Azimuth Plane Research Articles

1-Bit Hexagonal Meander-Shaped Wideband Electronically Reconfigurable Transmitarray for Satellite Communications

This paper proposes a hexagonal meander-shaped wideband electronically reconfigurable transmitarray (HMRTA) at Ku band for satellite communications and radar applications. The proposed transmitarray offers high gain, low profile, and wideband characteristics with beam-scanning and beam-forming features. The cascaded structure is a low-profile and compact transmitarray. The transmitter (Tx) layer has an angular hexagonal patch with a meandered shape and resonating parasitic patches to enhance the bandwidth. The receiver (Rx) layer comprises a two-part hexagonal receiver patch and a dual ring impedance-matching receiver layer. The current reversal phenomena have executed the 180° phase shift by integrating two diodes in opposite directions. The measured results of a unit cell achieve a minimum insertion loss of 0.86 dB and 0.92 dB for state I and state II. The maximum insertion loss is 2.58 dB from 14.12 GHz to 18.02 GHz and is about 24.83% at 16.5 GHz. The full-wave simulations of a 20 × 20 space-fed reconfigurable transmitarray were performed. Good radiation patterns at all scanning angles of two principal planes are achieved, and the cross-polarization level remains less than −20 dB. The simulated 3 dB gain fluctuation bandwidth of the array is 15.85~18.35 GHz, and the wideband characteristics are verified. The simulation results show that the array can perform beam scanning ±60° in the elevation (y-z) plane and obtain the beam-scanning characteristics for ±60° in the Azimuth (x-z) plane.

Effect of zero penetration angle chevrons in supersonic jet noise and screech tone mitigation

Abstract An experimental study is conducted to determine the effect of chevrons with zero penetration angles at the CD nozzle exit on an emitted noise field. The implication of passive control is to reduce the blockage of the nozzle exit area with minimal engine thrust penalty. The cold air jets issued at design Mach numbers 1.5 and 1.75 from the De Laval nozzles of the circular section were investigated. This passive control eliminates screech tones at the over and ideally expanded conditions at 60° and 90° in the azimuth plane. The acoustic data measurements have also been observed for the chosen jet Mach numbers. The schlieren images reveal the shock cell pattern to eliminate the effect of shock-associated noise levels at supersonic jets. The results show that 10 chevrons with no penetration act as an effective eliminator of screech tone and noise suppression average ∆OASPL value up to 3 dB at Mach number 1.75.

Reconsidering tympanal-acoustic interactions leads to an improved model of auditory acuity in a parasitoid fly

Although most binaural organisms locate sound sources using neurological structures to amplify the sounds they hear, some animals use mechanically coupled hearing organs instead. One of these animals, the parasitoid fly Ormia ochracea (O. ochracea), has astoundingly accurate sound localization abilities. It can locate objects in the azimuthal plane with a precision of 2°, equal to that of humans, despite an intertympanal distance of only 0.5 mm, which is less than th of the wavelength of the sound emitted by the crickets that it parasitizes. O. ochracea accomplishes this feat via mechanically coupled tympana that interact with incoming acoustic pressure waves to amplify differences in the signals received at the two ears. In 1995, Miles et al developed a model of hearing mechanics in O. ochracea that represents the tympana as flat, front-facing prosternal membranes, though they lie on a convex surface at an angle from the flies’ frontal and transverse planes. The model works well for incoming sound angles less than but suffers from reduced accuracy (up to 60% error) at higher angles compared to response data acquired from O. ochracea specimens. Despite this limitation, it has been the basis for bio-inspired microphone designs for decades. Here, we present critical improvements to this classic hearing model based on information from three-dimensional reconstructions of O. ochracea’s tympanal organ. We identified the orientation of the tympana with respect to a frontal plane and the azimuthal angle segment between the tympana as morphological features essential to the flies’ auditory acuity, and hypothesized a differentiated mechanical response to incoming sound on the ipsi- and contralateral sides that depend on these features. We incorporated spatially-varying model coefficients representing this asymmetric response, making a new quasi-two-dimensional (q2D) model. The q2D model has high accuracy (average errors of under 10%) for all incoming sound angles. This improved biomechanical model may inform the design of new microscale directional microphones and other small-scale acoustic sensor systems.

Horizontally Polarized Omnidirectional Antenna Using Slotted Rectangular Patch and Defected Ground Structure

An investigation of novel techniques in the designing of a low profile, horizontally polarized omnidirectional (HPO) patch antenna with omnidirectionality in the H-plane using a defected ground structure is presented in this study. The HPO patch antenna is designed by sequentially etching four rectangular and four open diagonal slots symmetrically on the patch and the antenna's ground plane. It creates four quarterwavelength open stubs that produce an in-phase circulating current on both the ground and the patch. Narrow bandwidth is achieved by using the four quarter-wavelength open stubs and by printing sequential slots only on the ground. Another set of four quarter-wavelength shorted stubs is achieved by sequentially etching four rectangular and open diagonal slots on the patch to resonate with another frequency and to increase the bandwidth by merging these two resonance frequencies. Combining these two resonance frequencies covers the applications of 2.39–2.52 GHz WiFi bands. The overall dimension of the proposed antenna structure is 0.32 λ <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</sub> ×0.32 λ <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</sub> ×0.006 λ <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</sub> with 5.51% bandwidth and moderate gain of 2.2dBi and roundness within 1 dB in the azimuth plane.

Full 360° beam steering millimetre‐wave leaky‐wave antennas coupled with bespoke 3D‐printed dielectric lenses for 5G base stations

AbstractA fast beam‐steering capability has been demonstrated using an array of high‐gain corrugated substrate integrated waveguide (CSIW) slot antennas coupled with a bespoke dielectric lens. The proposed system prototype has been simulated, fabricated, and measured. The proposed system is shown to have a full 360° beam‐steer in azimuth plane with an angular sensitivity of 9°, half power beamwidth (HPBW) of 18° and a gain of &lt; 20.5 dBi at n257 frequency band of 26 to 29 GHz. Further, the antenna is shown to have a fixed frequency beam steer of ±15° along with a frequency‐controlled beam‐scanning of ±45° in the elevation plane. The antenna setup is shown to be suitable for applications for 5G base‐stations.

An Analytical Framework of Multisector Rectenna Array Design for Angular Misalignment Tolerant RF Power Transfer Systems

A design procedure is presented for an angular misalignment-tolerant multisector rectenna array used as a wireless energy harvesting (WEH) system. The proposed analytical framework derives constraints on the synthesized harvested dc power pattern of the rectenna element as a solution to completely mitigate the angular misalignment. The derived constraints determine the optimal number of sectors required to ensure uniform harvesting capability across the entire azimuth plane. This is analytically verified for a conventional patch antenna used in the rectenna element of the multisector WEH system. The design constraints give <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N=8$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and 12 sectors the optimal solution for single patch and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2 \times 1$ </tex-math></inline-formula> patch array rectenna. Furthermore, a new multilayer wide-beam rectenna is proposed at 5.8 GHz requiring <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N=6$ </tex-math></inline-formula> sectors to mitigate the angular misalignment with 36.5% size reduction when compared with the conventional patch WEH system. The prototype of the WEH systems using the conventional patch rectenna and the proposed rectenna is fabricated and measured. The measurement results corroborate the analytical and simulation results validating the capability of the proposed framework to achieve uniform energy harvesting in the entire azimuth plane.

Virtual antenna array for reduced energy per bit transmission at Sub-5 GHz mobile wireless communication systems

This paper presents an innovative technique to synthesize a virtual antenna array (VAA) that consumes less energy than conventional antenna arrays that are used in mobile communications systems. We have shown that for a specific spectral efficiency a wireless system using the proposed virtual antenna array consumes significantly less energy per bit (∼3 dB) than a wireless system using a conventional multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) array. This means the adoption of the proposed VAA technology in smartphones, iPad, Tablets and even base-stations should significantly reduce the carbon footprint of wireless systems. The proposed VAA is realized by employing a pair of linear antenna arrays that are placed in an orthogonal configuration relative to each other. This orthogonal arrangement ensures the radiation is circularly polarized. The size of the standard radiating elements constituting the VAA were miniaturized using the topology optimization method. The design of the VAA incorporates substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) and metasurface technologies. The function of SIW in the design was twofold, namely, to reduce energy loss in the substrate on which the VAA is implemented, and secondly to mitigate unwanted electromagnetic interactions between the neighboring radiating elements and thereby enhancing isolation which otherwise would degrade the radiation characteristics of the array. Metasurface technology served to effectively increase the effective aperture of the array with no impact on the footprint of the array. The consequence of SIW and metasurface technologies was improvement in the gain and radiation efficiency of the array. The proposed four orthogonal 4-element VAA covers the entire sub-5 GHz frequency range, and it radiates bidirectional in the azimuth plane and omni-directional in the elevation plane. Moreover, it is relatively easy to design and fabricate. The proposed VAA has dimensions of 0.96λ0 × 0.96λ0 × 0.0016λ0 at mid-band frequency of 3 GHz. VAA has a measured gain of 25 dBi and radiates with 90% efficiency. The average isolation between the linear arrays constituting the virtual array is better than 27 dB.

A varactor-based 1024-element RIS design for mm-waves

This paper reports a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) for beamforming and beam steering applications operating in the millimeter wave (mm-waves) frequency band. The proposed 2-bit RIS design is implemented using a radar cross-section (RCS) approach in ANSYS HFSS for performance evaluation and system-level analysis. It is based on split-ring resonator (SRR) unit cells, tuned by varactor diodes, comprising 1,024 elements arranged in a 32 × 32 matrix with linear gradient phase configuration operating at 24.5 GHz over the fifth generation of mobile communications New Radio (5G NR) frequency range 2 (FR2). A beam steering from −60° to 60° in the azimuth plane is demonstrated for mm-waves coverage extension. Numerical simulations of RCS patterns from −10° to −60° and from 10° to 60° with approximately 3 dB scan loss manifest the applicability of the proposed RIS towards the sixth generation of mobile communications (6G). Furthermore, simulated results of angular reciprocity prove the RIS response up to 110° under an oblique incident wave at 60°. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest RIS angular reciprocity reported in the literature, validating its application to coverage extension from −60° to 60°. In addition, the RCS level and reflected angle relationship are modeled for system-level analysis purposes.

Controllable LC anchoring on poly{1-[4-(3-carboxy-4-hydroxyphenylazo) benzenesulfonamido]-1,2-ethanediyl, sodium salt} command surface

Herein we present a comprehensive evaluation of the side-chain azobenzene-containing polymer as photoalignment command surface for nematic Liquid Crystal (LC) device assembly. Decomposition of birefringence creation dynamics was used to elucidate the relation between the photoinduced illumination intensity, pre-tilt angle and anchoring strength at the LC/photopolymer interface. The electro-optical parameters such as threshold voltage, response time and the phase retardation of assembled LC cell were characterized for actinic intensities up to 100 mW/cm2. In azimuthal plane, controlling the illumination intensity improved the anchoring strength by two orders of magnitude and allows to manipulate the LC director at will. Direct impact of the enhanced zenithal anchoring on LC devices decay time during Fréedericksz transition was also demonstrated.

A Compact 3-D Multisector Orientation Insensitive Wireless Power Transfer System

The power conversion efficiency (PCE) in wireless power transfer (WPT) degrades due to angular misalignment between the transmitter (Tx) and the rectenna (Rx) along the azimuth plane. Therefore, a compact 3-D multisector orientation insensitive WPT system is proposed to address this problem. The optimal number of sectors ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N=8$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ) is determined analytically using patch antenna design equations to mitigate the effects of angular misalignment. In addition, conditions on the receiver antenna radiation pattern are investigated to enhance the performance of the WPT system. Furthermore, the observed conditions are utilized for designing a high gain WPT system at 5.8 GHz with <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N=8$ </tex-math></inline-formula> sectors. The proposed WPT system provides uniform power harvesting capability in the azimuth plane and 51.2% higher power harvesting capacity than the patch antenna WPT system.

A Planar Orbicular Rectenna Array System With 3-D Uniform Coverage for Wireless Powering of IoT Nodes

Microwave power transfer (MPT) is a revolutionary technique for charging batteries of wireless sensor nodes in smart applications. However, sensor nodes can be positioned at any arbitrary orientation and location with respect to the microwave transmitter (Tx). Therefore, harvested DC power depends on the node’s position and orientation. Thus, to reduce this reliance, a novel, fully integrated planar multisector rectenna (Rx) array is designed to achieve a nearly uniform 3-D spherical DC coverage. To realize orientation insensitive azimuth and elevation plane coverage, the proposed Rx features eight radially arranged endfire Rx (EFR-antenna) elements, and a bore-sight Rx (BSR-antenna) element with multiarms for inherent DC combining is used at the center with orthogonally polarized ports. Furthermore, direct conjugate matching of antenna and rectifier circuit with integrated operation is applied to realize a fully integrated design. This reduces insertion losses and achieves the desired 3-D coverage along with miniaturization, shaping it suitable for deployment at space-constrained IoT sensor nodes for orientation oblivion wireless powering.

Density Parameters of the Probability Distribution of Fluctuations of the Apparent Center of Radiation from the Helicopter Propeller Bushing during its Radar Observation

The properties of angular noise of radar reflections from the rotor head are considered. On the basis of a multipoint geometric model of the rotor head, analytical expressions are obtained that allow calculating the parameters of the probability distribution density of angular noise for the azimuth planes and the elevation of the rotor head of a single-bladed screw at an undirected angle of the control sleeve. Correlation obtained for one blade rotor head is generalized to thease of a rotor head with an arbitrary number of blades. It is shown that the rotor head angular noise is a random process with periodically changing parameters. The theoreticalresults are confirmed by mathematical modeling.

Directive and Steerable Radiation Pattern using SASPA Array

This work examines the ability of a special type of smart antenna array known as Switched Active Switched Parasitic Antenna (SASPA) to produce a directive and electronically steerable radiation pattern. The SASPA array consists of antenna elements that are switchable between active and parasitic states by using P-Intrinsic-N (PIN) diodes. The active element is the element that is supplied by the radio frequency while short-circuiting the terminals of an element in the array results in a parasitic element. Due to the strong mutual coupling between the elements, a directional radiation pattern with high gain and a small beamwidth can be produced with only one active element operating at a time. By changing the parasitic state to the active state sequentially for all elements, the directed radiation pattern can be easily rotated. The antenna array structure used in this work is the uniform circular array (UCA) to achieve symmetrical radiation patterns and full coverage of the entire azimuth plane. Also, a novel method for reducing the mutual coupling effect in SASPA arrays is proposed in this work. By using this method, some parameters of the generated SASPA’s radiation pattern can be controlled. The simulated results obtained from this work depict that an N-element SASPA-UCA produces N-symmetrical, switchable, and steerable radiation patterns with high gain, small beamwidth, and a high Front-to-Back (F/B) ratio. Also, the results show that further improvements in these parameters can be achieved by increasing the number of elements in the array. Additional simulations demonstrate that by including decaying function weight in each element's circuitry, the mutual coupling between the components of the SASPA-UCA array can be minimized. The aforementioned parameters can then be efficiently modified using this mutual coupling reduction.

Periodic Asymmetric Trapezoidal Perturbation Microstrip Antenna for Millimeter-Wave Automotive Radar Sensors

This article presents a new design and experimental verification of a broadband wide-beam microstrip array antenna for short-range automotive radar sensors. The antenna is designed based on a pure microstrip transmission line, by inserting short inverted trapezoidal stubs alternately on both sides of the microstrip line periodically to generate a trapezoid-cascaded electric field, which enables the proposed antenna to radiate effectively. Therefore, the proposed antenna has the advantage of a simple structure. The antenna has a larger effective radiation aperture, which leads to a smaller quality factor, so the antenna has a broad bandwidth of 13% (74.02–85.08 GHz), completely covering 76–81 GHz automotive radar frequency band. The peak gain is up to 10.4 dBi. Based on the proposed antenna, a three transmitting antennas and four receiving antennas (3T4R) multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) radar antenna array is designed. To reduce the influence of strong surface waves on the radiation pattern, a design conception of a dummy array with an absorbing load is introduced. The array antenna of each transmitting (TX)/receiving (RX) channel can achieve a wide half-power beamwidth (HPBW) of 120° in the azimuth plane. Besides, the MIMO array exhibits good consistency, with the absolute amplitude error of TX-RX channels less than 3 dB and the phase error less than 20° in the azimuth plane.

A 16 × 16 45° Slant-Polarized Gapwaveguide Phased Array With 65-dBm EIRP at 28 GHz

A high equivalent isotropic radiated power (EIRP) active phased array antenna is proposed for fifth-generation (5G) communication systems at 28 GHz. The numerical design, measurements of a fabricated prototype, and performance analysis are presented. The antenna design is based on the gapwaveguide technology and consists of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$16 \times 16$ </tex-math></inline-formula> single 45° slant-polarized elements. The proposed design uses a low complexity printed circuit board (PCB) structure with only six layers, i.e., a half of the existing wideband solutions. The array antenna incorporates up/downconverter integrated circuits (UDCs) and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1 \times 4$ </tex-math></inline-formula> transceiver beamformer integrated circuits (BFICs). Moreover, a compact and highly efficient transition at the end of each channel of the BFICs has been designed to interconnect the antenna elements with the PCB. The antenna’s front-end loss, which includes the feed line, mismatch, and ohmic losses, is only 1.3 dB. The array covers the scanning range of ±60° in the azimuth plane and ±10° in the elevation plane. The <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$S_{11} &lt; -10$ </tex-math></inline-formula> dB frequency bandwidth is from 26.5 to 29.5 GHz. The maximum EIRP of the antenna is 65.5 dBm at saturation point. The presented design offers a compact, robust, and low-loss performance solution meeting the high transmission power requirements of 5G applications.

Multiband Sub-THz Double Angular Characterization in Indoor Scenario

In this article, we present a multiband channel characterization at sub-THz. Three measurement campaigns were conducted in an indoor environment, for different frequency ranges: 125–155, 235–265, and 270–300 GHz, by exploiting a single (vertical) polarization antenna and performing only the azimuth plane. Line-of-sight (LOS) and nonline-of-sight (NLOS), given by human body obstructions and walls, are considered. From directional measurements, the omnidirectional power angular delay profile was extracted. Modeling of large-scale parameters and cluster study are presented.

UWB full polarization single-plane monopulse reflector antenna

ABSTRACT UWB dual polarization azimuth plane monopulse feed-reflector antenna is presented. Quadridge ‎open ended waveguide working in frequency range from 6 to 12 GHz is proposed as feed for Cassegrain ‎reflector. The feed phase center distance is 0.65 and 1.3 at lowest and highest operating ‎frequency respectively. Sum (Σ) and Diff (Δ) radiation pattern of the feed array are measured in ‎anechoic chamber using same electrical length coaxial cable and 180°Coupler. The results are in good ‎agreement (vertical and horizontal polarizations) with numerical simulation especially for the main ‎beam. To enhance gain value, 50 cm reflector antenna has been used. A proper crossover is achieved ‎by controlling F/D ratio of the equivalent reflector. A compact Cassegrain reflector compatible to feed ‎array is designed and fabricated. The radiation characteristics measurements of the feed-reflector ‎system have been performed using outdoor measurement setup. By ignoring coupler insertion loss, ‎Sum (Diff) gain range is between 24.8 (17) dBi at 6 GHz and 31.7 (29.5) dBi at 12 GHz. Cross pol and null ‎depth better than −31.5 and −24 have been obtained. ‎

A Circularly Polarized Parallel Plate Waveguide Lens-Like Multiple-Beam Linear Array Antenna for Satcom Applications

This work presents a full metal circularly-polarized lens-like antenna for Satcom applications at Ka-band. The antenna is composed of two continuous parallel plate waveguide (PPW) quasi-optical beamformers (QOBF), feeding an array of septum polarizers to generate circular polarization. The QOBFs operate over a wide band and provide a multi-beam coverage over a large field of view in the azimuthal plane, while maintaining a relatively simple mechanical design. The array of septum polarizers is based on a stepped profile to generate circular polarization with a good polarization purity in the uplink of Ka-band (27 - 31 GHz). The antenna is fully realized in aluminium. The antenna system provides 14 beams with alternating right/left handed circular polarization (RHCP/LHCP) with an axial ratio (AR) below 3 Db over an angular range of ±19° in the uplink of Ka-Band. The maximum gain in the azimuthal plane at 30 GHz is about 21 dB over the whole angular range, with a scan loss lower than 1.5 dB. The antenna efficiency is better than 78% for all beams in the operative band.

Miniaturized Electronically Steerable Parasitic Array Antenna

In this article we propose a miniaturized dual-band electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR) antenna. The antenna can generate up to two steerable beams. The beam-steering range of the proposed antenna is 360˚ in the azimuth plane. The antenna’s eual-band coverage includes the frequency ranges from 2.3 GHz to 2.53 GHz and from 2.9 GHz to 3.7 GHz. The antenna consists of six folded parasitic monopole elements surrounding an active conical element. The folded monopole element design offers three times lower antenna height than that of the conventional ESPAR antennas. The active element has conical shape and it is larger in length than the parasitic monopole elements, this enables the dual-band operation. Thus, the proposed design is not only smaller than the conventional ESPAR antennas but it also achieves dual-band operation. Despite its compact design, the antenna has a peak gain of 6.3 dBi, which is equivalent to the gain of conventional ESPAR antennas. These characteristics make the antenna a good candidate for next generation communication systems.

Improved Beam Steering Method Using OAM Waves

Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) is an intrinsic feature of electromagnetic waves which has recently found many applications in several areas in radio and optics. In this paper, we use OAM wave characteristics to present a simple method for beam steering over both elevation and azimuth planes. The design overcomes some limitations of traditional steering methods, such as limited dynamic range of steering, the design complexity, bulky size of the steering structure, the limited bandwidth of operation, and low gain. Based on OAM wave characteristics, the proposed steering method avoids design complexities by adopting a simple method for generating the OAM-carrying waves. The waves are generated by an array of Planar Circular Dipole (PCD) elements. These elements are designed to cover a wide bandwidth range between 3 and 30 GHz. The transmitting array shows an enhanced gain value from 8.5 dBi to almost 11.5 dBi at the broadside angle. Besides the enhanced PCD-based OAM generation, the novelty of the design lies in a new method of beam steering. Beam steering is then performed by controlling the electrical feeding of the PCD elements; the beam azimuthal location is managed by turning off some of the PCD elements, while the elevation is determined by changing the gradient phase of excitation for the turned-on PCD elements. Detailed analysis of the steering method is carried out by finding the mathematical model of the system and the generated waves. The performance has been verified through numerical simulators.