Terahertz Antenna Technologies for Space Science Applications

Goutam Chattopadhyay

In this review paper we explore different antenna technologies at terahertz frequencies for space science and other applications. We show that the antenna technologies generally used at lower frequencies are difficult to implement at terahertz frequencies. Additionally, one has to take a few extra steps and special care for designing antennas for spacebased applications. In this paper, we review different design and implementation options for millimeter-wave and terahertz antennas for space applications. We detail how antenna design has to be a part of the overall system design for the success of the instruments for space missions. We also look into low-mass and low-profile conformal antenna technologies that will have a profound impact on future space instruments at terahertz frequencies.

Wideband Cavity Backed Metasurface Antenna under Multi-Mode Resonance

Zhi Ning Chen

A wideband multi-mode low-profile cavity backed metasurface antenna is proposed. The metasurface is composed of mushroom cells which support the propagation of both surface wave and composite right/left-handed (CRLH) guided wave. By combining multi-mode resonances of the cavity backed metasurface, including the first negative resonance on the left-handed dispersion branch, zeroth order resonance, the first positive resonance on the right-handed dispersion branch, and the transverse electric (TE) surface wave resonance, the proposed antenna achieves a bandwidth of 44.7% from 4.67 GHz to 7.36 GHz for reflection coefficient less than −10 dB and boresight radiation with realized gain ranging from 6.7 dBi to 9.9 dBi. The cavity backed metasurface has a low profile of 3.25 mm, or 0.05λ at the lowest operating frequency.

Resonant Transmission of Electromagnetic Wave through Small Apertures

Young-Ki Cho

Two types of transmission resonant structures which can provide both high spatial resolution and high transmission are discussed. One is a transmission-resonant aperture(TRA) type and the other is a transmission-resonant cavity(TRC) type, which are useful in designing so called subwavelength(or nano) aperture in the NSOM(Near field scanning microscope) probe design area. As a TRC problem, narrow slot hole coupling problem perforated on the thick conducting screen is investigated with main interest centering on the two kinds of transmission resonances, Fabry-Perot type(longitudinal resonance type) and transverse resonance type. Comparison between our results for the perfect conductor and previous results for the real metal suggests that the physical origin for the transmission resonances are very similar to each other, i.e., the occurrences of the periodic transmission peaks of the Fabry-Perot type along with the transverse resonance type are observed for both perfect metal case and real metal case except for the red shift in the transmission resonance peak. So the physical origin of the transmission resonances appearing in both real metals and perfect conductors is thought to be the same.

A Review of Lens-Based Antenna Developments Supported by ESA for Future Satellite Missions

Nelson Fonseca

This paper presents a review of recent lensbased antenna developments supported by the European Space Agency for future satellite missions, addressing future science, Earth observation and satcom missions. Lens-based antennas are particularly attractive as an alternative to direct radiating arrays when large apertures are required, while maintaining mechanical simplicity.

A Breakthrough of Phase Control Unit in Phased Arrays – Phased Reconfigurable Synthesized Transmission Lines

Tzyh-Ghuang Ma

In this paper, we briefly review the recent progress on synthesized transmission lines as phase control unit. Conventionally, the applications of synthesized, or artificial, transmission lines are limited to the miniaturization of microwave components with a size reduction ratio ranging from 50% up to 95%. Recently, a series of studies in our research group disclose the fact that synthesized transmission lines can function more than a sort of miniaturization technique. By a proper design, it can instead serve as a low-cost phase control unit especially suitable for antenna array control and integration. The design philosophy will be explained in detail in the presentation.

Novel Technologies Using Massive MIMO Transmission Toward 5G and Its Beyond Systems

Kentarou Nishimori

Massive MIMO transmission has been attracted much attention as one of key technologies in next-generation mobile communication system, because it enables improvement in service area and interference mitigation by simple signal processing. In this paper, novel technologies for massive MIMO are introduced that utilize the analog multi-beam selection using only amplitude information and the robust independent component analysis (ICA) which does not need channel sate information (CSI) is applied in digital part. We call this configuration multi-beam massive MIMO. Furthermore, the testbed with 2.4. 5.1 and 19.5 GHz bands is shown for the proposed massive MIMO configuration.

Recent Advances in RFID Sensors for Construction Material Monitoring Applications

Danai Torrungrueng

This paper presents recent advances in radiofrequency identification (RFID) sensors for monitoring applications of construction material products (CMPs) (e.g., light weight concrete (LWC) and concrete). These RFID sensors can offer both identification and sensing capabilities simultaneously without any additional sensors. The research and development of both chipped and chipless RFID sensors will be discussed during presentation, including their interesting applications.

Surface Electromagnetics and Its Application in Antenna Array Design

Fan Yang

Surface electromagnetics is an important and growing sub-discipline in electromagnetics. This invited paper provides a brief overview of surface electromagnetics and its application in antenna array design. It is expected that this paper could stimulate research interests in this emerging area.