Low-cost Antenna Research Articles

Electronically Controlled Beam Steerable Dual-Band Star-Shaped DRA for UAS and Wi-Fi Data Link Applications

This communication presents a low-cost dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) with beam steering capability in the ${S}$ - and ${C}$ -bands. A centrally fed star-shaped DRA (SDRA) is placed on a circular substrate with backside metallization. Four folded metallic parasitic strips are placed at each corner of the SDRA and grounded via four RF switches. The switches are controlled by an automated microcontroller circuit. It steers the beam in the entire azimuth plane. The antenna has multiple switching modes to carry out basic operations like searching and tracking in unmanned aircraft system (UAS) application. In basic debug mode, all RF switches are kept OFF or ON to check the working state of the antenna. In searching cum tracking (SCT) mode, the RF switches are used to steer the beam and to obtain bidirectional or unidirectional beam. The average peak gain of the antenna in SCT mode is more than 6 dBi. In basic mode, the antenna has a peak gain of ≈3.5 dBi. The measured results validate the beam steering concept.

A low-cost ELF-MF orthogonal sensor and preamplifier dedicated for wide range lightning magnetic field registration

A low-cost antenna dedicated to wide range lightning magnetic field registration was presented. The bidirectional magnetic field sensor with preamplifier circuit was developed to operate at the local lightning detection station in Rzeszow, Poland. A calibration factor and effective area of the sensor were obtained from laboratory measurements. The calibration setup was made of a Helmholtz coil and arbitrary generator. The preamplifier was designed as a two stage circuit consisted of an integrator and amplifier. This construction linearized the sensor and fit it to the required antenna range. Measured frequency characteristics of the antenna showed a stable distribution of the calibration factor in the bandwidth corresponding to major components of cloud-to-ground lightning. Registrations from the station in Rzeszow were compared with corresponding data from the lightning location system and theoretical formulae for the lightning current estimation. Contrary to the most of commercially used lightning magnetic field antennae, this antenna was specifically designed for registration in a close and the middle distance of several kilometers from the lightning channel. Registration in this range can be applied for identification of lightning features not yet reported by modern lightning location systems.

First demonstration of machine-designed ultra-flat, low-cost directive antenna

In this paper, we present a fully automated procedure for the direct design of a novel class of single-feed flat antennas with patterning of a conductive surface. We introduce a convenient surface discretization, based on hexagonal cells, and define an appropriate objective function, including both gain and input matching requirements. The reference geometry is constituted by a very thin, single feed-point square panel. It features a backing metal plate (“ground”) and a top conductive layer, which is automatically patterned to achieve the desired radiation and input matching properties. The process employs an evolutionary algorithm combined with a boundary element electromagnetic solver. By applying this method, we designed an antenna tailored to the 2.4 GHz ISM frequency band, with a size of 24,hbox {cm} times 24,hbox {cm}, i.e., 2 times 2 wavelengths and an height of 4 mm, or 0.03 wavelengths. Measured data confirmed the expected high gain (13 dBi), with a remarkable aperture efficiency (higher than 50%, including losses), thus validating the proposed approach.

Compact CPW‐fed circular patch flexible antenna for super‐wideband applications

This study proposes a coplanar waveguide-fed circular monopole antenna that is designed by ink-jetting conductive silver particle ink on photo paper. The antenna comprises a slotted circular patch and a reduced symmetrically slotted ground plane that is etched rectangularly. The slotted circular patch and ground plane provide the design flexibility with a broad bandwidth, substantial gain over 1.66–56.1 GHz frequency band, and relatively consistent radiation pattern. The fractional bandwidth (%BW) of this antenna is 188.5% that is covering industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands, ultra-wideband, wireless local area network (WLAN) band, worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) band, and various frequencies of upcoming fifth-generation technology. The total size of the antenna is only 34 × 25 mm2, with an electrical dimension of 0.18 λ × 0.13 λ at 1.66 GHz. The bandwidth ratio (BR) is 33.81:1, and the bandwidth dimension ratio (BDR) is 7462, which is the highest among the flexible super-wideband antennas reported so far. It is a low profile, lightweight, and low-cost antenna that is accommodating a broad frequency spectrum for extended wideband communication. The measured results show good agreement with the simulations.

Improving the Gain Performance of Air Substrate Patch Antenna Array Using the Effect of Conductive Material Thickness Study for 5G Applications

Over the decade, extensive applications of portable electronic devices have progressed enormously. This has ultimately influenced the shortage of bandwidth supply. Therefore, in satisfying the demands of consumers, low-cost antennas are required to be designed specifically for the fifth-generation frequency spectrum (5G) devices. The main goal of this paper is to report a high gain enhancement in a low profile and economical antenna operated effectively using air substrate in 5G devices. This paper discusses the study effects of thickness on the substrate and conductive material, also the novel design of a cost-effective, air-substrate based microstrip antenna with enhanced gain at 28 GHz resonance for the 5G mobile phone application. In the proposed design, a 2×2 array configuration of radiating elements was designed to occupy a 35.7×31.5×0.5 mm3 volume. Copper (Cu) material was used in the fabrication of the antenna prototype. The proposed antenna was evaluated and compared to the simulation results to demonstrate the design’s reliability. The proposed system provided a peak gain and performance efficiency of 15.6 dB and 86.9.4%, respectively, when operated at 28 GHz resonance.

High Quality Zenith Tropospheric Delay Estimation Using a Low-Cost Dual-Frequency Receiver and Relative Antenna Calibration

The recent release of consumer-grade dual-frequency receivers sparked scientific interest into use of these cost-efficient devices for high precision positioning and tropospheric delay estimations. Previous analyses with low-cost single-frequency receivers showed promising results for the estimation of Zenith Tropospheric Delays (ZTDs). However, their application is limited by the need to account for the ionospheric delay. In this paper we investigate the potential of a low-cost dual-frequency receiver (U-blox ZED-F9P) in combination with a range of different quality antennas. We show that the receiver itself is very well capable of achieving high-quality ZTD estimations. The limiting factor is the quality of the receiving antenna. To improve the applicability of mass-market antennas, a relative antenna calibration is performed, and new absolute Antenna Exchange Format (ANTEX) entries are created using a geodetic antenna as base. The performance of ZTD estimation with the tested antennas is evaluated, with and without antenna Phase Center Variation (PCV) corrections, using Precise Point Positioning (PPP). Without applying PCVs for the low-cost antennas, the Root Mean Square Errors (RMSE) of the estimated ZTDs are between 15 mm and 24 mm. Using the newly generated PCVs, the RMSE is reduced significantly to about 4 mm, a level that is excellent for meteorological applications. The standard U-blox ANN-MB-00 patch antenna, with a circular ground plane, after correcting the phase pattern yields comparable results (0.47 mm bias and 4.02 mm RMSE) to those from geodetic quality antennas, providing an all-round low-cost solution. The relative antenna calibration method presented in this paper opens the way for wide-spread application of low-cost receiver and antennas.

Passive Beam-Steering Gravitational Liquid Antennas

We present a new concept to passively steer the antenna radiation beam to a fixed direction by utilizing the liquid fluidity behavior due to gravity. Completely different from existing technologies, the proposed antenna does not require any additional mechanical structures, phase shifting circuitry, liquid pumps, tunable elements, or their associated components. By properly designing the structure and resonant mode of the liquid dielectric resonator, the proposed passive antenna can automatically steer the radiation beam to the fixed and desired direction for communication upon physical reorientation of the antenna. An antenna prototype has been proposed with a fundamental resonant band of 1.4–1.8 GHz by using new liquid materials, while its passive beam-steering feature has been experimentally verified. This simple, elegant, and low-cost antenna has combined the gyroscopic correction, gravity, and beam steering into one for the first time, presenting significant implications for radio communications and radar systems that demand an adaptive antenna beam in certain directions.

Reducing multipath effect of low-cost GNSS receivers for monitoring by considering temporal correlations

Abstract The investigations on low-cost single frequency GNSS receivers at the Institute of Engineering Geodesy (IIGS) show that u-blox GNSS receivers combined with low-cost antennas and self-constructed L1-optimized choke rings can reach an accuracy which almost meets the requirements of geodetic applications (see Zhang and Schwieger [25]). However, the quality (accuracy and reliability) of low-cost GNSS receiver data should still be improved, particularly in environments with obstructions. The multipath effects are a major error source for the short baselines. The ground plate or the choke ring ground plane can reduce the multipath signals from the horizontal reflector (e. g. ground). However, the shieldings cannot reduce the multipath signals from the vertical reflectors (e. g. walls). Because multipath effects are spatially and temporally correlated, an algorithm is developed for reducing the multipath effect by considering the spatial correlations of the adjoined stations (see Zhang and Schwieger [24]). In this paper, an algorithm based on the temporal correlations will be introduced. The developed algorithm is based on the periodic behavior of the estimated coordinates and not on carrier phase raw data, which is easy to use. Because, for the users, coordinates are more accessible than the raw data. The multipath effect can cause periodic oscillations but the periods change over time. Besides this, the multipath effect’s influence on the coordinates is a mixture of different multipath signals from different satellites and different reflectors. These two properties will be used to reduce the multipath effect. The algorithm runs in two steps and iteratively. Test measurements were carried out in a multipath intensive environment; the accuracies of the measurements are improved by about 50 % and the results can be delivered in near-real-time (in ca. 30 minutes), therefore the algorithm is suitable for structural health monitoring applications.

Low-Cost and Low-Profile Phased Array Antenna for Satellite Reception Using Optimized Tracking Algorithm

In this paper, a stair-planar phased array antenna system for mobile broadcast satellite reception in Ku-band is proposed. The hybrid electromechanical tracking algorithm of this antenna system is designed for properly steering the antenna beam into the target satellite. The antenna sub-array elements are designed by using FR-4 epoxy and RO4003 to reduce the fabrication cost without considerable drop in the array efficiency. The genetic algorithm optimization is used to achieve the optimum values for the element spacing and feed positions, also. This array is fabricated, tested and compared with the simulation results to prove the idea. After that, the selected array is expanded to the main sub-array (2 × 32) and the main antenna array composed of 640 microstrip elements (10 main sub-arrays with 64 elements in each sub-array) with 32.5-dB gain at operating frequency, 11.9 GHz. This system can cover 30°–70° in elevation and 360° in azimuth planes by using the hybrid tracking algorithm to track different target satellites. This system serves as an excellent low-cost and simple candidate for Ku-band satellite reception in steady and smoothly moving platforms such as trains.

DESIGN ANALYSIS OF A LOW-COST PARABOLIC ANTENNA FOR DEVELOPING NATION

<p>This paper is aimed at designing a locally fabricated fiberglass parabolic antenna as a replacement for a metallic fabricated parabolic antenna. They are coated with a thin film of aluminum dust to enhance reflectivity since electromagnetic radiations do not travel deep in a conductor. This reduces the thick mass of metal usually used for constructing metallic parabolic antenna leading to a reduced cost of production. It incorporates a Low Noise Block (LNB) Converter comprising of amplifiers and frequency down converter. Metallic parabolic antenna contributes more to signal loss by reflecting radio waves. The Parabolic antenna is designed to receive microwave signals in the K-band with the down converter converting it to very high frequency (VHF) and ultra-high frequency (UHF) employing the super-heterodyning principle. The study shows the design and installation of a low-cost parabolic antenna in the rural community in Nigeria. The designed parabolic antenna is used to receive a signal with the center frequency of 11.3GHz and signal strength of 60%. The economic viability is that fiber-glass Parabolic antenna can replace the metallic fabricated ones.</p>

DESIGN ANALYSIS OF A LOW-COST PARABOLIC ANTENNA FOR DEVELOPING NATION

This paper is aimed at designing a locally fabricated fiberglass parabolic antenna as a replacement for a metallic fabricated parabolic antenna. They are coated with a thin film of aluminum dust to enhance reflectivity since electromagnetic radiations do not travel deep in a conductor. This reduces the thick mass of metal usually used for constructing metallic parabolic antenna leading to a reduced cost of production. It incorporates a Low Noise Block (LNB) Converter comprising of amplifiers and frequency down converter. Metallic parabolic antenna contributes more to signal loss by reflecting radio waves. The Parabolic antenna is designed to receive microwave signals in the K-band with the down converter converting it to very high frequency (VHF) and ultra-high frequency (UHF) employing the super-heterodyning principle. The study shows the design and installation of a low-cost parabolic antenna in the rural community in Nigeria. The designed parabolic antenna is used to receive a signal with the center frequency of 11.3GHz and signal strength of 60%. The economic viability is that fiber-glass Parabolic antenna can replace the metallic fabricated ones.

Millimeter-Wave Power Harvesting: A Review

The broad spectrum available at millimeter-wave (mmWave) bands has attracted significant interest for a breadth of applications, with 5G communications being the main commercial drive for mmWave networks. Wireless power transmission and harvesting at mmWave bands have attracted significant attention due to the potential for minimizing the harvesting antenna size, allowing for more compact rectennas. For a fixed antenna size, the received power increases with frequency. Nevertheless, several challenges lie in realizing high efficiency antennas and rectifiers at mmWave bands. This article reviews the recent advances in mmWave rectenna design at a component- and system-level. Low-cost antennas and components for mmWave power harvesting, such as high efficiency scalable rectifiers on polymers and high radiation efficiency antennas on textiles, are reviewed. Both the antenna and rectifier can be realized using low-cost fabrication methods such as additively-manufactured circuits and packages, in addition to digital integrated circuits (ICs) for the rectifiers. Finally, this article provides an overview of future antenna design challenges and research directions for mmWave power harvesting.

Magnetic-field antenna for mobile reception of horizontally-polarised digital television-band signals

This paper addresses a solution for an unmet need in the off-the-shelf antenna market. That unmet need is for a low-cost, wideband, Very-High and Ultra-High Frequency (VHF and UHF) and horizontally-polarised antenna that is suitable for mounting on vehicles. The solution that is described here is a magnetic field antenna that performs in the bands of interest, where its performance has been enhanced by the use of high-frequency magnetic materials. Although this antenna is not yet available commercially, it can be fabricated using readily available materials. Comparison data are presented that show that the magnetic-field antenna has reception characteristics very similar to currently-available antennas, although it is far better suited for mobile applications.

Low Cost Antenna Design for the Application of Over the Horizon Surface Wave Radar

The need for surveillance and security in Indonesian water region which can monitor activities of distance object such as illegal fishing, foreign vessels violation, piracy of vessels and smuggling can be done by using radio wave. Maritime radar over the horizon (OTH) surface wave is able to detect the existence of foreign vessels in Indonesian waters. Based on this, the study aimed to design a low cost antenna namely Yagi - Uda linear array antenna at 15 MHz frequency at frequency range 6 – 24 MHz for the application of over the horizon radar. Yagi - Uda antenna is superior in the spread of wave suitable to OTH Radar characteristic over the sea surface and big gain. Yagi - Uda antenna develops rapidly in communication system makes it applied in many modern communication devices nowadays. This antenna was designed and simulated using Simulator Ansoft High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) version 13. The simulation result of the antenna design after doing optimization was return loss (S11) = -29,62 dB, VSWR = 1.068 and gain = 2,413 dBm.

Low-Cost Transmitarray Antenna Designs in V-Band based on Unit-Cells with 1 Bit Phase Resolution

Abstract This paper presents the design and characterization of linearly polarized low-cost transmitarray antennas with ± 70° azimuth beamforming range in V-band in order to add beam steering functionality to existing radar front ends. The transmitarray antennas are composed of 13 × 13 planar unit-cells. The unit-cells consist of two layers of RO4350B laminate and provide a one bit phase resolution. The desired unit-cell behavior has been validated by simulations and measurements. Eight transmitarrays with different phase distributions have been designed and fabricated to realize different beam steering angles in azimuth. The experimental characterization of the radiation patterns shows the desired performance in the frequency range from 59 GHz to 63 GHz. Additionally, steering angle combinations in azimuth and elevation up to 40° have been realized and successfully demonstrate by measuring the 2D radiation pattern.

Implementation of Low Cost Antenna Rotator Based on Microcontroller

An antenna rotator is a device to buffer and rotate an under test antenna. In this paper, an automatic antenna rotator using microcontroller can be made at a minimal cost. The designed microcontroller, used to set servo motor to rotate the antenna using remote control. The rotator antenna has three movement features to help the antenna measurement. The measurement results are represented in polarization and radiation pattern graphs.

Low Cost Antenna Array Based Drone Tracking Device for Outdoor Environments

Applications of direction of arrival (DoA) techniques have dramatically increased in various areas ranging from the traditional wireless communication systems and rescue operations to GNSS systems and drone tracking. Particularly, police forces and security companies have drawn their attention to drone tracking devices, in order to provide the safeness of citizens and of clients, respectively. In this paper, we propose a low cost antenna array based drone tracking device for outdoor environments. The proposed solution is divided into hardware and software parts. The hardware part of the proposed device is based on off-the-shelf components such as an omnidirectional antenna array, a 4-channel software defined radio (SDR) platform with carrier frequency ranging from 70 MHz to 6 GHz, a FPGA motherboard, and a laptop. The software part includes algorithms for calibration, model order selection (MOS), and DoA estimation, including specific preprocessing steps and a tensor-based estimator to increase the DoA accuracy. We evaluate the performance of our proposed low cost solution in outdoor scenarios. According to our measurement campaigns, we show that when the array is in the front fire position, i.e., with a DoA ranging from -60° to 60°, the maximum and the average DoA errors are 6° and 1,9°, respectively.

A Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Antennas System for Small-Satellite Applications

Circularly polarized (CP) antennas are used in space applications for telemetry tracking and command (TT&C). In this paper, we present an antenna for a TT&C system that can employ only four antennas to achieve a wide quasi-isotropic coverage. The proposed single-feed circular polarized annular patch antenna is low profile and compact. It exhibits a wide impedance bandwidth of 19.7%, wide-angle circular polarization with an on-axis maximum gain higher than 6 dBi and an axial ratio below 4 dB in the frequency band 2.0–2.3 GHz. The developed low-cost antenna can be used for small-satellite data downlink where only two right hand circular polarized (RHCP) antennas and two left hand circular polarized (LHCP) antennas would be required since each antenna has an adequate CP gain on a wide angle. A prototype antenna has been fabricated and measured. The experimental validation shows a good agreement of the measured impedance bandwidth, axial ratio, and far-field pattern with the ones predicted by numerical full-wave study.

Design of a low‐cost broadband loaded dipole antenna for VHF/UHF frequency range

This study describes the concept and design of a low-cost super broadband dipole antenna with a passive matching network. The proposed dipole antenna is designed in three steps. First, a simple planar dipole antenna with six different loads and a balanced to unbalanced (Balun) transformer is designed by the genetic algorithm optimisation. The position and value of the loads are optimised to achieve an acceptable radiation pattern and voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) over the desired frequency bandwidth. In the next step, the shape of the printed strip dipole antenna is optimised to improve the frequency response of the designed antenna. Finally, an LC network is added to the antenna feed point to reduce the antenna VSWR at low frequencies. The final dipole antenna has a length of 1.7 m and can operate over 30-1200 MHz with VSWR -10 dBi. The proposed antenna can easily be fabricated at a low cost via the printed circuit board technology. An industrial prototype of the proposed antenna is fabricated and measured. A good agreement between measurement and simulation results is observed.

Advances in Snow Hydrology Using a Combined Approach of GNSS In Situ Stations, Hydrological Modelling and Earth Observation—A Case Study in Canada

The availability of in situ snow water equivalent (SWE), snowmelt and run-off measurements is still very limited especially in remote areas as the density of operational stations and field observations is often scarce and usually costly, labour-intense and/or risky. With remote sensing products, spatially distributed information on snow is potentially available, but often lacks the required spatial or temporal requirements for hydrological applications. For the assurance of a high spatial and temporal resolution, however, it is often necessary to combine several methods like Earth Observation (EO), modelling and in situ approaches. Such a combination was targeted within the business applications demonstration project SnowSense (2015–2018), co-funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), where we designed, developed and demonstrated an operational snow hydrological service. During the run-time of the project, the entire service was demonstrated for the island of Newfoundland, Canada. The SnowSense service, developed during the demonstration project, is based on three pillars, including (i) newly developed in situ snow monitoring stations based on signals of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS); (ii) EO snow cover products on the snow cover extent and on information whether the snow is dry or wet; and (iii) an integrated physically based hydrological model. The key element of the service is the novel GNSS based in situ sensor, using two static low-cost antennas with one being mounted on the ground and the other one above the snow cover. This sensor setup enables retrieving the snow parameters SWE and liquid water content (LWC) in the snowpack in parallel, using GNSS carrier phase measurements and signal strength information. With the combined approach of the SnowSense service, it is possible to provide spatially distributed SWE to assess run-off and to provide relevant information for hydropower plant management in a high spatial and temporal resolution. This is particularly needed for so far non, or only sparsely equipped catchments in remote areas. We present the results and validation of (i) the GNSS in situ sensor setup for SWE and LWC measurements at the well-equipped study site Forêt Montmorency near Quebec, Canada and (ii) the entire combined in situ, EO and modelling SnowSense service resulting in assimilated SWE maps and run-off information for two different large catchments in Newfoundland, Canada.