Scan Angle Research Articles

Study on dynamic response characteristics of the scanning angle in a liquid crystal cladding waveguide beam scanner

This paper studies the dynamic response characteristics of the scanning angle in a liquid crystal cladding waveguide beam scanner. Based on liquid crystal dynamic theory, finite element analysis and vectorial refraction law, a dynamic response calculation model of scanning angle is constructed. The simulation results show that the dynamic responses of the scanning angle during the electric field-on and field-off processes are asymmetric, and exhibit “S”-shape and “L”-shape changing trends, respectively. In addition, by comparing with the bulk phase modulation response process of traditional liquid crystal devices, the intrinsic physical reason for the rapid light regulation of the liquid crystal cladding waveguide beam scanner is clarified to be that the liquid crystal close to the core layer has a faster rotation speed during the electric field-off process. Moreover, the liquid crystal cladding waveguide beam scanner is experimentally tested, and the experiment results are in good agreement with theoretical simulations.

A Wide Bandwidth Vivaldi Antenna Suitable for 5G/6G Communication Utilizing a CMOS 0.18 μm Process

This text proposes a Vivaldi structure array antenna, using a power divider structure. The composition includes an antenna array with four antennas, suitable for a wideband array structure antenna in the 100 GHz frequency band. The goal is to address the challenges faced by monolithic systems in modern wireless communications, particularly the issue of the inapplicability of antennas on silicon substrates. The Vivaldi antenna was chosen for its wide bandwidth, high efficiency, and stable radiation pattern. It combines the characteristics of a wide scanning angle and ultra-wide bandwidth. Through integration with CMOS technology, the developed antenna achieved a bandwidth of 85.47–102.40 GHz. The peak gain reached −4 dBi, corresponding to a bandwidth of 17.7%. And the antenna volume was only 1.2 mm × 1.2 mm, demonstrating its immense potential in high-frequency wireless applications.

A Circularly Polarized Non-Resonant Slotted Waveguide Antenna Array for Wide-Angle Scanning.

A compact circularly polarized non-resonant slotted waveguide antenna array is proposed with the aim of achieving wide-angle scanning, circular polarization, and low side-lobe levels. The designed antenna demonstrates a scanning range of +11° to +13° in the frequency domain and a beam scanning range of -45° to +45° in the phase domain. This design exhibits significant advantages for low-cost two-dimensional electronic scanning circularly polarized arrays. It employs a compact element that reduces the aperture area by 50% compared to traditional circular polarization cavities. Additionally, the staggered array method is employed to achieve an element spacing of 0.57λ within the azimuth plane. Isolation gaps were introduced into the array to enhance the circular polarization performance of non-resonant arrays. The Taylor synthesis method was employed to reduce the side-lobe levels. A prototype was designed, fabricated, and measured. The results indicate superior radiation efficiency, favorable VSWR levels, and an axis ratio maintenance below 3 dB across the scanning range. The proposed antenna and methodology effectively broaden the beam scanning angle of circularly polarized slotted waveguide array antennas.

Structural Analysis of Glazed Tubular Tiles of Oriental Architectures Based on 3D Point Clouds for Cultural Heritage

Abstract. Laser scanning, along with its resultant 3D point clouds, constitutes a prevalent method for the documentation of cultural heritage. This paper introduces a novel workflow for the structural analysis of glazed tubular tiles that adorn the roofs of historical buildings in the Orient, utilizing 3D point clouds. The workflow integrates a robust segmentation algorithm utilizing the maximum principal curvature and normal vectors. Moreover, clustering algorithms, including DBSCAN, are incorporated to refine the clusters and thus increase segmentation accuracy. Structural analysis is enabled by cylindrical model fitting, which allows for the estimation of parameters and residuals. While the results exhibit commendable performance in individual tile segmentation, it is imperative to address the impact of substantial variations in scanning range and incident angles before engaging in the structural analysis fitting process. The results of experiment demonstrate that under conditions of significantly large scanning angles, the root mean square error (RMSE) for inadequately fitted tiles can extend to 0.066 m, surpassing twice the RMSE observed for well-fitted tiles. The proposed workflow proves to be applicable and exhibits significant potential to advance practices in cultural heritage documentation.

Magnetic field density concentrated permanent magnet structure for electromagnetic MEMS scanning mirror

The study investigates the inadequacy of driving torque in large-diameter Micro-electro Mechanical Systems Electromagnetic Scanning Mirrors (MEMS-ESM) and introduces fresh insights into the power efficiency of traditional MEMS-ESM devices. A novel permanent magnet structure (PMS) and driving principle are devised, drawing upon the phenomenon of concentrated magnetic field density and a custom-designed PMS inner profile. In comparison to L-shaped and I-shaped PMSs, the proposed PMS delivers up to 3.48 times and 3.76 times greater driving torque within the same form factor. Moreover, the optimized proposed PMS has been experimentally proven to reduce power consumption by 53.3% and 81.4% and reduce total driving current by 31.3% and 55.0%, making it the sole solution that conforms to the safe current range. Additionally, the research analyzes the impact of variations in the optical scanning angle on the optimal PMS design. It is noteworthy that the proposed PMS enables the substitution of L-type and I-type PMSs with smaller package sizes, all while preserving torque, thus promoting the miniaturization of MEMS-SM.

Accurately estimating the scanning angle of an electrostatic MEMS mirror with a novel damping model

A novel damping model to accurately analyze the scanning angle of electrostatic microelectromechanical system (MEMS) mirrors is proposed in this article. The computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations are used to calculate the aerodynamic moment of the MEMS mirror oscillating in air. The simulation results demonstrate the linear dependence of the equivalent damping coefficient of the MEMS mirror on the oscillation amplitude and frequency. Then the equivalent damping expression of the MEMS mirror is established. The damping model is applied to the dynamic equation of the MEMS mirror for numerical solution. The frequency responses of the electrostatic MEMS mirror under square wave excitation with different voltage amplitudes and duty cycles are obtained. The measurement results provide good accuracy verification for numerical results. This verifies the accuracy of the proposed damping model, which can be used to accurately estimate the scanning angle in the design and parameter optimization process of electrostatic MEMS mirrors.

Cost-effective 3D-printed rotatable reflectors for two-dimensional beam steering

In this paper, we have developed a 2D optical scanning module comprising cascaded 3D-printed one-axis rotating mirrors with large areas (30×30mm2 for the X-direction scan and 60×25mm2 for the Y-direction scan). Each mirror device contains a square or rectangular silicon substrate coated with aluminum, serving as the mirror. A 3D-printed structure, including the mirror frame (with four embedded mini permanent magnets on the backside), torsion springs, and base, is combined with the mirror; two electromagnets are situated under the mirror as the actuation mechanism. We apply DC voltage to the electromagnets to create magnetic force. The electromagnets can interact with the permanent magnets to make the mirror rotate. The X scan of the 2D scanning module can achieve a static optical scan angle of ∼11.8deg at the -X corners, and the corresponding Y-scan angle is ∼4.5deg, both with 12 VDC. Moreover, we have observed a fan-shaped distortion, a phenomenon not thoroughly studied previously for combining two single-axis scan mirrors. Therefore, we also perform a simulation to establish and demonstrate a correlation between the simulation prediction and experimental results. The 2D scanning module can be a low-cost alternative to the expensive conventional galvanometer scanners, and it can be used to upgrade a rangefinder to a simplified LiDAR.

Nonuniform Modulated Holographic Antenna With Wide Gain Bandwidth and Scanning Angle

Nonuniform Modulated Holographic Antenna With Wide Gain Bandwidth and Scanning Angle

A Single-Board Integrated Millimeter-Wave Asymmetric Full-Digital Beamforming Array for B5G/6G Applications

In this article, a single-board integrated millimeter-wave (mm-Wave) asymmetric full-digital beamforming (AFDBF) array is developed for beyond-fifth-generation (B5G) and sixth-generation (6G) communications. The proposed integrated array effectively addresses the challenge of arranging a large number of ports in a full-digital array by designing vertical connections in a three-dimensional space and successfully integrating full-digital transmitting (Tx) and receiving (Rx) arrays independently in a single board. Unlike the traditional symmetric array, the proposed asymmetric array is composed of an 8 × 8 Tx array arranged in a square shape and an 8 + 8 Rx array arranged in an L shape. The center-to-center distance between two adjacent elements is 0.54λ0 for both the Tx and Rx arrays, where λ0 is the free-space wavelength at 27 GHz. The proposed AFDBF array possesses a more compact structure and lower system hardware cost and power consumption compared with conventional brick-type full-digital arrays. In addition, the energy efficiency of the proposed AFDBF array outperforms that of a hybrid beamforming array. The measurement results indicate that the operating frequency band of the proposed array is 24.25–29.50 GHz. An eight-element linear array within the Tx array can achieve a scanning angle ranging from −47° to +47° in both the azimuth and the elevation planes, and the measured scanning range of each eight-element Rx array is –45° to +45°. The measured maximum effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of the eight-element Tx array is 43.2 dBm at 28.0 GHz (considering the saturation point). Furthermore, the measured error vector magnitude (EVM) is less than 3% when 64-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) waveforms are used.

Theoretical modeling and experimental investigation of in-phase resonant MEMS mirrors with cascaded structures

This paper proposes an efficient nonlinear one-dimensional (1D) compact mass-damper-spring model to predict the dynamic response of electrostatic resonant micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) mirrors with cascaded structures. The time-dependent damping moment due to viscous shear and pressure drag is computed using semi-empirical analytical equations for comb-drive structures and device frames. Nonlinear electrostatic force induced by the comb drives is efficiently acquired based on the hybrid method. The optimized device is fabricated using MEMS fabrication processes based on a 4-inch silicon-on-insulator wafer. The proposed compact model with the measured key parameters from the fabricated device shows excellent capability to accurately predict nonlinear dynamic responses of the fabricated device, including parametric excitation and hysteretic frequency response, with an average error of less than 5%. In particular, our 1D model is three orders of magnitude faster than the conventional finite element method model (0.8 s versus 1 h), enabling efficient system-level optimization of the critical design parameters. Based on the parametric study, electrode gap distance and torsion spring width are found to be two critical design parameters and dimensional analysis is conducted for design optimization with scan angle enhancing from 16.8° to 24° compared with the first design.

Reducing Cf/SiC composite damages through collaborative control of laser ablating depth and grinding modes

Cf/SiC composites are regarded as difficult-to-machine aerospace materials. A low-damage surface machining of Cf/SiC composite by laser-ablating assisted grinding (LAAG) was conducted, and investigated the effects of laser-ablating depth and grinding modes on surface/subsurface damages. The results showed that ablated material depth reached 420 μm after 1200 times scanning, while the effective ablating rate was inhibited by the depth. Compared with down grinding, the grinding forces and temperatures were substantially higher in up grinding, with a maximum increase of 123.5 % and 140 % in normal and tangential grinding forces, respectively; however, micro brittle fracture and ductile removal were remarkably enhanced in normal and transverse fibers, and surface macroscopic damage has been suppressed; subsurface damage remained insignificant, mainly exhibited in internal micro cracks and minor interfacial debonding. It was attributed to cutting characteristics of up grinding. Furthermore, as grinding depth increased, the material removal behavior underwent a brittle-ductile transition and the surface roughness grew accordingly. Moreover, a laser scanning angle of 0° and up grinding facilitated the occurrence of longitudinal fiber debonding, producing larger sized fiber bundle chips. Combining up grinding with 90° scanning angle at low grinding depth was an effective method to improve the surface quality of Cf/SiC composite.

Frequency Diversity Arc Array with Angle-Distance Two-Dimensional Broadening Null Steering for Sidelobe Suppression

The frequency diversity arc array (FDAA) improves the structure of the traditional frequency diversity array (FDA) from a linear array structure to an arc array structure, so that the FDAA not only has the advantages of the FDA but also has a large angle and omnidirectional scanning capability. However, when it is equivalent to a linear array, this arc-shaped structure will lead to the phenomenon of inverse density weighting, which leads to a higher sidelobe level of the FDAA beam pattern. In order to solve the problem of a high sidelobe level at a certain position of the FDAA, a frequency diversity arc array with angle-distance two-dimensional broadening null steering is proposed for sidelobe suppression. Using a structural model of the FDAA, the problem of the high sidelobe was analyzed. The linear constrained minimum variance (LCMV) method was used to generate a null with a certain width at the position of the fixed strong sidelobe level in the angle domain and the distance domain of the FDAA beam pattern, to reduce the FDAA sidelobe level. Then, the angle domain and distance domain fixed positions of the FDAA were simulated to generate the null beam pattern. The simulation results verified the effectiveness of this method for reducing the sidelobe level.

Two-dimensional beam scanning by tunable photonic spin Hall effect

To the best of our knowledge, a novel tunable photonic spin Hall effect is proposed based on a pair of liquid crystal Pancharatnam-Berry (PB) lenses. Owing to the spin-dependent geometric phases, a PB lens focus or defocus the incident light field according to its spin angular momentum. By cascading two PB lenses with a small gap, the focus and defocus effects can be suppressed, and the transmitted light fields with opposite spin will be deflected toward opposite directions when the two PB lenses have a relative lateral displacement. The deflection angles vary linearly with the displacements, thus double-lines two-dimensional continuous beam scanning is achieved with a scanning angle of 39o × 39° and a beam diverging angle of 0.028o × 0.028°. The scanning beam is used to write different patterns on a 200 nm thick gold film. We believe this beam scanning system can find wide applications ranging from laser processing, Lidar, particle manipulation, to free space optical communications.

Flexible incidence angle scanning surface plasmon resonance microscopy for morphology detection with enhanced contrast

Flexible incidence angle scanning surface plasmon resonance microscopy for morphology detection with enhanced contrast

Experimental Study of the Performance of Turbo-Charged Gasoline Direct-Injection Engine Based on Different Pre-Chamber Structures

In this paper, in order to improve the fuel economy of the actual application of the engine under multi-operating conditions, an experimental study is carried out on a turbo-charged direct-injection engine based on different pre-chamber structures. The engine used for the study is a four-cylinder turbo-charged direct-injection gasoline engine with different structures of pre-chamber spark plugs. The operating conditions in this study include load characteristics at 2000 r/min and characteristic loads at different speeds, including 3000 r/min, 3200 r/min, and 3600 r/min. With stable BMEP or fully open throttle and pedal, the experiment was conducted by the spark angle scanning method to collect data of engine power, economy, and emission under each condition. It was found that the pre-chamber structure has a direct effect on engine performance, with a clear load demarcation line for its effect. Under the WOT condition, the power of pre-chamber ignition is 1.6% higher than that of conventional spark plugs; at the low load of 2 bar, the economy of pre-chamber ignition is degraded by 6%; at the medium load of 8 bar, the economy of the two is comparable; at the large load of 16 bar, the fuel economy proves advantageous. Compared with conventional spark plugs, the pre-chamber spark angle can be advanced by 2~3 °CA, and the pre-chamber ignition with separate ground electrodes is highly reliable. The emission levels of the pre-chamber spark plugs and conventional spark plugs are comparable at all loads.

Electrodynamic modeling of a four-channel antenna with an operating frequency band of octave

The actual problem of electrodynamic modeling of a four-channel antenna with an octave operating frequency range has been considered. The results of numerical electrodynamic modeling of a four-channel antenna have been presented. The considered antenna with an octave operating frequency range is a rectangular curtain comprising four independent non-equidistant channels. Numerical electrodynamic modeling of a four-channel antenna has been carried out in the ANSYS HFSS software package, with the convergence parameter DeltaS = 0.01. As a result of the simulation, the frequency characteristics of each channel have been obtained: VSWR, gain, reflection coefficient, directional pattern. The antenna provides a scanning angle as part of an ultra-wideband digital antenna array of at least ±30° in azimuth and from 0° to 60° in elevation. The gain of the antenna channels in the operating frequency range is not lower than 6 dB. According to the simulation results, the VSWR of each channel of the antenna in the operating frequency range does not exceed 2.55. To minimize the influence of mutual coupling of channels on the antenna characteristics, the distance from the phase centers of the curtain emitters to other elements of the ultra-wideband digital antenna array should be at least a wavelength in free space at the lower frequency of the operating frequency range. It has been shown that the considered four-channel antenna provides an octave operating frequency band and can be used as part of an ultra-wideband digital antenna array for direction finding of radiation sources.

Liquid Crystal Materials for Electronically Reconfigurable Antennas: Overview Toward 5G Applications

This paper discusses the use of Liquid Crystal (LC) technology for Electronically Reconfigurable Antennas (ERAs) that are essential for future-based 5G communication systems and satellite platforms. This comprehensive study covers the development of liquid crystal performance metrics and the deployment of LC technology for RF front-end antenna systems, ranging from GHz to THz frequency bands. Here, low profile LC varactor with phase shifter-based antenna systems is investigated for beam steering, enabling to scan a wide range with minimum scan time of operation. The LC phase shifter-based antenna has shown an insertion loss of ≪3[Formula: see text]dB for 5G frequency bands and a high figure-of-merit over a bandwidth of 2.5[Formula: see text]GHz with minimum time response of 30[Formula: see text]ms. These LC-based ERAs can feature wide beam scanning angles with high power-handling capability, better efficiency, high linearity with low power consumption for satellite ground terminals and 5G communication systems.

Compact planar phased array antenna for extended V2X communication coverage

In this article, a new compact planar phased array antenna is proposed for blind spot reduction in V2X communications. The proposed antenna can be easily integrated on the front-panel or rear-view side by providing 2-dimensional wide communication coverage while overcoming physical integration space limitations. Moreover, because the proposed antenna is based on a planar structure, it can be integrated effectively with beamforming circuits. To verify the proposed antenna, both single and array configurations were fabricated and compared with conventional patch antennas at 5.9 GHz. The proposed single antenna with a size of 1λ0 × 1.1λ0 × 0.02λ0 exhibited a measured bandwidth of 4.3% and a peak gain of 6.1 dBi. The measured HPBWs in the E- and H- planes were approximately 126° and 136°, respectively, compared to 75.5° and 66.9° for the conventional patch antenna. Further, the proposed antenna and reference patch antenna were extended to 1 × 8 array configurations with 8-ch beamforming circuits. The measured scan angle of the proposed antenna was 160°, compared to only 98° for the patch antenna. Finally, a vehicular communication test was conducted with 256-QAM signals, where the proposed 1 × 8 antenna array exhibited a stable error vector magnitude (EVM) over a wide coverage angle of 150°.

A dual-energy CT reconstruction method based on anchor network from dual quarter scans.

Compared with conventional single-energy computed tomography (CT), dual-energy CT (DECT) provides better material differentiation but most DECT imaging systems require dual full-angle projection data at different X-ray spectra. Relaxing the requirement of data acquisition is an attractive research to promote the applications of DECT in wide range areas and reduce the radiation dose as low as reasonably achievable. In this work, we design a novel DECT imaging scheme with dual quarter scans and propose an efficient method to reconstruct the desired DECT images from the dual limited-angle projection data. We first study the characteristics of limited-angle artifacts under dual quarter scans scheme, and find that the negative and positive artifacts of DECT images are complementarily distributed in image domain because the corresponding X-rays of high- and low-energy scans are symmetric. Inspired by this finding, a fusion CT image is generated by integrating the limited-angle DECT images of dual quarter scans. This strategy enhances the true image information and suppresses the limited-angle artifacts, thereby restoring the image edges and inner structures. Utilizing the capability of neural network in the modeling of nonlinear problem, a novel Anchor network with single-entry double-out architecture is designed in this work to yield the desired DECT images from the generated fusion CT image. Experimental results on the simulated and real data verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. This work enables DECT on imaging configurations with half-scan and largely reduces scanning angles and radiation doses.

A Collaborative Control Method of Transmission Amplitude and Phase for Transmitarray Antenna Design

In this paper, a collaborative control method of transmission amplitude and phase for transmitarray antenna (TA) design is proposed. In this proposed method, one of the most popular hypersurface fitting models, Gaussian stochastic process (GP) model, is utilized to construct an accurate surrogate model. Following this implementation, a mapping relationship between structural parameters of TA unit cell and its transmission amplitude and phase is established. The most advantage of this method is its applicability for general TA designs because it is much difficult to control the amplitude and phase of unit cell independently through adjusting separate structural parameters. To verify the high efficiency of the proposed method, three TA antennas with different scanning angles are designed to obtain high sidelobe suppression level. Measured results show that the proposed collaborative control method of amplitude and phase is much promising for high sidelobe suppression level in TA designs.