Short Courses

Quarter Day

SC-Q1: Antenna Design with Characteristic Modes
By: Buon Kiong Lau (Vince) & Zachary Miers
Wednesday, June 29, 13:00 - 15:00

SC-Q2: Mindfulness Practices for Engineers and Scientists
By: Keith W. Whites
Wednesday, June 29, 15:00 - 17:00

Half Day

SC-H1: Multibeam Antennas and Beamforming Networks
By: Giovanni Toso, Piero Angeletti
Thursday, June 30, 13:00 - 17:00

SC-H3: Timed arrays
By: Randy Haupt
Thursday, June 30, 13:00 - 17:00

SC-H6: Wearable Antennas
By: Albert Sabban
Thursday, June 30, 13:00 - 17:00

SC-H7: Natural and Metamaterial Tilted-beam Antennas
By: Hisamatsu Nakano
Friday, July 1, 08:00 - 12:00

SC-H8: Computational Techniques for Antenna Placement and RCS
By: Martin Vogel
Friday, July 1, 08:00 - 12:00

SC-H9: Small Printed Antennas
By: Albert Sabban
Friday, July 1, 08:00 - 12:00

SC-H10: Ultra-broadband Terahertz Communications
By: Josep Miquel Jornet
Friday, July 1, 08:00 - 12:00

SC-H11: Ultra Wideband Phased Arrays and Transceivers
By: John L. Volakis
Friday, July 1, 08:00 - 12:00

SC-H13: Reflectarray Antennas: Theory, Designs, and Applications
By: Payam Nayeri, Fan Yang, Atef Z. Elsherbeni
Friday, July 1, 08:00 - 12:00

SC-H2: Surface EM in Antenna Engineering: From EBG to meta-surface and beyond
By: Yahya Rahmat-Samii, Fan Yang
Friday, July 1, 13:00 - 17:00

SC-H14: Metamaterial Cloaking in Antenna Systems
By: Filiberto Bilotti
Friday, July 1, 13:00 - 17:00

Full Day

SC-F1: Base Station Antennas for Mobile Communications
By: Claes Beckman
Friday, July 1, 08:00 - 17:00

SC-F2: Advanced Preconditioning Techniques for Computational EM
By: Francesco P. Andriulli, Eric Michielssen
Friday, July 1, 08:00 - 17:00

SC-F3: Reflector Antenna Design and Analysis
By: Peter Meincke
Friday, July 1, 08:00 - 17:00

Systematic Antenna Design with Characteristic Modes

Buon Kiong Lau and Zachary Miers

Abstract:
The field of antenna design has been evolving since the early days of wireless communications. In the past, antenna engineering relied on customizing existing antenna structures to meet requirements, and in the process acquire experience and intuition to propose new structures that further expand the library of proven antenna designs. Although spectacular advancements in computational electromagnetics and computational power over the past decade have help to shorten the design cycle, the heavy use of numerical optimization tools also tends to diminish the important roles of creativity, insights, and experience in synthesizing new antenna structures.

In this context, the Theory of Characteristic Modes (TCM) perfectly interconnects modern computational electromagnetics with the creativity, insights, and experience of traditional antenna engineering. By extracting the inherent radiation properties of a structure, TCM allows for optimal antennas to be designed in a manner which is faster and superior to current complex antenna optimization algorithms. TCM performs analysis on an arbitrary structure by solving a generalized eigenvalue equation derived from the Method of Moments (MoM) impedance matrix. This equation results in all the unique sets of currents (characteristic currents) and resonant characteristics (eigenvalues) of which the structure supports. These characteristic attributes can then be analyzed to design optimal antennas which meet a specific set of performance goals. These attributes allow new antenna engineers with little prior experience to follow a systematic, and intelligent design approach, rather than a relying on optimization algorithms or traditional brute force methods. The characteristic modes of a structure not only facilitate insights into the resonant frequencies of a structure and where to feed these resonances, but also how to adapt a structure to support new resonances at a predetermined frequency, or combine multiple resonances to support wider band operation.

This short course will illustrate how to use characteristic modes to design many standard and complex antenna structures, showing how insights can be derived and common antenna knowledge can be used to design applications specific antennas. The attendees of this course will not only receive a basic overview of how to use TCM in many commercial EM suites (FEKO, CST), but will also receive Matlab scripts so that the attendees can utilize CMs after the completion of this course if they do not have access to any of these commercial software suites.

Biography:

Buon Kiong Lau received the Ph.D. degree from Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia, in 2003, in electrical engineering. Since 2004, he has been with the Department of Electrical and Information Technology, Lund University, where he is now an Associate Professor. His primary research interests are in various aspects of multiple antenna systems, particularly the interplay between antennas, propagation channels, and signal processing.

Dr. Lau is a Senior Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, for which he was also a Guest Editor of the 2012 Special Issue on MIMO Technology and the Lead Guest Editor of the 2016 Special Issue on Theory and Application of Characteristic Modes. He was the Lead Guest Editor of the 2013 Special Cluster on Terminal Antenna Systems for 4G and Beyond for the IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters. From 2007 to 2010, he was a Co-Chair of Subworking Group 2.2 on "Compact Antenna Systems for Terminals" (CAST) within EU COST Action 2100. From 2011 to 2015, he has been a Swedish national delegate and the Chair of Subworking Group 1.1 on "Antenna System Aspects" within COST IC1004. He was the Regional Delegate of European Association on Antennas and Propagation (EurAAP) for Region 6 (Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) between 2012 and 2015. He is also a member of the Education Committee within the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S), where he served as the Coordinator for the IEEE AP-S Student Design Contest from 2013-2015. Dr. Lau received an award from the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation for exceptional performance as an associate editor during 2014-2015.

Since 2014, Dr. Lau initiated and leads an international Special Interest Group (SIG) on TCM, which aims to promote research activities and applications of TCM in solving different problems in electromagnetics. He has over 20 publications in the topic of TCM, including 2 patent applications and 6 IEEE journal papers.

Zachary Thomas Miers received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA. While at the University of Colorado he was awarded a National Science Foundation scholarship for Mentoring through Critical Transition Points, as well as an image processing research grant from University of Colorado Applied Mathematics department. After graduating he has held multiple career positions in RF and microwave technologies, working to develop antennas for both commercial and government applications. He began his carrier working on RF noise suppression and signal integrity in RF sub-systems assemblies at Picosecond Pulse Labs. Between 2007 and 2012, he was a principal microwave systems engineer working FIRST RF Corporation in Boulder, CO, USA. While at FIRST RF he worked on a magnitude of specialized antenna systems ranging from 150MHz to 26.5GHz, with special focus surrounding unmanned aerial vehicle radar and communication systems. Mr. Miers is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree at the Department of Electrical and Information Technology, Lund University, Sweden. His main research interests include applications of characteristic modes in antenna design and development, advanced mobile platform communication systems utilizing MIMO technology, and antenna design and implementation utilizing chassis coupled, traveling wave, and non-mechanical beam steering antennas.

Mindfulness Practices for Engineers and Scientists

Dr. Keith W. Whites

Abstract:
Mindfulness practices have been shown scientifically to support improved concentration, help with handling stress, and increase personal happiness, among other benefits. Major companies such as Google, Microsoft, Ford Motor Company, Twitter, Nike, Pixar, and dozens more are finding that mindfulness programs in their companies are enhancing employee focus, clarity, and performance. In this short course, practical mindfulness practices especially geared towards engineers and scientists will be introduced that can be used virtually anywhere: from the hustle and bustle of the workplace to the quiet of your home. No previous mindfulness or meditation experience is expected or needed.

Multibeam Antennas and Beamforming Networks

Dr. Giovanni Toso and Dr. Piero Angeletti

Abstract:
The objective of this course consists in presenting the state of the art and the on-going developments in Multi-Beam Antennas (MBAs) and Beam-Forming Networks (BFNs). MBAs find application in several fields including communications, remote sensing (e.g. radars, radiometers, etc.), electronic surveillance and defense systems, science (e.g. multibeam radio telescopes), RF navigation systems, etc. The BFN plays an essential role in any antenna system relaying on a set of radiating elements to generate a beam. The course will cover both theoretical and practical aspects for the following topics:

  • Overview of system requirements
  • Multibeam Antennas
    • Linear and Planar Direct Radiating Arrays (based on Periodic or Aperiodic lattices)
    • Reflector-based architectures (Single-Feed-per-Beam, Multiple-Feed-per- Beam)
    • Lens-based architectures (free space and constrained)
  • Beamforming Networks
  • Analogue BFNs (Corporate, Blass, Nolen, Butler matrices)
  • Digital BFNs
  • RF Technology for Active Components
  • Low Noise Amplifiers (LNAs, High Power Amplifiers (HPAs), T/R Modules, etc.
  • Overview of some Operational Multibeam Antennas/BFNs
  • MBAs for spaceborne Narrowband and Broadband Satellite Communication Systems
  • MBAs for Wireless Communications
  • On-going European Developments
  • Current Design and Technological Challenges

Biography:

Giovanni Toso (S'93, M'00, SM'07) received the Laurea Degree (summa cum laude) and the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florence, Italy, in 1992 and 1995, respectively. In 1996 he was visiting scientist at the Laboratoire d'Optique Electromagnétique, University of Aix-Marseille III, France. From 1997 to 1999 he was a Post Doctoral student at the University of Florence. In 1999 he was a visiting scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In the same year he received a scholarship from Thales Alenia Space (Rome, Italy) and he has been appointed researcher in a Radioastronomy Observatory of the Italian National Council of Researches (CNR). Since 2000 he is with the Antenna and Submillimeter Section of the European Space and Technology Centre of the European Space Agency, ESA ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands. He has been initiating and contributing to several R&D activities on satellite antennas based on arrays, reflectarrays, constrained lenses and reflectors. G. Toso has co-authored more than 50 technical papers published in peer reviewed professional journals, more than 200 papers published in international conferences' proceedings, and more than 10 international patents. In 2009 he has been coeditor of the Special Issue on Active Antennas for Satellite Applications in the International Journal of Antennas and Propagation. G. Toso is a co-guest editor together with Dr. R. Mailloux of the Special Issue on "Innovative phased array antennas based on non-regular lattices and overlapped subarrays" published on the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation in 2014. G. Toso is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

Piero Angeletti (IEEE M'07, SM'13) received the Laurea degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Ancona (Italy) in 1996, and the PhD in Electromagnetism from the University of Rome "La Sapienza" (Italy) in 2010. His 17 years experience in RF Systems engineering and technical management encompasses conceptual/architectural design, trade-offs, detailed design, production, integration and testing of satellite payloads and active antenna systems for commercial/military telecommunications and navigation (spanning all the operating bands and set of applications) as well as for multifunction RADARs and electronic counter measure systems. Dr. Angeletti is currently member of the technical staff of the European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC) of the European Space Agency, in Noordwijk (The Netherlands). He is with the Radio Frequency Systems, Payload and Technology Division of the ESA Technical and Quality Management Directorate which is responsible for RF space communication systems, instrumentation, subsystems, equipment and technologies. In particular he oversees ESA R&D activities related to flexible satellite payloads, RF front-ends and on-board digital processors. Dr. Angeletti authored/co-authored over 200 technical reports, book chapters and papers published in peer reviewed professional journals and international conferences' proceedings.

The Novelties of Surface Electromagnetics in Antenna Engineering: From EBG to Meta-surface and Beyond

Yahya Rahmat-Samii and Fan Yang

Abstract:
From frequency selective surfaces (FSS) to electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) ground planes, from impedance boundaries to Huygens meta-surfaces, novel electromagnetic surfaces have been emerging in both microwaves and optics. Many intriguing phenomena occur on these surfaces, and novel devices and applications have been proposed accordingly, which have created an exciting paradigm in electromagnetics, so called surface electromagnetics”. This short course will review the development of electromagnetic surfaces, as well as the state-of-the art concepts and designs. Detailed presentations will be provided on the unique electromagnetic features of EBG ground planes and advanced digital surfaces. Furthermore, a wealth of antenna examples will be presented to illustrate promising applications of the surface electromagnetics in antenna engineering.

Timed Arrays

Randy L. Haupt

Abstract:
The term "phased array" implies a narrow band approach due to the term "phased". Thus, this short course title replaces "phased" with "timed" and concentrates on arrays designed for wide instantaneous bandwidth. Phase shifters produce beam squint and time domain dispersion for wideband signals. This short course explains a variety of issues related to antenna arrays in the time domain. Material for the course is based on the book Timed Arrays by Randy L. Haupt, Wiley-IEEE Press, 2015.

Biography:

Randy L. Haupt received the BSEE from the USAF Academy (1978), the MS in Engineering Management from Western New England College (1982), the MSEE from Northeastern University (1983), and the PhD in EE from The University of Michigan (1987). He is Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Colorado School of Mines and was an RF Staff Consultant at Ball Aerospace & Technologies, Corp., a Senior Scientist and Department Head at the Applied Research Laboratory of Penn State, Professor and Department Head of ECE at Utah State, Professor and Chair of EE at the University of Nevada Reno, and Professor of EE at the USAF Academy. He was a project engineer for the OTH-B radar and a research antenna engineer for Rome Air Development Center early in his career. He is co-author of the books Practical Genetic Algorithms, 2 ed., John Wiley & Sons (IEEE Press), 2004, Genetic Algorithms in Electromagnetics, John Wiley & Sons (IEEE Press), 2007, and Introduction to Adaptive Antennas, SciTech, 2010, as well as author of Timed Arrays, John Wiley & Sons (IEEE Press), 2010. Antenna Arrays a Computation Approach, John Wiley & Sons (IEEE Press), 2010. Dr. Haupt is a Fellow of the IEEE and Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES).

Wearable Antennas

Dr. Albert Sabban

Abstract:
Communication, medical and cellular industry is in continuous growth in the last few years. Low profile compact antennas are crucial in the development of Wearable human systems. Several wearable antennas will be presented in the course. Design considerations, computational results and measured results on the human body of several compact wideband printed antennas with high efficiency will be presented in the course.

Course Topics:

  • Microstrip wearable antennas
  • Loop wearable antennas
  • Helix wearable antennas
  • Antennas S11 Variation as Function of Distance from Body
  • Tunable antennas
  • Applications of wearable antennas

Biography:

Dr. Albert Sabban the course presenters works as an Antennas and RF specialist in a biomedical Hi-Tech company. He is an RF and antennas lecturer in colleges and universities in Israel. Dr. Albert Sabban received his B.S BSc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Tel Aviv University, Magna Cum Laude. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Albert Sabban was a senior leading R&D Scientist and project leader for more than thirty years in RAFAEL. During his work in RAFAEL and other institutes and companies Dr. Albert Sabban gained experience in system development, project management and training. He developed RFIC components on GaAs and silicon substrates. Dr. Sabban developed microwave components by employing MEMS and LTCC technology. Dr. Sabban developed high power Transmitters at Ka band. He developed wideband microstrip aa antenna arrays, wearable antennas for Medical applications, Reflector antennas and wideband mono-pulse co comparators.

Natural and Metamaterial Tilted-beam Antennas

Hisa-Matsu Nakano

Abstract:
Techniques for realizing tilted-beam antennas for modern wireless communications systems have been receiving considerable attention. This short course presents recent progress in natural tilted-beam antennas and metamaterial tilted-beam antennas, and is composed of three chapters. Chapter 1 describes the definition of natural and metamaterial antennas. Subsequently, the fundamental concepts behind realizing a tilted beam are explained. Chapter 2 summarizes the analysis methods for tilted-beam antennas. Chapter 3 presents representative tilted-beam antennas, including (1) inverted F antennas with an electromagnetic-band-gap (EBG) reflector, (2) a reconfigurable bent two-leaf (BeToL) antenna and a reconfigurable four-leaf (BeFoL) antenna, (3) an eight-beam reconfigurable antenna composed of a fed patch and parasitic T elements, (4) a patch antenna with Fabry-Perot resonant plates for single and double tilted beams, (5) metaline antennas, (6) metaspiral antennas, (7) an external-excitation spiral antenna, (8) a cavity-fed spiral array antenna and a cavity-fed helical array antenna, both with extremely high aperture efficiency, and (9) C-loop grid array antennas. Note that antennas (1) through (4) are linearly polarized, and antennas (5) and (9) are circularly-polarized, with all antennas having a small antenna height above the ground plane (low-profile structure).

Computational Techniques for Antenna Placement and RCS

Martin Vogel

Abstract:
This course will present an overview of simulation methods that can be used to analyze antenna placement on, and radar cross section of, a large platform, such as a ship, a vehicle or an aircraft. The techniques will include rigorous, asymptotic and hybrid methods. For a couple of practical examples of antenna placement on and Radar Cross Section of a Navy ship, the frequency will be varied over a wide range, and you will learn which methods are to be preferred when and why.

An additional example will involve the challenging problem of RCS analysis of an aircraft with engine inlets that include fans.

Finally, the technique of pinpointing scattering centers with Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) simulation will be presented with another practical example, a tank.

Small Printed Antennas

Dr. Albert Sabban

Abstract:

Communication, medical and cellular industry is in continuous growth in the last few years. Low profile compact antennas are crucial in the development of wearable human systems. Several Low Visibility antennas will be presented in the course. Design considerations, computational results and measured results on the human body of several compact wideband printed antennas with high efficiency will be presented in the course.

Course Topics:

  • Small Printed wearable antennas
  • Meta materials antennas
  • New Fractal small antennas
  • Antennas S11 Variation as Function of Distance from Body
  • Small Tunable Antennas
  • Fractal Antennas
  • Applications

Requirements from small Antennas
Low profile, flexible, light weight, small volume and low production cost, robustness.

Applications of Wearable Antennas

  • Medical
  • WLAN
  • HIPER LAN, GPS

Biography:

Dr. Albert Sabban the course presenters works as an Antennas and RF specialist in a biomedical Hi-Tech company. He is an RF and antennas lecturer in colleges and universities in Israel. Dr. Albert Sabban received his B.S BSc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Tel Aviv University, Magna Cum Laude. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Albert Sabban was a senior leading R&D Scientist and project leader for more than thirty years in RAFAEL. During his work in RAFAEL and other institutes and companies Dr. Albert Sabban gained experience in system development, project management and training. He developed RFIC components on GaAs and silicon substrates. Dr. Sabban developed microwave components by employing MEMS and LTCC technology. Dr. Sabban developed high power Transmitters at Ka band. He developed wideband microstrip aa antenna arrays, wearable antennas for Medical applications, Reflector antennas and wideband mono-pulse co comparators.

Fundamentals of Ultra-broadband Communications in the Terahertz Band (0.1-10 THz)

Josep Miquel Jornet

Abstract:
Wireless data traffic has grown exponentially in recent years due to a change in the way today's society creates, shares and consumes information. This change has been accompanied by an increasing demand for higher speed wireless communications, anywhere, anytime. Wireless Terabit-persecond (Tbps) links are expected to become a reality within the next ten years. In this context, Terahertz (THz)-band (0.1-10 THz) communication is envisioned as a key wireless technology of the next decade. The THz band will help overcome the spectrum scarcity problems and capacity limitations of current wireless networks, by providing an unprecedentedly large bandwidth. In addition, THz-band communication will enable a plethora of long-awaited applications, both at the nano-scale and at the macro-scale, ranging from wireless massive-core computing architectures and instantaneous data transfer among non-invasive nano-devices, to ultra-high-definition content streaming among mobile devices and wireless high-bandwidth secure communications.

In this course, an in-depth view of THz-band communications will be provided. First, the state of the art and open challenges in the design and development of THz-band devices will be presented. In particular, the limitations and possible solutions in the design of high-speed THz-band transceivers, broadband antennas and dynamic antenna arrays will be described. A special emphasis will be given to the utilization of novel materials, such as graphene, to develop compact solid-state devices for THz communications. Then, the current progress and open research directions in terms of THz-band channel modeling will be presented. The main phenomena affecting the propagation of THz signals will be explained and their impact on the channel capacity will be assessed. Finally, new modulation techniques tailored to the THz-band channel as well as novel transmissions schemes such as ultra-massive multiple-input multiple-output will be presented. This course will provide the audience with the necessary knowledge to work in a cutting-edge research field, at the intersection of nanotechnologies, antennas and propagation, and information and communication technologies.

Biography:

Josep Miquel Jornet received the B.S. in Telecommunication Engineering and the M.Sc. in Information and Communication Technologies from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain, in 2008. He received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), Atlanta, GA, in 2013, with a fellowship from "la Caixa" (2009-2010) and Fundación Caja Madrid (2011-2012). Since August 2013, he is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University at Buffalo (UB), The State University of New York. From September 2007 to December 2008, he was a visiting researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, under the MIT Sea Grant program. He was the recipient of the Oscar P. Cleaver Award for outstanding graduate students in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, at Georgia Tech in 2009. He also received the Broadband Wireless Networking Lab Researcher of the Year Award in 2010.

His current research interests are in Terahertz-band communication networks, Nano-photonic wireless communication, Graphene-enabled wireless communication, Electromagnetic nanonetworks, Intra-body Wireless Nanosensor Networks and the Internet of Nano-Things. In these areas, he has published more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific publications (23 journals, 27 conference papers), 1 book, and 2 patents, and his work has been cited more than 1600 times within the last 5 years (h-index of 20, according to Google Scholar on November 2015). He is currently the main PI for two NSF projects and one AFRL project, and has secured more than $850k in funds since joining UB. He has also served as an NSF Review Panelist for the last two years. He has given more than 20 seminars, tutorials, and invited talks in US and Europe. He is currently a guest-editor for special issues on THz communications in the IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology as well as on Nano Communication Networks (Elsevier) Journal. He was a guest-editor for special issues on electromagnetic nanonetworks for the IEEE Internet of Things Journal and the Nano Communication Networks (Elsevier) Journal. He is the TPC chair for ACM NANOCOM 2016, and served as the TPC vice-chair for the ACM NANOCOM 2015. He has organized and chaired special sessions on nanoscale and THz communications at several venues, including 47th ASILOMAR Conference (2013), IEEE BlackSeaCom 2014 and BODYNETS Conference (2014, 2015). He has been a TPC member multiple conferences, including IEEE INFOCOM (2016), IEEE VTC (2015, 2016), IEEE Globecom (2014, 2015), EuCAP (2015), ACM NANOCOM (2014, 2015), BODYNETS (2014, 2015), ICNC (2012, 2013, 2014), and IWCMC (2011, 2012, 2013). He is a reviewer for multiple IEEE, ACM and Elsevier journals. He is a member of the IEEE and the ACM.

Ultra Wideband Phased Arrays and Transceivers

John L. Volakis

Abstract:
Wide band antennas and arrays are essential for high resolution imaging, cognitive sensing, high data rate communication links, multi-waveform, and multi-function frontends for holistic spectrum utilization and secure communications. With wireless data traffic expected to grow more than 40% annually in the foreseeable future, wideband RF front ends will be play an essential role in the years to come. However, there is a longstanding difficulty in realizing small and conformal aperture version of these arrays. But recent miniaturization techniques, bandwidth enhancements and establishment of theoretical limits, feed technology, digital beam forming transceivers and post-processing algorithms have led to a new class of conformal antennas and tight-coupled arrays that can operate from UHF to millimeter wave frequencies. This short course will cover RF front-ends from the array aperture to transceivers and digital processors to realize ultra wide band communications with channel coding for spread spectrum communications. The course will cover: 1) theory and realization of ultra wideband conformal arrays with as much as 14:1 bandwidths, 2) theoretical bandwidth limits versus array thickness, 3) ultra wideband balanced feeds, 3) material and superstrates for optimal array design, 4) beam forming techniques at near grazing angles, 5) reconfiguration methods for bandwidth rejection and passband control, 6) low power and low cost digital beam formers via on-site coding, and 7) reduced hardware back-ends.

  1. Fundamental Limits and Design Guidelines for Ultra-Wideband Antennas
  2. Array Miniaturization via Slow Waves
  3. Fundamental Bandwidth Limits for Metal-Backed Conformal Apertures
  4. Review of Ultra Wideband Array Literature
  5. Tightly Coupled Arrays: Operation and Realization for UHF to Millimeter Frequencies
  6. Ultra Wideband Balanced Feeds and Impedance Matching Across Large Bandwidths
  7. Substrates, Superstrates and Frequency Selective Surface Additions for Beamforming and bandwidth enhancements.
  8. Balun Feed Geometrical Reconfiguration for Array Bandwidth Control
  9. On-Site Coding Transceivers for Reduced Hardware and Reduced Power Digital Beamforming
  10. Error Evaluation of On-Site Coding from the Analog Front-End to the Digital Back-Ends.
  11. Hardware Demonstration Examples
  12. Future directions and application needs.

Biography:

John L. Volakis was born in Chios, Greece in 1956 and immigrated to the U.S.A. in 1973. He is the Chope Chair Professor at The Ohio State University, Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. and also serves as the Director of the ElectroScience Laboratory. He was on the faculty of the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor from 1984 to 2003, serving as the Director of the Radiation Laboratory from 1998-2000. He is the author/co-author or 8 books, over 350 journal articles and 650 conference articles, with almost all of these in the IEEE APS venues. Over the years, he carried out research in antennas, wireless communications and propagation, radar scattering and diffraction, computational methods, electromagnetic compatibility and interference, design optimization, RF materials, multi-physics engineering, bioelectromagnetics, and medical sensing. Volakis has graduated/mentored nearly 80 doctoral students/post-docs with 27 of them receiving best paper awards at conferences. His service to Professional Societies include: 2004 President of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society, twice the general Chair of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Symposium, Vice Chair of USNC/URSI Commission B, IEEE APS Distinguished Lecturer, IEEE APS Fellows Committee Chair, IEEE-wide Fellows committee member & Associate Editor of several journals. He is a Fellow of IEEE and ACES, and in 2004 he was listed by ISI among the top 250 most referenced authors. Among his awards are: The Univ. of Michigan College of Engineering Research Excellence award (1993), Scott award from The Ohio State Univ. College of Engineering for Outstanding Academic Achievement (2011), IEEE Tai Teaching Excellence award (2011), the IEEE Henning Mentoring award (2013), and the IEEE Antennas & Propagation Distinguished Achievement award (2014).

Reflectarray Antennas: Theory, Designs, and Applications

Payam Nayeri, Fan Yang, Atef Z. Elsherbeni

Abstract:
In recent years, reflectarrays have emerged as the new generation of high-gain antennas which have attracted an increasing interest in the antenna/electromagnetic community because of their low-profile, low-mass, and low-cost features. The reflectarray antenna is a hybrid design, which combines the many favorable features of reflectors and printed arrays, and offers many notable advantages over these two classic high-gain antennas. The aim of this short course is to present a comprehensive overview of reflectarray system design and state-of-the-art technology. This short course will enable attendees to understand the basics of reflectarray systems, become familiar with reflectarray design, analysis techniques, and enabling technologies, and correctly apply this knowledge to designing reflectarrays for diversified applications. Based on the authors' forthcoming book on reflectarray antennas, this short course is available in a half-day format (4 hours) presenting nearly 200 slides.

Metamaterial Cloaking: Basic Principles And Applications In Antenna Systems

Filiberto Bilotti, Alessandro Toscano, Alessio Monti

Abstract:
The course aims at giving the basic principles of cloaking and electromagnetic invisibility. The main differences between cloaking and other common techniques used in microwave and radar technologies and based on radar absorbing materials and structure shaping (i.e. stealth aircrafts) are first remarked and carefully addressed. Then, the course will briefly present the main techniques recently presented in the literature to achieve electromagnetic invisibility: transformation electromagnetics, scattering cancellation, transmission-line cloaks, corrugated surfaces, etc. Proper figures of merit to describe the effectiveness of an invisibility cloak will be presented and discussed. A comprehensive comparison of the main cloaking techniques will be presented in order to show what is the best cloaking approach, depending on the application and the requested performances. The scattering cancellation approach to cloaking will be presented with further details and two typical implementations (i.e. plasmonic cloaks and mantle cloaks) will be discussed. Finally, possible applications of the scattering cancellation approach in antenna systems will be presented and discussed with the help of several examples (e.g. cloaking a metallic rod, reducing antenna blockage, cloaking a sensor, cloaking a halfwave dipole, reducing the mutual coupling and the mutual blockage effect between two antennas, etc.)

The course is intended to be application-oriented. Therefore, most of the lengthy analytical formulation will only be summarized and properly replaced by the presentation and discussion of the basic physical concepts behind the operation of the cloaking devices.

Course chapters

  1. Definition and general concepts
  2. Comparison between electromagnetic invisibility and other low-observability techniques
  3. Brief summary of the main techniques used to achieve electromagnetic invisibility
  4. Figures of merit to describe the effectiveness of a cloaking device
  5. Critical comparison among the different approaches to cloaking
  6. Scattering cancellation: principles and design techniques
  7. Scattering cancellation based on volumetric metamaterials (plasmonic cloaking)
  8. Scattering cancellation based on metasurfaces (mantle cloaking)
  9. Applications: cloaking passive objects (metallic or dielectric rods and general obstacles)
  10. Applications: cloaking objects with some functionalities (sensors, antennas)
  11. Applications: cloaking receiving antennas
  12. Applications: mutual cloaking of closely packed antennas

Biography:

Filiberto Bilotti received the Laurea and Ph.D. degrees in electronic engineering from "Roma Tre" University, Rome, Italy, in 1998 and 2002, respectively. Since 2002, he has been a Full Professor of electromagnetic field theory with the Department of Engineering, "Roma Tre" University. He organized the First International Congress on Advanced Electromagnetic Materials and Metamaterials in Microwaves and Optics-Metamaterials 2007, Rome, Italy, October 2007, served as the Chairman of the Steering Committee and has been elected General Chair of the same conference for the period 2008-2014 and 2015-2018, respectively. He is the author of more than 370 papers in international journals, conference proceedings, and book chapters. His research interests include microwave and optical applications of artificial electromagnetic materials, metamaterials, and metasurfaces. Dr. Bilotti served as a Member of the Technical Program, Steering, and Organizing Committee of several national and international conferences, as organizer and chairman of special sessions focused on the applications of metamaterials at microwave and optical frequencies, as an Associate Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION (2013-present) and Metamaterials Journal (2007-2013), as a Member of the Editorial Board of the journals EPJ Applied Metamaterials (2013-present), International Journal on RF and Microwave Computer-Aided Engineering (2009-present), Scientific Reports-Nature (2013-present), and as a Technical Reviewer of the major international journals related to electromagnetic field theory and metamaterials. He was an Elected Member of the Board of Directors (2007-2013) and currently is the President (2013-2016) of the Virtual Institute for Artificial Electromagnetic Materials and Metamaterials (METAMORPHOSE VI, the International Metamaterials Society). He is a Member of the Optical Society of America and has been the recipient of the Raj Mittra Travel Grant Senior Researcher Award in 2007 and of the Finmeccanica Group Innovation Award, in 2014.

Alessandro Toscano was born in Capua, Italy, on June 26, 1964. He received the Laurea degree in electronic engineering from "La Sapienza" University, Rome, Italy, in December 1988 and the Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering from "La Sapienza" University, Rome, Italy, in September 1993. In December 2011, as the winner of a public contest, he became Full Professor of electromagnetic field theory with the Department of Engineering, "Roma Tre" University, Rome, Italy. His contributions include: 1) analysis and design of innovative antennas loaded with chiral and bianisotropic materials; 2) development of finite element-boundary integral methods to bear concepts in mathematical physics and applied electromagnetics to solve longstanding problems involving nonconventional materials; and 3) design of metamaterial inclusions and metamaterial-based components to solve practical problems in acoustics, electromagnetics, and optics. His work to date has resulted in more than 100 journal papers, and more than 200 conference papers. Of these, around 150 have appeared in the IEEE journals and conferences. His research interests include metamaterials and nonconventional media with the ultimate aim to respond to the need to develop new technologies making use of the electromagnetic fields to design new components and to protect the environment and the human health. Dr. Toscano is a Member of the Academic Senate.

Alessio Monti was born in Rome, Italy, on February 16, 1987. He received the B.S. degree (summa cum laude) and the M.S. degree (summa cum laude) in electronic and ICT engineering both from Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy, in 2008 and 2010, respectively. From 2011 to 2013, he attended the Doctoral School in Electronic Engineering, Roma Tre University. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor with Niccolò Cusano University, Rome, Italy, where he teaches courses on antenna theory and microwave engineering. His research interests include the design and the applications of microwave and optical artificially engineered materials and metasurfaces, the design of cloaking devices for scattering cancellation operating at microwave and optical frequencies, and the study of the electromagnetic properties of the plasmonic nanoparticles arrays. Dr. Monti is a Member of the Secretarial Office of the International Association "Metamorphose-VI" and of the Technical Program Committee (TPC) of the 8th and 9th International Congress on Advanced Electromagnetic Materials in Microwaves and Optics. He has also been serving as a Technical Reviewer of the many high-level international journals related to electromagnetic field theory, metamaterials, and plasmonics.

Base Station Antennas for Mobile Communications

Claes Beckman

Abstract:
This tutorial gives the participants a general overview of the application, implementation and design of current and future base station antennas for mobile communications from analog to 5G. It is aimed at microwave, RF- and antenna engineers in the wireless area, but also useful for researchers looking for relevant research topics and system engineers needing a deeper understanding of the antenna component of their system. The course explains underlying theoretical and practical implementation aspects of base station antennas in mobile communication networks of today and the future.

The course is divided into four main parts: (i) System aspects,
(ii) BTS antenna design
(iii) Diversity and MIMO concepts.
(iv) The implementation of multiple antennas in 3GPP

In the first part the fundamental parameters of a base station antenna are discussed in the context of radio network design. In particular we discuss parameters such as gain, radiation patterns, frequency bands and power handling and put them in the context of cell planning, propagation and capacity. In the second part a general overview of base station antenna design is given. In particular the design aspects of radiators, feed networks and reflectors are discussed. Furthermore, a general discussion of array synthesis for base station antennas is given.

In the third part of the course we give an overview of the underlying theory of diversity and MIMO systems. In particular we discuss the requirements that these systems put on the base station antennas in order to be able to deliver the data rates expected from LTE and future 5G system. In the final part we then in detail look at the details of the implementation of multiple antennas in the various releases of the 3GPP standard. In particular we discuss the pre-coding matrix and how it is mapped on the various transmission modes. In conclusion we also discuss the various multiple antenna and massive MIMO concepts that has been developed within the European project METIS, which is supposed to lay out the foundations for the 5G standard to be deployed in around the year 2020.

Advanced preconditioning techniques for computational electromagnetics

Francesco P. Andriulli and Eric Michielssen

Abstract:
This course reviews the state of the art in effective preconditioning techniques for integral equations pertinent to the analysis of electromagnetic boundary value problems. The techniques covered permit the construction of rapidly convergent iterative solvers for electric and combined field integral equations and as such are a perfect complement to fast multipole and related accelerators. Applications of these techniques range from antenna analysis to the characterization of microwave devices and circuits, the analysis of electromagnetic compatibility phenomena, and the synthesis of metamaterials. The course will cover theoretical and practical issues related to the development and implementation of several preconditioners, including those that derive from Calderon identities. Moreover, the course will detail the incorporation of the presented techniques into integral equation codes and their interaction with fast matrix-vector multiplication schemes.

Reflector Antenna Design and Analysis

Peter Meincke

Abstract:
The course gives an introduction to the design and analysis of single and dual reflector antennas, center-fed as well as offset. After a review of the analysis methods commonly employed for space- and Earth-station reflector antennas, the basic design principles are presented. First, single and dual spot-beam antennas are considered with the relation between size, feed illumination, directivity, and sidelobe level. Second, the influence of blockage by struts, subreflector, and feed is discussed. Third, the origin of cross polarization in offset designs is addressed and it is shown how to improve the polarization characteristics in dual reflector systems by employing the Mizuguchi compensation principle. Hands-on experience in reflector antenna design is obtained during the course by using the software package GRASP (participants must bring their own laptop).

AP-S/URSI 2016 Patrons