Helen K. Pan

Mm-wave phased array antenna and system integration on semi-flex packaging

60GHz technology utilizes world wide exempt 5–9GHz bandwidth to provide multi-gigabit high throughput wireless communication in WPAN and WLAN applications. One of the key challenges to enable 60GHz technology is developing mm-wave phased array antenna design and packaging integration with mm-wave ICs. This paper presents a conformal mm-wave phased array antenna design and packaging integration to provide low loss solution and flexibility for platform integration.

A Spatial Diversity Technique for IEEE 802.11ad WLAN in 60 GHz Band

This paper shows that a spatial diversity technique can maintain a stable link quality for a 60 GHz WLAN system in an indoor multi-path environment, which suffers from the human-induced shadowing. The 60 GHz spatial diversity technique is validated by simulations and experiments.

Increasing channel capacity on MIMO system employing adaptive pattern/polarization reconfigurable antenna

This paper presents a pattern/polarization reconfigurable single turn square spiral microstrip antenna that is designed to operate in the 5 GHz indoor band and tested with Intel-developed CMOS MIMO transceivers. Experimental results show that different environments between transmitter and receiver antenna MIMO system require different antenna configurations to achieve lower correlation between paths and increase the throughput.

A novel reconfigurable maze antenna for multi-service wireless universal receivers

A novel design of multi-band multi-service reconfigurable antenna has been developed, and is comprised of multi-segment printed loop structure. The developed antenna looks like a maze and can be easily configured by altering its multi-segment interconnectivity using multitude of switches. Modeled and measured results including the effects of the switching elements will be presented here in details.

Reconfigurable Single-Armed Square Spiral Microstrip Antenna Design

In the past decade, wireless technologies have advanced dramatically [1-2]. Software Defined Radio (SDR) and Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output (MIMO) are two emerging technologies to deliver the desired functionality over a wide range of frequencies and provide dramatic increases in throughput. To support and enable the cutting edge wireless technologies, antenna designs need to meet the dynamic requirements for different frequency operating bands, radiation patterns and polarizations. Reconfigurable antennas are good candidates to meet those requirements. Several researchers have developed multiple reconfigurable antenna designs in various structures to deliver antenna frequency tunability, pattern reformability, and polarization selection with PIN diodes, MESFETs and RF MEMs [3-8]. In this paper, a frequency and pattern reconfigurable single-armed square spiral microstrip antenna is presented. Simulations indicate an average 3-7dBi gain can be achieved with this small single-armed square spiral antenna.

Effect of device mobility and phased array antennas on 60 GHz wireless networks

This paper investigates the relationship among the device mobility, types of array antennas, and 60 GHz wireless link quality. For the device mobility, linear and circular motions are modeled. A linear, a rectangular, and a square array antenna are designed and used for the simulations to quantify the 60 GHz link quality together with the device mobility. The simulation results show that the linear array antenna may need more frequent re-beamforming due to the device mobility than the rectangular or the square array antenna. The simulation results also show that the circular motion of the device may break the link more frequently than the linear motion and thus this need to be taken into account for the protocol and 60 GHz system designs.

Array analysis using high efficiency mm-wave antenna for gigabit plus throughput wireless communication

In the past few decades, advances in wireless technologies have increased the requirement for high data throughput. Newer demand for high quality visual graphic and multimedia contents such as high definition video and high throughput wireless data transfer requires wireless communication to support Gigabit plus data rates. The world wide license-free 5–7GHz spectral band in 60GHz provides great potentials to enable multi-Gigabit data transfer and has been drawing strong commercial interests [1–3]. High gain adaptive beam steering phased array antenna is a key component of a low cost mm-wave CMOS RFIC solution for commercial adaptation. In this paper, a high efficient mm-wave microstrip antenna design with various antenna array architectures is presented. Simulations indicated that a peak gain of 9.1dBi and 12% bandwidth can be achieved with a single mm-wave microstrip patch antenna. Various antenna array architectures are designed and studied to quantify the impact of the antenna array architecture and performance on the mm-wave network performance.

A miniaturized dual-band dipole antenna with a modified meander line for laptop computer application in the 2.5 and 5.25 GHz WLAN band

In this paper, a reduced size dual-band balanced antenna is presented and tested in a lid of a laptop computer. The antenna size is only 0.28 lambda0, which is 44% smaller than the conventional dipole antenna and is comparable to the size of unbalanced antenna. A modified meander line technology is used in the particular antenna configuration to achieve dual-band operation in the 2.5 and 5.25 GHz WLAN bands

ENHANCING THE DIRECTIVITY OF PHASED ARRAY ANTENNAS USING LENS-ARRAYS

Small phased-array antennas can be combined with dielectric lenses or planar lens-arrays to form directive beam-steering system. The use of the lens increases the size of the radiating aperture and enhances the directivity of the phased array, but it also reduces its scan fleld of view. However, the efiect can be controlled by properly designing the phase delay proflle across the lens. This paper presents the formulation and methodology for designing modifled lenses that can allow the desired scan angle. The utility and limitations of the proposed approach will be illustrated by considering several design examples. Simulations suggest that a directivity enhancement of > 2dB and wide scan fleld of view (up to 45 - ofi boresight) can be obtained for compact radiation systems employing small lenses and short separations between the lens and phased array. Larger directivity improvements in the range of tens of dBs are possible in systems with limited scanning capability by employing large lenses and greater phased array-lens separation. Ease of implementation and the ability of the proposed topology to adapt to the system requirements make this topology an interesting candidate for various millimeter-wave radio applications.

Preliminary results in the development of a compound reconfigurable antenna

This work presents preliminary results in the development of a compound reconfigurable antenna which is both frequency and pattern reconfigurable. It radiates in one of three selectable patterns (broadside, positive tilt, negative tilt) at one of two selectable frequencies (2.4 GHz or 3.5 GHz). The next steps for this work are fabrication and measurement. Implementing bias lines that minimally interfere with performance is not a trivial task, as they will interfere with the current distribution on the antenna and have some effect on the radiation pattern. Additionally, the separation between the driven and parasitic patches will be redesigned so that the beam tilts between frequency modes are nearly equivalent.