Multifunctional Antenna Research Articles

Electrothermally actuated network metamaterials with reconfigurable bending deformation modes

Reconfigurable metamaterials with specific deformation modes show great promise in applications such as multifunctional antenna, stretchable electronic device, and reconfigurable soft robot, due to their ability to achieve multiple operational states within a single system. Previous researches on active metamaterials with bending deformation responses revealed two main issues: (1) achieving reconfigurable deformation within the same metamaterial is challenging due to the reliance on uniform external field actuation; and (2) there is a lack of in-depth studies on the microstructure-property relationships for the bending deformation responses of network metamaterials due to the lack of theoretical analysis. To address these issues, this study presents a mechanical design strategy for an electrothermally actuated network metamaterials to realize reconfigurable bending deformation. A theoretical model describing the electrothermally actuated bending deformation responses is developed through a three-level analysis, which offers a comprehensive understanding of the parameter-property relationships and accurately describes the bending deformation behaviors. The validity of these mechanical models is confirmed through finite element analyses (FEAs) and experimental results. These mechanical models provide analytical solutions for crucial mechanical quantities, including the electrothermally actuated bending angles and effective strains for bending deformation responses. The bending behaviors of the reconfigurable metamaterials under electrothermal actuation can be adjusted by the key nondimensional geometric parameters and the actuation strategies. Additionally, experimental results and FE calculations demonstrate that multiple bending responses can be realized within a single metamaterial by different actuation strategies. This study offers comprehensive guideline from theoretical predictions, FE calculations, and experimental demonstrations for future researched of reconfigurable metamaterials to realize required deformation behaviors.

Multifunctional Double Band Mesh Antenna with Solar Cell Integration for Communications Purposes

A dual band flexible antenna based on a circularly polarized modified meshed patch antenna design. This article focuses on some of the most pressing issues in small satellite applications. The antenna optimization and improvement of antenna performance, such as radiation efficiency. As is well known, circular polarization is immune to the Faraday rotation effect in the ionosphere and can thus prevent a 3-dB loss in geo-satellite communication. With the use of the software program Computer Simulation Technology (CST), the proposed circularly polarized modified meshed patch antenna has been created. Therefore, this article also presents a modified design of a circularly polarized meshed patch antenna to reduce the complexity of the antenna and decrease the size as much as it is capable. However, a meshed patch antenna can support a high communication data rate. The antenna architecture will theoretically be consistent with the installation of solar panels. The antenna utilizes a conductive copper as the core material and the substrate using flexible polyimide. The design antenna is very small, having an overall size of 30 * 30 mm when compared to other conventional non-transparent antenna operating at the same frequencies of 2.6, 3.5 GHz. The antenna that is proposed involves two meshed patch elements of same size but in various shapes. Finally, the proposed antenna is integrated into a solar cell by using the amorphous silicon thin film.

A Review of Multifunctional Antenna Designs for Internet of Things

A Review of Multifunctional Antenna Designs for Internet of Things

A Multifunctional Magneto-Electric Dipole Antenna With Pattern and Polarized Reconfigurability

A Multifunctional Magneto-Electric Dipole Antenna With Pattern and Polarized Reconfigurability

A low-profile frequency- and pattern-reconfigurable metantenna for UAV joint RadCom systems

To address the specific requirements of antennas in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) joint radar-communication (RadCom) systems, a novel low-profile reconfigurable metantenna with the capability of frequency and pattern reconfiguration is proposed in this paper. The proposed antenna consists of a metasurface layer with 3 × 3 square unit cells and a simple feeding network with two pairs of PIN diodes. Specifically, the designed metantenna has a low profile of 0.064 λ0 (λ0 is the free space wavelength at 5.5 GHz). And measured results show that, for the broadside radiation mode, the −10 dB operating bandwidth is about 12.1 %, ranging from 5.05 to 5.7 GHz with a maximum gain of 8.9 dBi. For the conical radiation mode, the −10 dB operating bandwidth is about 21.9 %, ranging from 5.88 to 7.33 GHz with a maximum gain of 6.83 dBi. Given its excellent radiation performance, the metantenna designed for UAV joint RadCom systems holds significant research significance and value in the field of multifunctional reconfigurable antennas.

SICL-Based Multifunctional MIMO Antenna Array for 5G and Beyond (B5G) Applications

SICL-Based Multifunctional MIMO Antenna Array for 5G and Beyond (B5G) Applications

Multifunctional Switched-Beam Antenna Located on Solar Cell for Vehicular to Satellite Communication

Multifunctional Switched-Beam Antenna Located on Solar Cell for Vehicular to Satellite Communication

Low-cost, wearable, multifunctional antennas based on laser-induced copper for wireless information and power transmission

Low-cost, wearable, multifunctional antennas based on laser-induced copper for wireless information and power transmission

Notice of Violation: A Dual-Band Beam Steering Multifunctional Reconfigurable Antenna Optimized by Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) for Wi-Fi 6 Applications

Notice of Violation <br><br>“A Dual-Band Beam Steering Multifunctional Reconfigurable Antenna Optimized by Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) for Wi-Fi 6 Applications” <br> by Junlin Pu, Bing Zhang, Yanping Zhou, Kama Huang, Tiancang Zhang, and Juan Yang <br> published in the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/TAP.3209180 <br><br>The authors of this paper violated the IEEE’s Publication Principles. An author name was included in the Early Access version of this paper who did not contribute to the work and was added without their consent. The non-contributing author’s name has been removed <br><br> <br/> A design and optimization method to realize a beam steering multi-functional reconfigurable antenna (MRA) working at two independent frequencies with an octave range frequency span is proposed. While the conventional MRAs (multi-functional reconfigurable antennas) have lacked frequency reconfigurability, the proposed design and optimization method manage to realize a beam steering MRA at two operating frequencies. To verify, a dual-band beam steering MRA working at 2.45 GHz and 5.3 GHz is designed to be compatible with the IEEE 802.11 ax for Wi-Fi 6 applications. The proposed MRA consists of a feed layer, a dual-band aperture-coupled driven patch, and a parasitic pixel layer. The driven patch is designed to ensure sufficient coupling with the parasitic layer at both two frequencies. The parasitic layer consists of a 6×6 planar array of rectangular pixels interconnected by positive-intrinsic-negative (PIN) diode switches. By optimizing the switches’ modes with the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II), the MRA’s beams are regulated at directions of θ <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">_xz</i> =0°, ±30° for both 2.45 GH and 5.3 GHz. This work manages to explore the potential of the traditional MRA for frequency reconfigurability applications, besides its widely-reported radiation pattern reconfigurability. The proposed MRA is a capable candidate as a Wi-Fi 6 router antenna. The design and optimization method of the MRA based on NSGA-II by Python are summarized systematically in an easy-to-follow manner, which is instructive for MRA designers.

A Multifunctional Antenna with High Isolation for Interweave and Underlay Operation in Cognitive Radio

A Multifunctional Antenna with High Isolation for Interweave and Underlay Operation in Cognitive Radio

Dual Frequency Multi-Functional via-Less Leaky Wave Antenna Featuring Enhanced Frequency Sensitivity and Dual Beam Scanning Capability

Dual Frequency Multi-Functional via-Less Leaky Wave Antenna Featuring Enhanced Frequency Sensitivity and Dual Beam Scanning Capability

A Compact Multi-Functional Antenna with Frequency Tunability and Full-Polarization Reconfigurability

A Compact Multi-Functional Antenna with Frequency Tunability and Full-Polarization Reconfigurability

Design and Verification of a Miniaturized Multifunctional Transmitarray Unit Cell for the S-Band

In this paper, a miniaturized multifunctional unit cell structure of a transmitarray operating at S-band and its verification method using a waveguide structure is presented. The unit cell of a multifunctional transmitarray antenna is a critical component because it controls the phase and polarization of an incident wave. The proposed unit cell consists of three main parts: an Rx antenna, a Tx antenna, and a control circuit for phase and polarization. The performance of the designed unit cell is verified by a rectangular waveguide structure. The waveguide structure feeds an electromagnetic wave propagating in a TE&lt;sub&gt;10&lt;/sub&gt; mode to a 1 × 2 unit cell array to verify polarization and phase shifting capability of the unit cell. The phase shifting and polarization conversion capabilities of the proposed unit cell are directly measured by the radiation patterns and polarization of the transmitted wave.

Aperture-Shared Radiation Surface: A Promising Technique for Multifunctional Antenna Array Development

Aperture-Shared Radiation Surface: A Promising Technique for Multifunctional Antenna Array Development

Multifunctional THz Graphene Antenna with 360∘ Continuous ϕ-Steering and θ-Control of Beam.

A novel graphene antenna composed of a graphene dipole and four auxiliary graphene sheets oriented at 90∘ to each other is proposed and analyzed. The sheets play the role of reflectors. A detailed group-theoretical analysis of symmetry properties of the discussed antennas has been completed. Through electric field control of the chemical potentials of the graphene elements, the antenna can provide a quasi-omnidirectional diagram, a one- or two-directional beam regime, dynamic control of the beam width and, due to the vertical orientation of the dipole with respect to the base substrate, a 360∘ beam steering in the azimuth plane. An additional graphene layer on the base permits control of the radiation pattern in the θ-direction. Radiation patterns in different working states of the antenna are considered using symmetry arguments. We discuss the antenna parameters such as input reflection coefficient, total efficiency, front-to-back ratio, and gain. An equivalent circuit of the antenna is suggested. The proposed antenna operates at frequencies between 1.75 THz and 2.03 THz. Depending on the active regime defined by the chemical potentials set on the antenna graphene elements, the maximum gain varies from 0.86 to 1.63.

Chirality-Assisted Phase Metasurface for Circular Polarization Preservation and Independent Hologram Imaging in Microwave Region

A chirality-assisted phase is introduced to innovatively impose separate phase profiles in two circular polarization (CP) preserving channels, namely, two co-polarized output components under left-handed and right-handed circularly polarized (LHCP and RHCP) illuminations. Such a scheme is physically implemented by a proposed multi-layered meta-atom that achieves chiral characteristics by inner twisting angles between adjacent functional elements. A proof-of-concept metasurface is constructed to realize separate holographic images in two polarization-preserved fields with different propagating distances, respectively. In order to achieve sufficient utilization of the two polarization-preserved components, a further approach that can suppress polarization conversion is proposed with a polyatomic unit composed of four separate chiral meta-atoms arranged in a 2 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times$</tex-math> </inline-formula> 2 array. A dual-holographic metasurface is designed to impose characters “ <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$L$</tex-math> </inline-formula> ” and “ <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$R$</tex-math> </inline-formula> ” in two co-polarized fields with little energy distributed in corresponding cross-polarized fields. A prototype of the metasurface is fabricated and experimentally measured. The measurements agree well with theoretical predictions and full-wave simulations, showing in the co-polarized field a character “ <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$L$</tex-math> </inline-formula> ” under LHCP incidence and an “ <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$R$</tex-math> </inline-formula> ” under LHCP incidence. The proposed mechanism provides a theoretical foundation for further CP channel expansion and modulations and has great potential in multifunctional antenna design and wireless communications.

Design and analyses of shipborne multifunctional Automatic Identification System (AIS) antenna

ABSTRACT This paper is introducing analyses of new design of the automatic identification system (AIS) ships antenna that will serve for both VHF-band radio and satellite tracking and identification system for maritime applications. The current AIS network is an automatic tracking system used by ships of vessel traffic service for identification and location of vessels by electronically exchanging data between nearby ships and on-shore base station. In the AIS system for the electronic data exchange, the very high frequency (VHF) range is used. Utilizing of the VHF range makes the AIS as short-range communication, identification and collision avoidance system between AIS equipped ships and base station is possible in the antennas line-of-sight . In order to widen the range of the AIS from short range up to long or global range, AIS communication should be used via a satellite. In order to provide communication via satellite as well should be designed multifunctional antenna for both radio AIS (R-AIS) and satellite AIS (S-AIS) communication antenna. The analyses and design of a new multifunctional antenna, calculation and development, including implementation and testing of helical VHF antenna for R-AIS and S-AIS equipment are discussed.

Design of Circularly Polarized Smartwatch Antenna With Reactive Loads

Designing multi-functional antennas is challenging for smartwatches enclosed by metallic frame. In this letter, we propose an efficient and practical method to realize circular polarization (CP) and multiband operation for smartwatch antennas. The method is based on the <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">N</i> -port network, with <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">N</i> ports initially placed along the ground clearance. By varying the impedance matrix using reactance, the total currents of the antenna and hence the far-field properties are optimized. The optimization is performed using multi-objective optimizer NSGA-II. As a result, three reactive loads, with the optimized locations and values, are applied to the smartwatch with metallic frame, providing an axial ratio (AR) of 2.2 dB at the GPS L1 band and wide bandwidths at both the GPS L1 and WLAN/BT bands in the arm-worn scenario. Antenna prototype was fabricated, with the measured results agreeing well with the simulated ones. The simple and practical implementation is quite attractive for commercial smartwatch antennas.

Reconfigurable multifunctional graphene-based antenna for cancer therapy with THz wave ablation

Reconfigurable multifunctional graphene-based antenna for cancer therapy with THz wave ablation

Multifunctional Reconfigurable Wearable Textile Antennas Using Coplanar Reconfiguration Modules

A concept to realize multi-functional reconfigurable antennas for wearable applications is proposed. The general structure simply consists of a textile circular patch with three varactor-loaded reconfigurable modules evenly distributed around its edge. Based on the proposed concept, a frequency-and pattern- reconfigurable, and a frequency- and polarization-reconfigurable wearable textile antenna are demonstrated. The first design is able to switch between broadside and omnidirectional radiation modes with frequency fractional tuning ranges of 57.3% and 27.2%, respectively. The second design radiates in broadside mode with the ability to switch its linear polarization between 0°, 120° or 240°, with a frequency tuning range of 31.9% at each of states. The antennas are fabricated and measured which successfully validate the operation concept.