physical/data-driven optimization algorithms can solve the above problems,but bring significant time costs or require a large number of data-sets.Here,we propose a physics-data-driven method employing an“intelligent optimizer”that enables us to adaptively modify the sizes of the meta-atom according to the sizes of its surrounding ones.The implementation of such a scheme effectively mitigates the undesired impact of local lattice coupling,and the proposed network model works well on thousands of data-sets with a validation loss of 3×10^(−3).Based on the“intelligent optimizer”,a 1-cm-diameter metalens is designed within 3 hours,and the experimental results show that the 1-mm-diameter metalens has a relative focusing efficiency of 93.4%(compared to the ideal focusing efficiency)and a Strehl ratio of 0.94.Compared to previous inverse design method,our method significantly boosts designing efficiency with five orders of magnitude reduction in time.More generally,it may set a new paradigm for devising large-aperture meta-devices.

The Tianma 65 m radio telescope antenna

The Tianma 65 m radio telescope(TMRT)at Shanghai is a fully steerable single-dish radio telescope in China,operating at centimeter to millimeter wavelengths(1.25 GHz to 50 GHz).This paper presents details on the main specifications,design,performance analysis,testing,and construction of the telescope antenna.The measured total efficiency is better than 50%over the whole elevation angle range,first sidelobe levels are less than−20 dB,antenna system noise temperatures are less than 70 K at 30°elevation angle,and pointing accuracy is less than 3″.The measured and calculated results are in good agreement,verifying the effectiveness of the design and analysis.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dual-band multi-beam reconfigurable terahertz antenna based on graphene frequency selective surface

In this paper,a dual-band graphene-based frequency selective surface(GFSS)is investigated and the operating mechanism of this GFSS is analyzed.By adjusting the bias voltage to control the graphene chemical po-tential between 0 eV and 0.5 eV,the GFSS can achieve four working states:dual-band passband,high-pass lowimpedance,low-pass high-impedance,and band-stop.Based on this GFSS,a hexagonal radome on a broadband omnidirectional monopole antenna is proposed,which can achieve independent 360°six-beam omnidirectional scanning at 1.08 THz and 1.58 THz dual bands.In addition,while increasing the directionality,the peak gains of the dual bands reach 7.44 dBi and 6.67 dBi,respectively.This work provides a simple method for realizing multi-band terahertz multi-beam reconfigurable antennas.

Design of a Metasurface Antenna Based on Characteristic Mode Theory

A novel metasurface antenna consisting of 5×5 rectangular patch elements is presented.Thestructure with and without the central element are both analyzed by the Characteristic Mode Theory(CMT).The developed mutually orthogonal principal modes of the optimized periodic patch structure areexcited by a center-feed dipole.A differential feeding network is employed to realize impedance matching.Prototype with profile height of 0.07λ_(0)(λ_(0)is the wavelength in free space at the lowest operatingfrequency)is fabricated and assembled to verify the simulation results.The measured results show that thereflectance coefficient of proposed matesurface antenna is less than-10 dB in the whole operating bandrange from 4.2 GHz to 5.5 GHz,a relative bandwidth of 26.8%is achieved,and the maximummeasured realized gain is more than 9 dBi with a maximum radiation efficiency of 90%.The designprovides a guideline on the application of characteristic modes(CMs)to radiation problems.

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.

Deployment Dynamic Modeling and Driving Schemes for a Ring-Truss Deployable Antenna

Mesh reflector antennas are widely used in space tasks owing to their light weight,high surface accuracy,and large folding ratio.They are stowed during launch and then fully deployed in orbit to form a mesh reflector that transmits signals.Smooth deployment is essential for duty services;therefore,accurate and efficient dynamic modeling and analysis of the deployment process are essential.One major challenge is depicting time-varying resistance of the cable network and capturing the cable-truss coupling behavior during the deployment process.This paper proposes a general dynamic analysis methodology for cable-truss coupling.Considering the topological diversity and geometric nonlinearity,the cable network's equilibrium equation is derived,and an explicit expression of the time-varying tension of the boundary cables,which provides the main resistance in truss deployment,is obtained.The deployment dynamic model is established,which considers the coupling effect between the soft cables and deployable truss.The effects of the antenna's driving modes and parameters on the dynamic deployment performance were investigated.A scaled prototype was manufactured,and the deployment experiment was conducted to verify the accuracy of the proposed modeling method.The proposed methodology is suitable for general cable antennas with arbitrary topologies and parameters,providing theoretical guidance for the dynamic performance evaluation of antenna driving schemes.

Spatial Coded Modulation:Coding over Antennas

In spatial modulation systems,the reliability of the active antenna detection is of vital importance since the modulated symbols tend to be correctly demodulated when the active antennas are accurately identified.In this paper,we propose a spatial coded modulation(SCM)scheme,which improves the accuracy of the active antenna detection by coding over the transmit antennas.Specifically,the antenna activation pattern in the SCM corresponds to a codeword in a properly designed codebook with a larger minimum Hamming distance than the conventional spatial modulation.As the minimum Hamming distance increases,the reliability of the active antenna detection is directly enhanced,which yields a better system reliability.In addition to the reliability,the proposed SCM scheme also achieves a higher capacity with the identical antenna configuration compared to the conventional counterpart.The optimal maximum likelihood detector is first formulated.Then,a low-complexity suboptimal detector is proposed to reduce the computational complexity.Theoretical derivations of the channel capacity and the bit error rate are presented in various channel scenarios.Further derivation on performance bounding is also provided to reveal the insight of the benefit of increasing the minimum Hamming distance.Numerical results validate the analysis and demonstrate that the proposed SCM outperforms the conventional spatial modulation techniques in both channel capacity and system reliability.

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.

Beidou receiver based on anti-jamming antenna arrays with self-calibration for precise relative positioning

Unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)may be subjected to unintentional radio frequency interference(RFI)or hostile jamming attack which will lead to fail to track global navigation satellite system(GNSS)signals.Therefore,the simultaneous realization of anti-jamming and high-precision carrier phase difference positioning becomes a dilemmatic problem.In this paper,a distortionless phase digital beamforming(DBF)algorithm with self-calibration antenna arrays is proposed,which enables to obtain distortionless carrier phase while suppressing jamming.Additionally,architecture of high precision Beidou receiver based on anti-jamming antenna arrays is proposed.Finally,the performance of the algorithm is evaluated,including antenna calibration accuracy,carrier phase distortionless accuracy,and carrier phase measurement accuracy without jamming.Meanwhile,the maximal jamming to signal ratio(JSR)and real time kinematic(RTK)positioning accuracy under wideband jamming are also investigated.The experimental results based on the real-life Beidou signals show that the proposed method has an excellent performance for precise relative positioning under jamming when compared with other anti-jamming methods.

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.

3D electromagnetic simulation of the coupling characteristics and double-stub Ferrite tuners impedance matching for EAST ICRH four-strap antenna

A program developed with COMSOL software integrates EAST four-strap antenna coupling with the double-stub Ferrite tuners(FT)impedance matching,obtaining physical quantities crucial for predicting the overall performance of the ion cyclotron resonance heating(ICRH)antenna and matching system.These quantities encompass S-matrix,port complex impedance,reflection coefficients,electric field and voltage distribution,and optimal matching settings.In this study,we explore the relationship between S-matrix,reflection coefficients,port complex impedance,and frequency.Then,we analyze the impact of Faraday screens placement position and transparency,the distance from the Faraday screen(FS)to the current straps(CS),the relative distance between ports,and the characteristic impedance of the transmission line on the coupling characteristic impedance of the EAST ICRH system.Finally,we simulate the electric field distribution and voltage distribution of the EAST ICRH system for plasma heating with double-stub FT impedance matching.Using optimized parameters,the coupling power of the ICRH system can be approximately doubled.The results present herein may offer guidance for the design of high-power,long-pulse operation ICRH antenna systems.

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.

OAM mode purity improvement based on antenna array

Orbital Angular Momentum(OAM)waves are characterized by helical wave fronts and orthogonality between different modes.Therefore,OAM waves have huge potential in improving wireless communications'channel capacity and radar imaging's resolution.Consequently,the generation and application of OAM waves have attracted a lot of attention.And many methods are proposed to generate OAM waves.Although antenna array is the most popular method of generating OAM waves,OAM waves generated by antenna array have redundant modes.However,all advantages of OAM waves are closely related to infinite OAM modes.Thus,to better apply OAM waves to wireless communications and radar,it is very important to reduce unnecessary OAM modes and improve the OAM mode purity.In order to improve the OAM mode purity,two combined antenna arrays composed of X direction antenna and Y direction antenna array are proposed in this paper.The X direction antenna array and the Y direction antenna array are supplied by the excitations with the same amplitude and fixed phase shift.The overall phase shift of the X direction antenna array isπ/2 more or less than that of the Y direction antenna array.The results of formulas and antenna models in CST show that the combined antenna arrays can generate OAM waves with less redundant modes in x component,y component and z component.Besides,the z component carries pure OAM modes.

An externally perceivable smart leaky-wave antenna based on spoof surface plasmon polaritons

Smart antennas have received great attention for their potentials to enable communication and perception functions at the same time.However,realizing the function synthesis remains an open challenge,and most existing system solutions are limited to narrow operating bands and high complexity and cost.Here,we propose an externally perceivable leakywave antenna(LWA)based on spoof surface plasmon polaritons(SSPPs),which can realize adaptive real-time switching between the“radiating”and“non-radiating”states and beam tracking at different frequencies.With the assistance of computer vision,the smart SSPP-LWA is able to detect the external target user or jammer,and intelligently track the target by self-adjusting the operating frequency.The proposed scheme helps to reduce the power consumption through dynamically controlling the radiating state of the antenna,and improve spectrum utilization and avoid spectrum conflicts through intelligently deciding the radiating frequency.On the other hand,it is also helpful for the physical layer communication security through switching the antenna working state according to the presence of the target and target beam tracking in real time.In addition,the proposed smart antenna can be generalized to other metamaterial systems and could be a candidate for synaesthesia integration in future smart antenna systems.

Kinematic-mapping-model-guided analysis and optimization of 2-PSS&1-RR circular-rail parallel mechanism for fully steerable phased array antennas

This paper presents a systematic methodology for analyzing and optimizing an innovative antenna mount designed for phased array antennas, implemented through a novel 2-PSS&1-RR circular-rail parallel mechanism. Initially, a comparative motion analysis between the 3D model of the mount and its full-scale prototype is conducted to validate effectiveness. Given the inherent complexity, a kinematic mapping model is established between the mount and the crank-slider linkage, providing a guiding framework for subsequent analysis and optimization. Guided by this model, feasible inverse and forward solutions are derived, enabling precise identification of stiffness singularities. The concept of singularity distance is thus introduced to reflect the structural stiffness of the mount. Subsequently, also guided by the mapping model, a heuristic algorithm incorporating two backtracking procedures is developed to reduce the mount's mass. Additionally, a parametric finite-element model is employed to explore the relation between singularity distance and structural stiffness. The results indicate a significant reduction(about 16%) in the antenna mount's mass through the developed algorithm, while highlighting the singularity distance as an effective stiffness indicator for this type of antenna mount.