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1. Recent Advances in Synthetic Aperture Antennas: Design, Modelling, and Measurement
Guest Editors Ahmet M. Elbir, Sanjeev Sharma, John L. Volakis, Rashaunda Henderson, Levent Sevgi, Fikadu Dagefu
Submission deadline: December 31, 2025
Details of each Special Issue are given below.
2. Microwave, mm and THz Imaging and Sensing Systems and Technologies for Medical Applications
Guest Editors Francesca Vipiana, Elise Fear, Yifan Chen, Lorenzo Crocco, Mahta Moghaddam
Submission deadline: October 31, 2025
Details of each Special Issue are given below.
3. Numerical and Analytical Methods for Complex Electromagnetic Media
Guest Editors Atef Elsherbeni, Kai Li, John C. Young, Vladimir Okhmatovski, Qiang Ren, Yuanguo Zhou
Submission deadline: October 31, 2025
Details of each Special Issue are given below.
Recent Advances in Synthetic Aperture Antennas: Design, Modelling, and Measurement
Phased array systems use analog hardware for directional beamforming, but often lack the angular resolution required in many applications. To overcome this, synthetic or virtual apertures are created by mechanically moving an antenna to collect phase-coherent RF data across spatial locations. This enables high-resolution imaging of electromagnetic scattering and is central to techniques like synthetic aperture radar (SAR), channel sounding, and radiometry. SAR, for instance, leverages platform motion to form a long virtual array for fine azimuth resolution. While much of the literature focuses on SAR signal processing, this special issue emphasizes antenna design and measurement challenges for synthetic apertures—addressing aspects such as sidelobe levels, bandwidth, impedance matching, directivity over varying distances, and scan range.
Synthetic aperture antenna systems have emerged as a cornerstone in modern radar, remote sensing, and imaging technologies, enabling high-resolution spatial information without requiring physically large apertures. This special issue presents a curated collection of recent advances in the design, modeling, and measurement of synthetic aperture antennas, covering both theoretical developments and practical implementations.
With the increasing demand for compact, efficient, and precise antenna systems across a wide range of applications—from earth observation and autonomous navigation to biomedical imaging and wireless communications — researchers are pushing the boundaries of innovation in synthetic aperture techniques. In emerging synthetic aperture imaging applications, coherent phase measurements along the virtual aperture may not always be feasible. For instance, due to size, weight, and power limitations on airborne drones, deploying heterodyne receivers capable of demodulating complex signals and extracting phase information may be challenging. Additionally, at high frequencies, platform vibrations and position uncertainty can make accurate estimation of the received signal's phase impossible. In such scenarios, only magnitude measurements of the electric field at the antenna are available. Traditionally, algorithmic approaches like phase retrieval are employed to iteratively solve an inverse problem, converging to a complex image from initial magnitude measurements. In our special issue, we seek innovative antenna design and measurement campaigns, which are capable of supporting SAR imaging in situations wherein a phaseless synthetic aperture can only provide magnitude measurements of the impinging electric field.
Topics include novel antenna architectures, calibration and alignment strategies, beamforming algorithms, near- and far-field modeling approaches, as well as experimental measurement campaigns leveraging advanced instrumentation. The contributions also highlight progress in integrating synthetic apertures with cutting-edge platforms such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), satellite constellations, and software-defined radios (SDRs). Further, broad topics of this issue are highlighted as:
- Optimization of antenna arrays for synthetic aperture applications
- Synthetic aperture antennas for 5G/6G applications
- Reconfigurable metasurface designs for synthetic apertures
- Ultra-wideband antennas for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and communication
- Metamaterial and reconfigurable antennas for synthetic aperture imaging
- Phased array antennas for synthetic aperture applications
- Beamforming techniques for synthetic aperture antennas
- Compensation of phase and amplitude errors in synthetic aperture systems
- Adaptive algorithms for synthetic aperture measurements
- Machine learning-based calibration techniques for synthetic aperture antennas
- Near-field to far-field transformation in synthetic aperture antennas
- Compact range measurement techniques for synthetic aperture systems
- Time-domain and frequency-domain measurement techniques
- Passive and active SAR antenna architectures
- Multi-frequency and multi-polarization SAR antenna design
- THz antennas for synthetic aperture imaging
- Hybrid RF-optical synthetic aperture systems
- Optical synthetic aperture techniques: Challenges and solutions
- Role of synthetic apertures in 6G and beyond
- Compact and low-power synthetic aperture antenna solutions
- Phase center stability and control for synthetic apertures
- Biosensing applications using synthetic apertures
- UAV-based synthetic aperture systems for remote sensing
- AI/ML-driven synthetic aperture antenna design and analysis
- Quantum synthetic apertures
- Synthetic aperture polarimetry
- Near-field synthetic aperture and imaging
- Channel sounding techniques for massive MIMO communications
- Design/measurement processing of Rydberg sensors for wideband synthetic apertures
- RF domain applications and active/passive beamforming
- Novel imaging and signal processing techniques for phaseless synthetic apertures
This special issue aims to serve as a comprehensive resource for academics, engineers, and practitioners interested in the latest developments shaping the future of synthetic aperture antenna systems.
Data and Code Sharing
All authors are invited to share via IEEE Data Port and IEEE Code Ocean the used data and developed codes to enhance the reproducibility and visibility of the articles published in the Special Issue.
Keywords
- Synthetic Aperture Antennas
- Phaseless Imaging
- Antenna Design and Calibration
- Beamforming and Array Optimization
- SAR and Remote Sensing
- Machine Learning for Antenna Systems
Guest Editors
Ahmet M. Elbir: University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg,
Sanjeev Sharma: IIT (BHU) Varanasi, India,
John L. Volakis: Florida International University, USA,
Rashaunda Henderson: The University of Texas at Dallas, USA,
Levent Sevgi: Istanbul Technical University, Turkey,
Fikadu Dagefu: Army Research Laboratory, USA,
Important Dates
Submission deadline: December 31, 2025
Microwave, mm and THz Imaging and Sensing Systems and Technologies for Medical Applications
The special issue aims at providing a comprehensive and updated picture on this lively research area by gathering contributions covering all aspects related to electromagnetic (EM) medical imaging and sensing. The research in this field is very active in the AP-S community and is paving the way to adoption of EM imaging and sensing technologies in the medical arena.
Recently, there are a growing number of reports of medical microwave imaging and sensing systems tested in clinical scenarios. Studies with hundreds of scans have been reported, demonstrating the potential of this technology. In parallel, the knowledge gained from patient scans has been leveraged into technical innovations in hardware and algorithms, as well as practical aspects such as calibration. Similar trends are observed at mm and THz frequencies. The current improved availability of hardware and computational facilities, both ever-growing in performance, is opening unique opportunities for the development of EM medical systems that can compete with or complement the existing modalities.
This special issue is designed to provide a comprehensive update of research ideas that have translated into practical systems, and it is expected to be a milestone in the development of these devices. It is dedicated to imaging and sensing systems and techniques using EM waves, from microwaves to THz frequencies, for medical applications. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- novel applications and devices for EM imaging and sensing in medical diagnosis
- novel applications and devices for EM imaging and sensing in clinical follow-up and image guided treatment
- novel antenna design and testing for EM medical imaging and sensing
- novel components and core elements for enhanced performance of EM imaging and sensing systems
- advances in image formation algorithms to enable accurate detection in realistic scenarios
- standardized phantoms for laboratory assessment of EM medical devices
- experimental campaigns and clinical trials of EM medical systems
- calibration techniques to enable reliable operation
Data and Code Sharing
All authors are invited to share via IEEE Data Port and IEEE Code Ocean the used data and developed codes to enhance the reproducibility and visibility of the articles published in the Special Issue.
Keywords
- Electromagnetic imaging and sensing
- Antennas for medical imaging
- Image formation algorithms
- Human phantoms
- Clinical trials
- Calibration techniques
Guest Editors
Francesca Vipiana: Politecnico di Torino, Italy,
Elise Fear: University of Calgary, Canada,
Yifan Chen: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, China,
Lorenzo Crocco: Institute for the Electromagnetic Sensing of the Environment of the National Research Council of Italy (IREA-CNR), Italy,
Mahta Moghaddam: University of Southern California (USC), USA,
Important Dates
Submission deadline: October 31, 2025
Numerical and Analytical Methods for Complex Electromagnetic Media
Novel electromagnetic materials reveal unprecedented properties which are beyond the ability of conventional materials. Consequently, they bring various applications, such as abnormal propagation, waveform manipulation, antenna design enhancement, RCS reduction, polarization conversion. Besides physical experiment, theoretical analysis and numerical simulation comprise a substantial portion of the research of these novel materials, not only due to being able to rapidly iterate designs but also due to the much lower cost. The need for analytical and numerical approaches to analyze complex media continues to grow owing to the wide variety of applications. However, the development of robust analysis tools for complex media is still a work in progress. First, the engineering design of artificial structures consisting of lattices of small scatterers pose challenging demands on physically meaningful computational models, parameter extraction techniques, and numerical methods. Second, multiphysics effects require highly accurate electromagnetic analysis involving complex media. Third, new analytical models, surrogate models, and fast algorithms are critical for the efficient investigation of complex media properties, as well as the efficient optimization of structures.
To address these issues and meet the new requirements imposed by the academic and industrial communities, the objective of this special issue is to bring together state-of-the-art research contributions in theory, methodology and techniques related to Analytical, Semi-Analytical, and Numerical Methods for Complex Electromagnetic Media. Therefore, this TAP special issue will have a broad scope of interest from both academia and industry and will bolster the development of analysis methods for complex EM media.
Potential topics include but are not limited to the following ones for complex materials:
- Unconventional physical and mathematical models to describe the EM/Multiphysics response and parameter extraction for complex media
- Material homogenization techniques for analysis of complex media
- Analytical and numerical techniques for Anisotropic/Bi-anisotropic media, time-varying media, non-linear media, etc
- Analytical and numerical techniques for metamaterials and metasurfaces for 2D/3D arbitrary structures and planar, cylindrical, and spherical layered medium
- Accelerating techniques applied to numerical methods for complex media
- Inverse design strategy and optimization schemes for complex media
- Machine learning and big data analysis of complex media
Keywords
- Homogenization theory
- Parameter extraction
- Anisotropic media
- Time-varying media
- Nonlinear media
- Metamaterial/Metasurface
- Multiphysics effects
- Acceleration techniques
Data and Code Sharing
All authors are invited to share via IEEE Data Port and IEEE Code Ocean the used data and developed codes to enhance the reproducibility and visibility of the articles published in the Special Issue.
Guest Editors
Atef Elsherbeni: Colorado School of Mines, USA,
Kai Li: Zhejiang University, China,
John C. Young: University of Kentucky, USA,
Vladimir Okhmatovski: University of Manitoba, Canada,
Qiang Ren: Beihang University, China,
Yuanguo Zhou: Xi’an University of Science and Technology, China,
Important Dates
Submission deadline: October 31, 2025