Distinguished Lecturer Program
 Abstracts for 2008-09

The IEEE AP-S Distinguished Lecturer Program provides AP-S chapters in the U.S. and abroad with talks by experts on topics of interest and importance to the AP community. The chapters incur little or no cost in making use of this program. Each chapter can request a maximum of two visits per year by our Distinguished Lecturers. Requests must be approved prior to making an official commitment by contacting the Chair of the Distinguished Lecturer Program. Any foreign travel is currently reimbursable at $1000.00 per chapter per visit( although slight deviations from this may be justified in special cases with approval from the chair ) and the rest is expected to be covered by the host chapter; so, for foreign travel, it is best for the distinguished lecturers to give talks at typically three different chapters in the same or different countries (to equal a total of $3000.00 in reimbursement) and this will require some coordination with the different chapters to be visited. On the average, a lecturer might get to travel (nationally plus internationally) about 3 or 4 times a year. To receive reimbursement, the lecturers are required to keep all expense receipts and send them to the chair along with an expense report on a standard IEEE reimbursement form, which can be downloaded from the IEEE website.


All distinguished lecturers are outstanding in their fields of specialty. Collectively, the Distinguished Lecturers possess a broad range of expertise within the area of AP. Thus, the chapters are strongly encouraged to use this program as a means to make their local AP community aware of the most recent scientific and technological trends.
 

Although the Chair selects and appoints the Distinguished Lecturers, the Chair is open to suggestions from members of the IEEE AP-S and the local AP Chapter Chairs for the selection of appropriate topics and/or nominating Lecturers in the future. The list of all Distinguished Lecturers is available at the IEEE website relating to the Distinguished Lecturer Program, in addition to the AP-S Magazine.
 

We welcome three new lecturers for 2008-2010, namely, Dr.-Ing. Marta Martínez-Vázquez, IMST, Germany and Dr. Zhi Ning Chen IIR, Singapore.  Their lectures will deal with special topics related to UWB antennas and MIMO, terminal antennas and an overview of European cooperation on antenna research. Dr. Nick Buris,  Prof. Christos G. Christodoulou, Prof. George Eleftheriades, Prof. Koichi Ito, Dr. Peter de Maagt, Prof. Yahya Rahmat-Samii, Prof. John Volakis and Prof. Werner Wiesbeck will continue to serve in 2009.


The Chair of the Distinguished Lecturer Program is

J(Yiannis) C Vardaxoglou
Head of Electronic and Electrical Engineering Department
Professor of Wireless Communications
Loughborough University
Loughborough
Leicestershire, LE113TU
United Kingdom
email: J.C.Vardaxoglou@lboro.ac.uk


 

 

Dr. Nicholas E. Buris

Motorola Labs
1301 E. Algonquin Rd.
Schaumburg, IL 60196

e-mail: nick.buris@motorola.com

Nick Buris received the diploma of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering in 1982 from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece and the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC in 1986. In 1986 he was a visiting professor at NCSU working on space reflector antennas for NASA. In 1987 he joined the faculty of the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His research work there spanned the areas of microwave magnetics, phased arrays printed on ferrite substrates and broadband antennas. In the summer of 1990 he was a faculty fellow at the NASA Langley Research Center working on calibration techniques for dielectric measurements and an ionization (plasma) sensor for an experimental reentry spacecraft. In 1992 he joined the Applied Technology organization of Motorola’s Paging Product Group and in 1995 he moved to Corporate Research to start an advanced modeling effort. While at Motorola he has worked on several projects from product design to measurement systems and the development of proprietary software tools for electromagnetic design. He currently manages the Microwave Technologies Research Lab within Motorola Labs in Schaumburg, IL. Recent activities of the group include high frequency communications systems design, modeling and measurements of complex electromagnetic problems, RFID systems as well as TIA standards work on propagation and RF exposure. Nick is a senior member of the IEEE, and serves on a MTT Technical Program Committee. He is also member of iNEMI and recently served as chair of a TIA committee on RF exposure.

 

Electromagnetic Design for Wireless Applications and Multidisciplinary Optimization

This presentation starts with several specific electromagnetic design examples for wireless applications. These examples include antennas for cellular handsets, RFIDs as well as electromagnetic interference solution concepts. Various characteristics of advanced design methods are then examined. The case is made that multidisciplinary design methods need to be developed and employed for efficient solution of complex problems. At present, multidisciplinary issues encountered at the design of feature rich products are solved by intense communications between the design groups of interacting disciplines. The design of today’s challenging products demands the same and higher degree of communications between the tools used by interacting disciplines. An electromagnetic and structural design example is used to elucidate the concepts discussed. Additionally, an outline of a framework capable of addressing concurrent optimization of multiple disciplines and of complex products is presented. The seminar ends with a list of proposed problems that need to be solved so that maximum efficiency can be achieved in solving the complex problems of the future.
 

 

Zhi Ning Chen

 

Institute for Infocomm Research

20 Science Park Road

#02-21/25 Teletech Park

Singapore 117674

chenzn@i2r.a-star.edu.sg and znchen@ieee.org

 

Zhi Ning Chen received his BEng (1985), MEng (1988), PhD (1993) and DoE (2003) degrees all in Electrical Engineering from Institute of Communications Engineering, China and University of Tsukuba, Japan, respectively. During 1988-1995, he taught at Institute of Communications Engineering as Teaching Assistant, Lecturer and Associate Professor as well as Southeast University, China as Postdoctoral Fellow and later Associate Professor. During 1995-1997, he joined in City University of Hong Kong, China as Research Assistant, later Research Fellow. In 1997, he was awarded JSPS Fellowship to conduct his research at University of Tsukuba, Japan. In 2001 and 2004, he visited University of Tsukuba under JSPS Fellowship Program (senior level). In 2004, he worked at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, USA as Academic Visitor. Since 1999, he has worked with Institute for Infocomm Research (formerly known as Center for Wireless Communications and Institute for Communication Research) as Member of Technical Staff and later Principal Member of Technical Staff. His current appointments are Principal Scientist and Department Head for RF & Optical. He is concurrently holding Adjunct Professor Appointments at Southeast University, Nanjing University, National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Dr Chen has organized many international technical events as general chairs, technical program committee chairs and key members of organizing committees. He is the key founder of International Workshop on Antenna Technology (iWAT).

Dr Chen has published more than 210 journal and conference papers. He has authored and edited books entitled “Broadband Planar Antennas”, “UWB Wireless Communication” and “Antennas for Portable Devices” all published by John Wiley & Sons. He also contributed to the books of “UWB Antennas and Propagation for Communications, Radar, and Imaging” published by John Wiley & Sons as well as “Antenna Engineering Handbook” published by McGraw Hill. He is holding more than 20 granted and filed patents. He has licensed his antenna designs to industry with deals. His current research interest includes applied electromagnetics, antennas for UWB, MIMO, WLAN, WiMAX (WiBro), WBAN, and bio-imaging systems.

Dr Chen is a Fellow of the IEEE for his contribution to small and broadband antennas for wireless applications.  (www1.i2r.a-star.edu.sg/~chenzn)

 

 

Miniaturization of Ultra-wideband Antennas

Ultra-wideband (UWB) has become the promising wireless technology in commercial applications such as the next generation of short-range high data rate wireless communications, high resolution imaging, and high accuracy radar. The antenna design becomes one of key factors in UWB wireless systems due to the extremely wide operating bandwidth. This presentation starts with the brief introduction of design challenges of UWB antennas. An outlined of special design considerations are presented from a systems point of view, followed by some state-of-the-art solutions which are shown with technical details from an engineering insight. Then, the miniaturization technology of UWB antennas is addressed. The planar designs are highlighted due to their unique merits and wide adoption in practical applications. Firstly, the ground plane dependence of the antenna performance, one of the most challenging issues in small antenna design is addressed. By using a newly developed technique, the dependence of small antenna performance on system ground plane has been alleviated. A design example is used to elaborate the mechanism of the method. Based on this concept, the antenna with further reduced size is designed to fit the size of wireless USB dongle for high data-rate applications. Furthermore, an innovative compact diversity UWB antenna is studied to show the advantage of ground-independence of small antenna in diversity applications. Lastly, a UWB antenna integrated with bandpass filter is proposed to reduce the overall size of devices by using the concept of co-design. In the end of the talk, the trend of UWB antenna R&D is offered according to application and market demands.       

 

Design Considerations of Antennas for MIMO Systems

-Antenna Engineering Perspectives

 This talk will present and discusses the key design considerations of antennas in multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication systems from antenna engineering perspectives. First, the effect of antenna design on diversity performance of MIMO systems will be analyzed. It will show that the configurations of the antennas can greatly affect system performance, in particular, signal correlation at both transmitters and receivers in both uplink and downlink. Second, the effect on the envelope correlation and capacity of MIMO systems will be evaluated by using antenna parameters, namely S-parameters and radiation patterns. Third, the concepts of near-field and far-field envelope correlation coefficients are introduced and discussed based on the relationship between antenna parameters (S-parameters and radiation patterns) and channel parameters (envelope correlation coefficients) for spatial, polarization, and pattern diversity. In particular, the antenna efficiency affected by inter-element mutual coupling is taken into account in antenna design. Furthermore, 2-D and 3-D patterns of the envelope correlation coefficient are presented to optimize the performance of MIMO systems. Conventionally, the average envelope correlation coefficient has been used to evaluate the diversity performance of antennas configurations, which doesn’t provide antenna engineers with information about the distribution of correlation in space. Fourth, the concept of overall correlation of the system is presented to evaluate the diversity performance of MIMO systems, which will, for example include spatial, polarization, and pattern diversity. Then, the design considerations of antennas for MIMO systems are presented from an antenna engineering perspective. After that, a compact three-element MIMO antenna system designed for indoor 2.4 GHz WLAN applications is exemplified to validate the design considerations proposed here. Finally, the technology to reduce inter-element mutual coupling is also introduced and applied to the three-element design.


 

Christos G. Christodoulou

ECE Department, Room 330
MSC01 1100
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001

Christos G. Christodoulou received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University in 1985.  He served as a faculty member in the University of Central Florida, Orlando, from 1985 to 1998.  In 1999, he joined the faculty of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the University of New Mexico, where he served as the Chair of the Department from 1999 to 2005.  He is a Fellow member of  IEEE and he served as the general Chair of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society/URSI 1999 Symposium in Orland, Florida, as the co-chair of the IEEE 2000 Symposium on Antennas and Propagation for wireless communications, Waltham, MA, and the co-techinal chair for the IEEE Antennas and Propagation society/URSI 2006 Symposium in Albuquerque.  Currently, he is an associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Antennas Propagation, the International Journal of RF and Microwave Computer-Aided Engineering , and IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine.  He served as a guest editor for a special issue on "Applications of Neural Networks in Electromagnetics" in the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES) journal and he is also co-editor of the IEEEAntennas and Propagation special issue on "Synthesis and Optmization Techniques in Electromagnetics and Antenna System Design".  He has published over 250 papers in journals, conferences, and book chapters.  He has also co-autored 4 books.  His research interests are in the areas of modeling of electromagnetic systems, reconfigurable systems, machine learning applications in electromagnetics, and smart antennas.

Reconfigurable Multifunctional Antennas

The requirements for increased functionality, such as direction finding, radar, control and command, within a confined volume, place a greater burden in today’s transmitting and receiving systems. A solution to this problem is the re-configurable antenna. Antennas that can be used for multiple purposes, that function over several frequency bands and that can be integrated on a package for mass-production are the ultimate goals of commercial and defense investigators.  Furthermore, applications of such systems in personal and satellite communications impose the requirement for elements miniaturized in size and weight.

Key-elements to obtain reconfigurability in many RF circuits are the Radio-Frequency MicroElectroMechanical Systems (RF-MEMS). Even though RF-MEMS have been used in the past to reconfigure filters, phase-shifters, capacitors and inductors, their integration in an antenna system has been limited as it faces a plethora of issues that need to be resolved. The absence of reconfigurable RF-MEMS antenna system and the recent advances in fractal - and especially Sierpinski gasket- antennas combined with the availability of series cantilever RF-MEMS switches, sparked the pioneering idea to design a multiple-frequency antenna that will radiate on-demand the same radiation pattern at various frequencies. Such a system was designed and successfully implemented, as the first functional, fully integrated RF-MEMS reconfigurable self-similar antenna.

In this talk, several reconfigurable antennas are presented and discussed. The antennas to be presented cover a wide range of designs such as fractal antennas, triangular antennas, dipoles and monopoles with variable sleeves. All these antennas make use of MEMS switches, to make them reconfigurable. Some of the challenges that the designer has to face in biasing and integrating these switches with the antenna has are also presented and discussed.

 

Using Support Vector Machines in Electromagnetics

Since the 1990s there has been a significant activity in the theoretical development and applications of Support Vector Machines (SVMs). The theory of SVMs is based on the cross-pollination of optimization theory, statistical learning, kernel theory and algorithmics. So far, machine learning has largely been devoted to solving problems relating to data mining, text categorization, and pattern/facial recognition but not so much in the field of electromagnetics. Recently, however, popular binary machine learning algorithms, including support vector machines (SVM), have successfully been applied to wireless communication problems, notably spread spectrum receiver design and channel equalization. The high-speed capabilities and "learning" abilities of support vectors can also be applied to solving complex optimization problems in electromagnetics in the areas of radar, remote sensing, microwaves, and antennas.

The aim of this talk is to introduce the subject of support vector machines in its linear and non linear form, both as regressors and as classifiers and to show how it can be applied to several problems in electromagnetics. The intricacies and difficulties associated with applying SVMs to complex problems will be discussed and it will be shown how to generate training and testing data that can be used with SVMs. Several examples that cover applications such as automatic target recognition in radar, remote sensing, beamforming, angle of arrival estimation, and microwaves will be presented and discussed.


 

George V. Eleftheriades


Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Toronto
Canada

George V. Eleftheriades earned his Ph.D. and M.S.E.E. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the 
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1993 and 1989 respectively, and a diploma in Electrical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece in 1988. In the period 1994-1997 he was with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, where he was engaged in the design of microwave and millimeter-wave antennas and circuits. Presently he is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto.  

Dr. Eleftheriades received the Ontario Premier's Research Excellence Award and the Gordon Slemon Award from the University of Toronto for the teaching of “design”, both in 2001. He also received an
E.W.R. Steacie Fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada in 2004 (awarded to six Canadians every year across all disciplines of science and engineering). Dr. Eleftheriades is a senior Member of the IEEE and has published more than 100 refereed Journal and Conference papers.   

His present research interests lie in the areas of negative-refractive-index metamaterials, antennas and components for wireless communications, novel antenna beam-steering techniques, low-loss Silicon micromachined components, sub-mm-wave radiometric receivers, and electromagnetic design for high-speed digital circuits.
 

Negative-Refraction Metamataterials and Their Applications

Recently there has been renewed interest in man-made materials with electromagnetic properties that cannot be found in nature. Therefore these materials are referred to as “metamaterials” (“meta” means “beyond” in Greek). This lecture addresses metamaterials that can support negative refraction of electromagnetic waves. For example, the feasibility of media that simultaneously exhibit negative permittivity and negative permeability, hence a negative refractive index, has been known since the sixties. However it is only recently that people discovered how to make them. In such negative-refractive-index (NRI) or “left-handed” metamaterials, waves can be thought of as propagating backwards instead of forwards. When interfaced with conventional dielectric materials, incident waves become focused on a point instead of diverging outwards, thus suggesting the implementation of lenses with flat surfaces.


In this lecture it will be demonstrated that NRI metamaterials can be synthesized using planar networks of loaded transmission lines. The resulting metamaterials can be easily constructed using embedded capacitors and inductors. Since no resonators are explicitly involved, they offer wide operating bandwidths. Based on this approach, microwave NRI metamaterial lenses that can resolve details beyond the classical diffraction limit will be presented. Alternative transmission-line metamaterials that support negative wave refraction will also be described. Moreover, a number of useful antenna and microwave devices, enabled by such negative-refraction metamaterials will be demonstrated. These enabling materials and devices can find applications in diverse areas such as wireless communications, defence, and medical imaging.

Imaging Beyond The Diffraction Limit With Negative-Refractive-Index Lenses

Classical electrodynamics imposes a resolution limit when imaging with conventional lenses.  This limit, called the “diffraction limit”, stems in its ultimate form from the finite size of the wavelength of any electromagnetic monochromatic wave. Even when the aperture size of a lens is infinite, the maximum transverse wavenumber, kx, that can contribute to the formation of the image is limited to propagating waves, i.e. kx <= k, thus determining the minimum resolvable detail  to be on the order of one wavelength, i.e.  ~ 2/k =. Recently it has been proposed that a lens made out of a slab of “left-handed” or “negative-refractive-index” (NRI) material could overcome this limitation by restoring not only the propagating waves kx <= k emanating from the object, but also the evanescent waves kx > k.

 In this lecture, first the general electromagnetic properties of NRI media will be presented. This will be followed by an analysis of the dispersion characteristics of periodic transmission-line (TL) NRI media using a Floquet-Bloch analysis. Subsequently, the imaging properties of TL-NRI lenses will be examined through microwave simulations, as well as by means of the analytic derivation of their periodic Green’s functions. The practical resolution limitations of such TL-NRI lenses arising from material losses, mismatches and the finite size of their unit cells will be revealed. Supporting experimental results for imaging beyond the diffraction limit will also be presented and related to theory.


 

Koichi Ito


Department of Medical System Engineering
Graduate School of Engineering
Chiba University
1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage-ku, Chiba-shi, 263-8522
Japan
ito.koichi@faculty.chiba-u.jp or k-ito@ieee.org

Koichi Ito received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from Chiba University, Chiba, Japan, in 1974 and 1976, respectively, and the D.E. degree from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan, in 1985, all in electrical engineering. 

From 1976 to 1979, he was a Research Associate at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.  From 1979 to 1989, he was a Research Associate at Chiba University.  From 1989 to 1997, he was an Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Chiba University, and is currently a Professor at the Graduate School of Engineering, Chiba University.  He has been appointed as one of the Deputy Vice-Presidents for Research, Chiba University, since April 2005.  In 1989, 1994, and 1998, he visited the University of Rennes I, France, as an Invited Professor.  Since 2004 he has been appointed as an Adjunct Professor to Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB), Indonesia.  His main research interests include analysis and design of printed antennas and small antennas for mobile communications, research on evaluation of the interaction between electromagnetic fields and the human body by use of numerical and experimental phantoms, and microwave antennas for medical applications such as cancer treatment.  He has co-authored over 100 journal papers with review and nine books including Handbook of Microstrip Antennas (IEE, 1989) and Antennas and Propagation for Body-Centric Wireless Communications (Artech House, 2006).

Dr. Ito is a Fellow of the IEEE, a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE) of Japan, the Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers of Japan (ITE) and the Japanese Society for Thermal Medicine (formerly, Japanese Society of Hyperthermic Oncology).  He served as Chair of the Technical Group on Radio and Optical Transmissions, ITE from 1997 to 2001 and Chair of the Technical Group on Human Phantoms for Electromagnetics, IEICE from 1998 to 2006.  He also served as Chair of the IEEE AP-S Japan Chapter from 2001 to 2002 and TPC Co-Chair of the 2006 IEEE International Workshop on Antenna Technology (iWAT2006).  He currently serves as General Chair of iWAT2008 to be held in Chiba, Japan in March 2008, Vice-Chair of the 2007 International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (ISAP2007) to be held in Japan, Vice-Chair of ISAP2008 to be held in Taiwan, and as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.  He also serves as a Distinguished Lecturer and an AdCom member for the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society since January 2007.

 

Microwave Antennas for Medical Applications

 In recent years, various types of medical applications of antennas have widely been investigated and reported.  Typical recent applications are:

  1. Information transmission:
  2. Diagnosis:
  3. Treatment:

In this presentation, three different types of antennas which have been studied in our laboratory are introduced.  Firstly, a pretty small antenna for an implantable monitoring system is presented.  An H-shaped cavity slot antenna is a candidate for such a system.  Some numerical and experimental characteristics of the antenna are demonstrated.  Secondly, some different antennas or “RF coils” for MRI systems are introduced.  In addition, SAR (specific absorption rate) distributions in the abdomen of a pregnant woman generated in a bird cage coil are illustrated.  Finally, after a brief overview of thermal therapy and microwave heating, coaxial-slot antennas and array applicators composed of several coaxial-slot antennas for minimally invasive microwave thermal therapies are introduced.  Then a few results of actual clinical trials by use of the coaxial-slot antennas are demonstrated from a technical point of view.  Other therapeutic applications of the coaxial-slot antennas such as hyperthermic treatment for brain tumor and intracavitary hyperthermia for bile duct carcinoma are introduced.

 

Phantoms for Evaluation of Interactions Between Antennas and the Human Body

Recently, many researches have been done on the interactions between the human body and electromagnetic (EM) waves radiated from antennas for mobile terminals or other equipments.  The "interactions" mean two ways: an influence of the human body on the performance of the antenna and an influence of EM waves on the human body.  Such interactions are estimated by numerical simulation and/or experimental evaluation. 

In this presentation, firstly, various types of numerical phantoms or models which are used for theoretical analysis and computational simulation are introduced.  Canonical phantoms such as sphere or cube have been mainly used for EM dosimetry inside the human head.  In order to estimate the performance of the antenna close to the human body in the actual situation or SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) distribution inside the human body, it is sometimes necessary to use realistic numerical phantoms which are composed of many small voxels.  On the contrary, tissue-equivalent liquid, jelly, or solid phantoms are usually used for experimental evaluation.  Then some different experimental phantoms are introduced and compared.  There are two typical ways to evaluate SAR distributions by using experimental phantoms: the “electric-field method” with a liquid phantom and the “thermographic method” with a solid phantom.  Finally, this presentation introduces some examples of "new" solid phantoms including a UWB phantom and a torso phantom which are used for the study on body-centric wireless communications.
 

 

 

Peter de Maagt

Antenna and Submillimetre Wave Section
Electormagnetics & Space Environments Division
European Space Agency
PO Box 299
NL 2200 AG Noordwijk
The Netherlands
peter.de.maagt@esa.int

Peter de Maagt was born in Pauluspolder, The Netherlands, in 1964. He received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, in 1988 and 1992, respectively, both in electrical engineering. In the period 1992/1993 he was station manager and scientist for an INTELSAT propagation project in Surabaya, Indonesia. He is currently with the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), European Space Agency, Noordwijk, The Netherlands. His research interests are in the are of millimetre and submillimeter-wave reflector and planar integrated antennas, quasioptics, electromagnetic bandgap antennas, and millimetre- and submillimetre-wave components. Dr. de Maagt was co-recipient of the H.A. Wheeler Award of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society for the best applications paper of 2001. He was granted a European Space Agency Award for innovation in 2002. He was co-recipient of the LAPC 2006 best paper award. Dr. de Maagt serves as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transaction on Antennas and Propagation.

 

Terahertz Technology for Space and Earth Applications

The terahertz (THz) part of the electromagnetic spectrum falls between the lower frequency millimetre wave region and, at higher frequencies, the far-infrared region. The frequency range extends from 0.1 THz to 10 THz, where both these limits are rather loose. As the THz region separates the more established domains of microwaves and optics, a typical THz technique will incorporate aspects of both realms, and may even draw on the best of both. The two bounding parts of the spectrum also yield distinct sets of methods of generating and detecting THz waves. These approaches can thus be categorised as having either microwave or optical/photonic origins. As a result of breakthroughs in technology, the THz region is finally finding applications outside its traditional heartlands of remote sensing and radio astronomy. Extensive research has identified many attractive uses and has paved the technological path towards flexible and accessible THz systems. Examples of novel applications include medical and dental imaging, gene theory, communications and detecting the DNA sequence of virus and bacteria. The presentation will discuss the range of THz applications and will present the components and systems that are utilised for the frequency region.

 

Electromagnetic Bandgap Materials

Electromagnetic Bandgap Materials are artificially engineered materials exhibiting novel properties. Since their discovery and first demonstration in the late 1980's, interest in EBGs has grown explosively. The potential takeup of these structures in Communications and Sensing Systems is primarily due to the control of the frequencies and wavenumbers of propagating and non-propagating electromagnetic waves to an extent that was not previously possible. Much effort is now being concentrated on the design and manufacture of these different classes of EBG-based components. This presentation will highlight application areas of EBG technology at microwave and (sub) millimetre wave. It sets out with a brief introduction of the concepts. It then discusses some generic configurations and resulting practical applications. Examples of FSS, EBG and AMC generic technology in the microwave region include: patch antennas, cavity antennas, parabolic antennas, metallo-dielectric antennas, waveguides, filters and tunable structures. Examples of applications are array antennas, high precision GPS, mobile telephony, wearable antennas and diplexing antennas. In the submillimetre wave region a 500 GHz dipole configuration is shown and some components.

 

Marta Martínez-Vázquez 

 

 Dr.-Ing. Marta Martínez Vázquez
Department of Antennas & EM Modelling
IMST GmbH
Carl-Friedrich-Gauß Str. 2
D-47475 Kamp-Lintfort
Germany

 

martinez@imst.de

 

 

Marta Martínez-Vázquez was born in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in 1973. She obtained the Dipl.-Ing. in telecommunications and Ph.D. degree from Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain, in 1997 and 2003, respectively. In 1999 she obtained a fellowship from the Pedro Barrié de la Maza Foundation for postgraduate research at IMST GmbH, in Germany. Since 2000, she is a full-time staff member of the Antennas and EM Modelling department of IMST. Her research interests include the design and applications of antennas for mobile communications, planar arrays and radar sensors, as well as Electromagnetic Bandgap (EBG) materials. Dr. Martínez-Vázquez was awarded the 2004 "Premio Extraordinario de Tesis Doctoral" (Best Ph.D. award) of the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia for her dissertation on small multiband antennas for handheld terminals. She has been a member of the Executive Board of the ACE (Antennas Centre of Excellence) Network of Excellence (2004-2007) and the leader of its activity on small antennas. She is the vice-chair of the COST IC0306 Action “Antenna Sensors and Systems for Information Society Technologies”, and a member of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society and of the Technical Advisory Panel for the Antennas and Propagation Professional Network of IET. She is the author of over 50 papers in journals and conference proceedings. Dr. Martínez-Vázquez’s career is an example of the positive results of such coordination programmes. She started as an expert participant in COST 260, became a Working Group leader in COST 284, and a member of the Executive Board of ACA, leading the “Small Antennas” activity. Presently, she is the Vice-chair of the COST IC0603 Action.

 

 

An overview of European cooperation on antenna research

Antenna research has a long tradition in Europe, although the efforts have been often scattered and uncoordinated, with a large gap between university research and industrial applications. A first step towards collaborative research was made with the creation of the COST activities, also referred to as an Action (“CO-operation in the field of Scientific and Technological research”), sponsored by the European Commission. Under the COST umbrella, different Actions were approved since the early 1970s that deal with antenna R&D. From the first COST Action 25/1 ("Aerial Networks with Phase Control", 1973-1979) to the recently started COST IC 0603 Action (“Antenna Systems & Sensors for Information Society Technologies”, 2007-2011), the number of signatory countries has increased from 5 to over 20. These COST Actions have allowed the exchange of know-how in a non-competitive manner, and are still an excellent forum for open discussion regarding blue sky research. They have also fostered collaborations between European organizations and the mobility of researchers, especially young PhD students, through short term missions, for example. Being essentially an open forum at a pre-competitive level, COST is the ideal complement for other joint European research programmes, and many innovative concepts and novel antenna designs have their roots in COST meetings.

Within the 6th Framework Program of the European Commission, a new structuring instrument was used to complement and enhance the collaboration initiated within COST, and thus further coordinate antenna research to deal with the new challenges of the 21st century: The Antenna Centre of Excellence (ACE) was established as a Network of Excellence, including over 50 European institutions, both industrial and academic from 17 European countries, with over 300 researchers and 130 PhD students, and over 100 external participants from around the world as members of the “ACE Community”. Over 4 years, ACE has tried to structure the fragmented European antenna R&D world, reduce duplications and boost excellence and competitiveness in key areas. Some of the results of ACE are:

-            the creation of the European School of Antennas, a new system of geographically distributed PhD school which aims to improve the antenna advanced training and research in Europe

-            cooperation in antenna measurement, with an on-line database of measurement facilities and collaboration agreements

-            benchmarking of measurement facilities and software tools

-            the development of the EDI (Electromagnetic Data Interface) for the exchange of compatible data between different software tools

-            the creation of EuCAP (European Conference on Antennas and Propagation), EurAAP (European Association on Antennas And Propagation) and many new research groupings in critical areas

-            the Virtual Centre of Excellence, a multimedia platform designed to provide a set of added value services to this Community by establishing a single point (website based) to share information across the entire research-manufacturing-users chain.

 

 

 

Terminal antenna design: practical considerations

 Nowadays, the access to mobile communications not only through mobile telephones, but also other kind of portable devices such as notebooks or PDAs, equipped with PCMCIA cards, allows providing almost universal connectivity, with access to public or private networks. Therefore, both cellular standards, such as the GSM family and third generation standards such as UMTS, as well as unlicensed networks, like WLAN, should be accessible with a single device. However, the limited space foreseen for the antenna and the small overall size of the terminal are often the reason of the narrow band characteristics of the resulting antennas. This problem becomes even more serious when a multiband or an ultra-wideband antenna has to be designed. Also, only a careful design of the antenna taking into account the interaction both with the handset components and the human user can lead to satisfying solutions that fulfil the given requirements for mobile communications handsets. Their design is, however, no trivial task due not only to the extensive requirements of modern antennas but also to plethora of physical factors that impinge on their performance, such as the close proximity of electronic components.

However, in the design of antennas for commercial applications, the designer has to take into account many issues not directly related to the antenna itself. Antenna engineers have to interact with other departments, to satisfy all the requirements in terms of, for example, mechanical stability, aesthetical design or compliance testing. Thus, the design must be able to adapt the antenna concept to eventual changes in the device or the specifications. Although the use of powerful software packages has allowed to precisely simulate the antennas in such a complex environment, they are useless without an in-depth knowledge of electromagnetic theory and experience in solving such problems.

Dr. Martínez-Vázquez has been involved in the design of antennas for mobile communications both from the academic and the industrial point of view, which allows her to have a global view on the problems related to this topic.

 

 

 

Prof. Yahya Rahmat-Samii

Electrical Engineering Department
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA

rahmat@ee.ucla.edu,

Yahya Rahmat-Sami is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Before joining UCLA, he was a Senior Research Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology. Dr. Rahmat-Samii was the 1995 President of IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society and has been appointed an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer presenting lectures internationally. Dr. Rahmat-Samii was elected as a Fellow of IEEE in 1985 and a Fellow of IAE in 1986 and also served as the Vice President of AMTA. Dr. Rahmat-Samii was the 1984 recipient of the prestigious Henry Booker Award of USNC/URSI. Dr. Rahmat-Samii has authored and co-authored over 650 technical journal articles and conference papers and has written 16 book chapters and two books entitled, Electromagnetic Optimization by Genetic Algorithms, and Impedance Boundary Conditions in Electromagnetics. He is also the holder of several patents. His research contributions cover a diverse area of electromagnetics, antennas, satellite and personal communications, EBG structures, modern measurement and diagnostic techniques, numerical and evolutionary optimization techniques, etc (visit http://www.antlab.ee.ucla.edu). Dr. Rahmat-Samii has received numerous awards, including the 1992 and 1995 Wheeler Best Application Prize Paper Award for his papers published in the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Transactions, 1999 University of Illinois ECE Distinguished Alumni Award, IEEE Third Millennium Medal, and AMTA’2000 Distinguished Achievement Award. In 2001, Rahmat-Samii was the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate in Physics from the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. In 2001, he was elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts. In 2002, he received the Technical Excellence Award from JPL. Dr. Rahmat-Samii is the winner of the 2005 Booker Gold Medal of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI).


The Marvels of Electromagnetic Band Gap (EBG) Structures

Periodic structures are abundant in nature and they have fascinated artistes and scientists alike. When these structures interact with the electromagnetic waves amazing features result with many applications in filter designs, gratings, frequency selective surfaces (FSS), photonic crystals/band-gaps (PBG), etc. Recently a unified classification of various nomenclatures under the broad terminology of “Electromagnetic Band Gap (EBG)” has been adopted. Ideally EBG structures are 3-D periodic objects that prevent or assist the propagation of the electromagnetic waves in a specified band of frequency for allangles and for all polarization states. However, in practice, it is almost impossible to construct such a complete band-gap structure and frequently partial band-gaps are achieved. FSS terminology has been used in the microwave community while PBG terminology has been applied in the optical community. To characterize some of the unique features of EBG structures, the Spectral FDTD technique with Periodic Boundary Condition/Perfectly Matched Layer (PBC/PML) has been successfully employed. The inherent broadband analysis of the Spectral FDTD approach provides an ideal capability when the structure is characterized to demonstrate its frequency and angular responses. Some unique features of EBG structures are demonstrated for microwave, antenna and optical applications. Results of simulations, prototyping and measurements will be presented for representative low profile antennas, array antennas and high Q cavities. Future prospects of EBG’s in electromagnetic engineering designs will be addressed.


Personal Communication Antennas including Human Interactions: Handheld, Wearable and Implanted Devices

The introduction of personal communications technology has resulted in a widespread awareness of the critical role wireless services play in today’s communications-centered marketplace. Antennas play paramount roles in an optimal design of the handheld, wearable and implantable devices used in these services. Clearly in designing these antennas the electromagnetic interaction among the antenna, devices and the human is a key factor to be considered. Additionally, diverse requirements for the various applications necessitate an in-depth evaluation of various antenna configurations including the effects of multi-path fading, human body absorption, etc. In this presentation the following topics will be addresses: (a) The age of personal communications, (b) Modern electromagnetic numerical techniques for antenna performance evaluations, (c) Various popular antenna designs, such as, monopole, inverted F, reconfigurable patches, etc, (d) Human interactions with handheld devices, (e) wearable antennas and implanted antennas, (f) Antenna diversity techniques to combat multipath, (f) SAR characteristics for adults and children, and (g) future trends in personal communication antenna developments. Practical design and safety issues will be summarized based on our advanced computational methodology utilizing the real life model of a human body. Representative results will be shown for input impedance, bandwidth performance, patterns, polarization, gain, absorbed power, etc.


Genetic Algorithms (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) in Engineering Electromagnetics

Engineers are constantly challenged with the temptation to search for optimum solutions for complex system designs. The ever increasing advances in computational power have fueled this temptation. The well-known brute force design methodologies are systematically being replaced by the state-of-the-art Evolutionary Optimization (EO) techniques. EO techniques have been successfully applied to problems in fields ranging from engineering to economics and artificial intelligence. Among various EO techniques, Genetic Algorithms (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) have attracted considerable attention.  GA utilizes an optimization methodology which allows a global search of the cost surface via the mechanism of the statistical random processes dictated by the Darwinian evolutionary concept. PSO is a robust stochastic evolutionary computation technique based on the movement and intelligence of swarms looking for the most fertile feeding location.  This presentation will focus on: (a) an engineering introduction to GA and PSO, (b) demonstration of potential applications of GAs and PSO’s to a variety of electromagnetic engineering designs including communication antennas, satellite antennas, radar absorbing materials for RCS applications, array antennas, and design of electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structures, and (c) assessment of the advantages and the limitations of the techniques.
 

 

John L. Volakis

ElectroScience Laboratory
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
The Ohio State University
1320 Kinnear Rd.
Columbus, OH 43212

volakis@ece.osu.edu

John L. Volakis was born in Chios, Greece in 1956 and immigrated to the U.S.A. in 1973. He obtained his B.E. Degree in 1978 from Youngstown State Univ., the M.Sc. in 1979 from the Ohio State University, and the Ph.D. degree in 1982, also from Ohio State. He is currently the Director of the Ohio State University ElectroScience Laboratory and the Chope Chair Professor of Engineering in the Dept. of Electrical Engineering. From 1984-2002 he was on the faculty of the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He also served as the Director of the University of Michigan Radiation Laboratory for 1998-2000. From 1982-1984 he was with Rockwell International, Aircraft Division (now Boeing Phantom works) and from 1978-1982 he was a Graduate Research Associate at the Ohio State ElectroScience Lab. His research has covered antennas, radar scattering, wireless communication, RF propagation, bioelectromagnetics, and MEMS multiphysics design. He is best known for introducing hybrid finite element techniques and formal design methods for electromagnetic applications. He maintains close collaboration with faculty in the Material Science, Mechanical, Biomedical, Aerospace and Applied Mathematics Departments on multidisciplinary projects, and directs the Air Force MURI on Novel Materials for Conformal Antennas. During the past 20 years, Prof. Volakis graduated over 30 Ph.D. students, mentored 10 post-docs and published over 220 articles in major refereed journal articles. He has also published more than 260 conference papers, several book chapters and co-authored two books: Approximate Boundary Conditions in Electromagnetics (Institution of Electrical Engineers, 1995) and Finite Element Method for Electromagnetics (IEEE Press, 1998). In 1998 he received the University of Michigan College of Engineering Research Excellence award and in 2001 he received his department's Service Excellence award. Prof. Volakis was elected Fellow of the IEEE in 1996 and has served on the editorial board of several journals. He was the 2004 President of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society, and serves as the Technical Chair of the Int. Radio Science Union (URSI). He was the 1993 IEEE AP-S symposium general chair, held in Ann Arbor, MI and the co-chair of the same symposium held in Columbus in 2003.


Metamaterials for Miniaturization of Narrowband and Ultra-Wideband Antennas

It is well-recognized that materials design holds promise in developing novel antennas that are much smaller and allow greater multi-functionality than ever before. Such needs stem from the unprecedented growth of wireless communications and related research that is highly fueled by growth in commercial and defense multi-band and high bandwidth future communication systems. This presentation will discuss how modified materials, inductive/capacitive lumped loads and low loss magnetic materials/crystals (metamaterials) are impacting antenna design with the goal of overcoming miniaturization challenges (viz. bandwidth and gain reduction, multi-functionality etc.). Dielectric design and texturing has, for example, led to significant size reduction and higher bandwidth for low frequency antennas. Also, recent magnetic photonic crystals (MPCs) and non magnetic versions of these crystals hold a promise for antenna/array miniaturization. Formal design methods incorporating local, global or hybrid optimizers for antenna and their radio frequency(RF) applications will play a critical role in materials design. Practical realizations of these new materials are poised to challenge computational and design methods for a variety of RF applications.


Miniature Antennas & Arrays Embedded within Magnetic Photonic Crystals

Engineered materials, such as new material composites, electromagnetic bandgap and periodic structures have had strong interest in recent years due to their extraordinary and unique electromagnetic behavior. Recently, a new class of magnetic photonic crystals (MPCs) and Double Band Edge (DBE) that display spectral nonreciprocity were introduced. Studies of these crystals demonstrated that MPCs exhibit the interesting phenomena of (a) drastic incoming wave slow down and (b) significant amplitude growth while (c) maintaining a minimal reflection at the interface with free space . These phenomena are associated with the diverging frozen modes that occur around the stationary inflection points within the band diagram. Taking advantage of the frozen mode phenomena, we demonstrate that antenna elements embedded within the MPC and DBE structures allow for supergain effects that can lead to novel miniature array configurations configurations. We will demonstrate these effects computationally using realistic materials, discuss loss issues, and gain sensitivity to the crystal thickness. Also, as part of the presentation, we will present an introduction to bandgap and bandedge structures and demonstrate the differences in the phenomena associated with the MPC and DBE crystals.


Hybrid Frequency Domain Methods for Electromagnetics: From Analysis to Design

The decade of the nineties is highlighted with truly remarkable progress in our ability to carry out simulations, not only for large scale problems, but also in terms of hybridization and integration of passive and active RF circuits for a variety of applications. These developments have allowed for broadband antenna design, simulations of large multilayered and multifunctional antennas with embedded frequency selective surfaces (FSS), metamaterial substrate designs, MEMS analysis and design, large finite arrays and full scale aircraft scattering analysis using first principle methods, electromagnetic coupling and interference of systems involving passive and active components, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) simulations, indoor propagation and evaluation of wireless systems, etc. What is probably so remarkable is that a decade ago (early 90s), we had just started looking at three-dimensional applications and the development of practical simulation tools was seemingly far away. Today, we have access to robust and fast three dimensional algorithms for modeling composite materials and have also demonstrated that simulations of practical vehicles or large finite antenna arrays and possibly RF integrated systems can be carried out on a desktop PC. In addition, we have delved into topology optimization/design. The latter holds promise for novel antenna and microwave circuit design, RF filters and RFICs for mixed signal applications, and others. This presentation will provide an overview of frequency domain developments, with particular focus on hybrid formulations and fast methods and their integration with formal design methodologies for antenna applications.


 

Werner Wiesbeck

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Werner Wiesbeck
Inst. für Höchstfrequenztechnik und Elektronik
Universität Karlsruhe (TH)
Kaiserstr. 12
76131 Karlsruhe
e.mail
: werner.wiesbeck@ihe.uka.de

Werner Wiesbeck (SM 87, F 94) received the Dipl.-Ing. (M.S.E.E.) and the Dr.-Ing. (Ph.D.E.E.) degrees from the Technical University Munich in 1969 and 1972, respectively. From 1972 to 1983 he was with AEG-Telefunken in various positions including that of head of R&D of the Microwave Division in Flensburg and marketing director Receiver and Direction Finder Division, Ulm. During this period he had product responsibility for mm-wave radars, receivers, direction finders and electronic warfare systems. Since 1983 he has been Director of the Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik und Elektronik (IHE) at the University of Karlsruhe (TH), where he had been Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Research topics include radar, remote sensing, wireless communication and antennas. In 1989 and 1994, respectively, he spent a six months sabbatical at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena. He is a member of the IEEE GRS-S AdCom (1992 - 2000), Chairman of the GRS-S Awards Committee (1994 – 1998, 2002 - ), Executive Vice President IEEE GRS-S (1998 - 1999), President IEEE GRS-S (2000 - 2001), Associate Editor IEEE-AP Transactions (1996-1999), past and present Treasurer of the IEEE German Section (1987-1996, 2003-2007). He has been General Chairman of the ’88 Heinrich Hertz Centennial Symposium, the '93 Conference on Microwaves and Optics (MIOP '93), the Technical Chairman of International mm-Wave and Infrared Conference 2004, Chairman of the German Microwave Conference GeMIC 2006 and he has been a member of the scientific committees and TPCs of many conferences. For the Carl Cranz Series for Scientific Education he serves as a permanent lecturer for radar system engineering, wave propagation and mobile communication network planning. He is a member of an Advisory Committee of the EU - Joint Research Centre (Ispra/Italy), and he is an advisor to the German Research Council (DFG), to the Federal German Ministry for Research (BMBF) and to industry in Germany. He is the recipient of a number of awards, lately the IEEE Millennium Award, the IEEE GRS Distinguished Achievement Award, the Honorary Doctorate (Dr. h.c.) from the University Budapest/Hungary and the Honorary Doctorate (Dr.-Ing. E.h.) from the University Duisburg/Germany. He is a Fellow of IEEE, an Honorary Life Member of IEEE GRS-S, a Member of the Heidelberger Academy of Sciences and a Member of acatech (German Academy of Engineering and Technology).

3D Propagation Modeling and Characteristics for High Speed Mobiles
In existing wireless telecommunication systems a user can choose either a high data rate or a high mobility. For various applications it would be desirable to have both at the same time: the freedom to move with a very high velocity without loosing the high data rate. Systems based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) seem to be suitable to satisfy these conditions. However, the high-speed aspect has to be considered more closely. High-speed links between receivers and transmitters cause varying Doppler, delay and angular spread, which may result in inter-carrier in-terference  (ICI) and inter-symbol interference (ISI). ICI and ISI are both a challenge and a limiting factor for a wireless communication system.


Applications for high-speed mobile stations are for example on planes, fast cars, high-speed trains and so on. Several scenarios are chosen for the simulations and partly verified by measurements. For cars these are urban and a high way scenarios, for trains high speed tracks with buildings or forest environment are chosen.  For the wave propagation a 3D ray-tracing tool, based on the theory of geometrical optics (GO) and the Uniform Theory of Diffraction (UTD), is used. The model includes modified Fresnel reflection coefficients for the reflection and the diffraction based on the UTD. The propagation channels are characterized by delay spread, Doppler spread and angular spread for different situations. These statistical parameters are compared to measurements.  Dynamic simulations will be illustrated by movies. The traffic scenarios are real world with multiple lanes, line of sight and non line of sight.

UWB Antennas and Channel Characteristics

Spectrum is presently one of the most valuable goods worldwide as the demand is permanently increasing and it can be traded only locally. Since the United States FCC has opened the spectrum from 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz, i.e. a bandwidth of 7.5 GHz, for unlicensed use with up to –41.25 dBm/MHz EIRP, numerous applications in commu-nications and sensor areas are showing up. All these applications have in common that they spread the necessary energy over a wide frequency range in this unlicensed band in order to radiate below the limit. The results are ultra wideband systems. These new devices exhibit especially at the air interface, the antenna, quite surprising behaviors. This talk presents an insight into design, evaluation and measurement procedures for Ultra Wide Band (UWB) antennas as well as into the characteristics of the UWB radio channel as a whole. UWB antenna basics and principles of wideband radiators, transient antenna characterization and UWB antenna quality measures, derived from the antenna impulse response, are topics. EM simulations and measurements of transient antenna properties in frequency domain and in time domain are included. Different antennas, based on different UWB principles, will be presented. Depending on the interest there are: ridged horn antenna, Vivaldi antenna, logarithmic periodic antenna, mono cone antenna, spiral antenna, aperture coupled bowtie antennas, multimode antennas, sinus antenna and impulse radiating antennas. The channel characterization comprises ray-tracing tools for deterministic indoor UWB channel modeling and measurements. The advantages and drawbacks of the UWB transmission will be discussed, depending on interest. The radiation from different an-tennas will be demonstrated by movies with a pulse excitation.

 

 

(modified: 28-July-2008)