Keynote address: Engineering radio waves for future wireless communication and biomedical systems

Abstract

Radio-frequency waves, including microwaves, play a crucial role in current wireless systems, both communication and biomedical. Millimetre-waves are being seriously considered for the next-generation (5G and beyond) communication systems because the expected improvement in throughput cannot be achieved only from improvement to coding and other “soft” techniques and a significant improvement in the physical layer enhancement (i.e. hardware) is required. Wi-Fi is reaching its limit in 2.5 GHz band and faster millimetre-wave systems such as Wi-Gig will become common in households. Recent discoveries and advances in photonic crystals, electromagnetic band gap, metamaterials and metasurfaces have inspired researchers to consider periodic structures when engineering wave propagation and radiation. This keynote speech will outline selected recent developments in these areas of research. It indicates how bulky dish antennas in communication systems may be replaced by aesthetically appealing flat high-gain antennas, how flexible wearable antennas and implantable antennas can provide comprehensive health monitoring in real-time and how steerable beams can provide a better quality of service in future wireless networks in homes and offices, including millimetre-wave networks.