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Description
High Impedance Surfaces (HISs), which have been investigated extensively, have proven to be very efficient ground planes for low profile antenna applications due to their unique reflection phase characteristics. Another emerging research field among the microwave and antenna technologies is the design of flexible antennas and microwave circuits to be utilized in conformal applications. The combination of those two research topics gives birth to a third one, namely the design of Conformal or Flexible HISs (FHISs), which is the main subject of this dissertation. The problems associated with the FHISs are twofold: characterization and physical realization. The characterization involves the analysis of scattering properties of FHISs in the presence of plane wave and localized sources. For this purpose, an approximate analytical method is developed to characterize the reflection properties of a cylindrically curved FHIS. The effects of curvature on the reflection phase of the curved FHISs are examined. Furthermore, the effects of different types of currents, specifically the ones inherent to finite sized periodic structures, on the reflection phase characteristics are observed. After the reflection phase characterization of curved HISs, the performance of dipole antennas located in close proximity to a curved HIS are investigated, and the results are compared with the flat case. Different types of resonances that may occur for such a low-profile antenna application are discussed. The effects of curvature on the radiation performance of antennas are examined. Commercially available flexible materials are relatively thin which degrades the bandwidth of HISs. Another practical aspect, which is related to the substrate thickness, is the compactness of the surface. Because of the design limitations of conventional HISs, it is not possible to miniaturize the HIS and increase the bandwidth, simultaneously. To overcome this drawback, a novel HIS is proposed with a periodically perforated ground plane. Copper plated through holes are extremely vulnerable to bending and should be avoided at the bending parts of flexible circuits. Fortunately, if designed properly, the perforations on the ground plane may result in suppression of surface waves. Hence, metallic posts can be eliminated without hindering the surface wave suppression properties of HISs.
ContributorsDurgun, Ahmet Cemal (Author) / Balanis, Constantine A (Thesis advisor) / Aberle, James T (Committee member) / Yu, Hongyu (Committee member) / Bakkaloglu, Bertan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
ABSTRACT This work seeks to develop a practical solution for short range ultrasonic communications and produce an integrated array of acoustic transmitters on a flexible substrate. This is done using flexible thin film transistor (TFT) and micro electromechanical systems (MEMS). The goal is to develop a flexible system capable of communicating in the ultrasonic frequency range at a distance of 10 - 100 meters. This requires a great deal of innovation on the part of the FDC team developing the TFT driving circuitry and the MEMS team adapting the technology for fabrication on a flexible substrate. The technologies required for this research are independently developed. The TFT development is driven primarily by research into flexible displays. The MEMS development is driving by research in biosensors and micro actuators. This project involves the integration of TFT flexible circuit capabilities with MEMS micro actuators in the novel area of flexible acoustic transmitter arrays. This thesis focuses on the design, testing and analysis of the circuit components required for this project.
ContributorsDaugherty, Robin (Author) / Allee, David R. (Thesis advisor) / Chae, Junseok (Thesis advisor) / Aberle, James T (Committee member) / Vasileska, Dragica (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This thesis summarizes the research work carried out on design, modeling and simulation of semiconductor nanophotonic devices. The research includes design of nanowire (NW) lasers, modeling of active plasmonic waveguides, design of plasmonic nano-lasers, and design of all-semiconductor plasmonic systems. For the NW part, a comparative study of electrical injection in the longitudinal p-i-n and coaxial p-n core-shell NWs was performed. It is found that high density carriers can be efficiently injected into and confined in the core-shell structure. The required bias voltage and doping concentrations in the core-shell structure are smaller than those in the longitudinal p-i-n structure. A new device structure with core-shell configuration at the p and n contact regions for electrically driven single NW laser was proposed. Through a comprehensive design trade-off between threshold gain and threshold voltage, room temperature lasing has been proved in the laser with low threshold current and large output efficiency. For the plasmonic part, the propagation of surface plasmon polariton (SPP) in a metal-semiconductor-metal structure where semiconductor is highly excited to have an optical gain was investigated. It is shown that near the resonance the SPP mode experiences an unexpected giant modal gain that is 1000 times of the material gain in the semiconductor and the corresponding confinement factor is as high as 105. The physical origin of the giant modal gain is the slowing down of the average energy propagation in the structure. Secondly, SPP modes lasing in a metal-insulator-semiconductor multi-layer structure was investigated. It is shown that the lasing threshold can be reduced by structural optimization. A specific design example was optimized using AlGaAs/GaAs/AlGaAs single quantum well sandwiched between silver layers. This cavity has a physical volume of 1.5×10-4 λ03 which is the smallest nanolaser reported so far. Finally, the all-semiconductor based plasmonics was studied. It is found that InAs is superior to other common semiconductors for plasmonic application in mid-infrared range. A plasmonic system made of InAs, GaSb and AlSb layers, consisting of a plasmonic source, waveguide and detector was proposed. This on-chip integrated system is realizable in a single epitaxial growth process.
ContributorsLi, Debin (Author) / Ning, Cun-Zheng (Thesis advisor) / Zhang, Yong-Hang (Committee member) / Balanis, Constantine A (Committee member) / Yu, Hongbin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Multiport antennas offer greater design flexibility than traditional one-port designs. An antenna array is a special case of a multiport antenna. If the antenna's inter-element spacing is electrically small, the antenna is capable of achieving superdirectivity. Superdirective antenna arrays are known to be narrow band and have low radiation resistance which leads to low radiation efficiency and high VSWR. However, by increasing the self-impedance of the antenna elements, the radiation resistance is increased but the bandwidth remains narrow. A design methodology is developed using the ability to superimpose electric fields and multi-objective optimization to design antenna feed networks. While the emphasis in this dissertation is on antenna arrays and superdirectivity, the design methodology is general and can be applied to other multiport antennas. The design methodology is used to design a multiport impedance-matching network and optimize both the input impedance and radiation pattern of a two-port superdirective antenna array. It is shown that the multiport impedance-matching network is capable of improving the input impedance of the antenna array while maintaining high directionality. The antenna design is critical for the methodology to improve the bandwidth and radiation characteristics of the array. To double the bandwidth of the two-port impedance matched superdirective antenna array, a three-port Yagi-Uda antenna design is demonstrated. The addition of the extra antenna element does not increase the footprint of the antenna array. The design methodology is then used to design a symmetrical antenna array capable of steering its main beam in two directions.
ContributorsArceo, Diana (Author) / Balanis, Constantine A (Thesis advisor) / Aberle, James T., 1961- (Committee member) / Moeller, Karl (Committee member) / Palais, Joseph (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with data acquisition on a non-rectangular grid permits a variety of approaches to cover k-space. This flexibility can be exploited to achieve clinically relevant characteristics -- fast yet full coverage for short scan times, center out schemes for short Te, over-sampled k-space for robustness to motion, long acquisition time for improved signal-to-noise (SNR) performance and benign under-sampling (aliasing) artifact. This dissertation presents advances in Periodically Rotated Overlapping ParallEL Lines with Enhanced Reconstruction (PROPELLER) trajectory design and improved reconstruction for spiral imaging. Scan time in PROPELLER imaging can be reduced by tailoring the trajectory to the required Field-Of-View (FOV). A technique to design the PROPELLER trajectory for an elliptical FOV is described. The proposed solution is a set of empirically derived closed form equations that preserve the standard PROPELLER geometry and specify the minimum number of blades necessary. Reconstructing spiral scans requires accurate trajectory information. A simple method to measure the deviation from the designed trajectory due to gradient coupling is presented. A line phantom is used to force a uniform structure in a predetermined orientation in k-space. This uniformity permits measurements of zeroth order trajectory deviations due to gradient coupling. Spiral reconstruction is also sensitive to B0 inhomogeneities (variations in the external magnetic field). This sensitivity manifests itself as a spatially varying blur. An algorithm to correct for concomitant field and first order B0 inhomogeneity effects is developed based on de-blurring via convolution by separable kernels. To reduce computation time, an empirical equation for sufficient kernel length is derived. It is also necessary to know the noise characteristics of the proposed algorithm; this is investigated via Monte-Carlo simulations. The algorithm is further extended to correct for concomitant field artifacts by modeling these artifacts as blurring due to a temporally static field map. This approach has the potential for further reduction in computational cost by combining the B0 map with the concomitant field map to simultaneously correct for artifacts resulting from both field inhomogeneities and concomitant field map.
ContributorsDevaraj, Ajit (Author) / Pipe, James G (Thesis advisor) / Karam, Lina J (Thesis advisor) / Frakes, David H (Committee member) / Aberle, James T (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
Description
Global Positioning System (GPS) is a navigation system widely used in civilian and military application, but its accuracy is highly impacted with consequential fading, and possible loss of communication due to multipath propagation and high power interferences. This dissertation proposes alternatives to improve the performance of the GPS receivers to obtain a system that can be reliable in critical situations. The basic performance of the GPS receiver consists of receiving the signal with an antenna array, delaying the signal at each antenna element, weighting the delayed replicas, and finally, combining the weighted replicas to estimate the desired signal. Based on these, three modifications are proposed to improve the performance of the system. The first proposed modification is the use of the Least Mean Squares (LMS) algorithm with two variations to decrease the convergence time of the classic LMS while achieving good system stability. The results obtained by the proposed LMS demonstrate that the algorithm can achieve the same stability as the classic LMS using a small step size, and its convergence rate is better than the classic LMS using a large step size. The second proposed modification is to replace the uniform distribution of the time delays (or taps) by an exponential distribution that decreases the bit-error rate (BER) of the system without impacting the computational efficiency of the uniform taps. The results show that, for a BER of 0.001, the system can operate with a 1 to 2 dB lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) when an exponential distribution is used rather than a uniform distribution. Finally, the third modification is implemented in the design of the antenna array. In this case, the gain of each microstrip element is enhanced by embedding ferrite rings in the substrate, creating a hybrid substrate. The ferrite rings generates constructive interference between the incident and reflected fields; consequently, the gain of a single microstrip element is enhanced by up to 4 dB. When hybrid substrates are used in microstrip element arrays, a significant enhancement in angle range is achieved for a given reflection coefficient compared to using a conventional substrate.
ContributorsRivera-Albino, Alix (Author) / Balanis, Constantine A (Thesis advisor) / Tepedelenlioğlu, Cihan (Committee member) / Kiaei, Sayfe (Committee member) / Aberle, James T (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The recent trends in wireless communication, fueled by the demand for lower latency and higher bandwidth, have caused the migration of users from lower frequencies to higher frequencies, i.e., from 2.5GHz to millimeter wave. However, the migration to higher frequencies has its challenges. The sensitivity to blockages is a key challenge for millimeter wave and terahertz networks in 5G and beyond. Since these networks mainly rely on line-of-sight (LOS) links, sudden link blockages highly threaten the reliability of such networks. Further, when the LOS link is blocked, the network typically needs to hand off the user to another LOS basestation, which may incur critical time latency, especially if a search over a large codebook of narrow beams is needed. A promising way to tackle the reliability and latency challenges lies in enabling proaction in wireless networks. Proaction allows the network to anticipate future blockages, especially dynamic blockages, and initiate user hand-off beforehand. This thesis presents a complete machine learning framework for enabling proaction in wireless networks relying on the multi-modal 3D LiDAR(Light Detection and Ranging) point cloud and position data. In particular, the paper proposes a sensing-aided wireless communication solution that utilizes bimodal machine learning to predict the user link status. This is mainly achieved via a deep learning algorithm that learns from LiDAR point-cloud and position data to distinguish between LOS and NLOS(non line-of-sight) links. The algorithm is evaluated on the multi-modal wireless Communication Dataset DeepSense6G dataset. It is a time-synchronized collection of data from various sensors such as millimeter wave power, position, camera, radar, and LiDAR. Experimental results indicate that the algorithm can accurately predict link status with 87% accuracy. This highlights a promising direction for enabling high reliability and low latency in future wireless networks.
ContributorsSrinivas, Tirumalai Vinjamoor Nikhil (Author) / Alkhateeb, Ahmed (Thesis advisor) / Trichopoulos, Georgios (Committee member) / Myhajlenko, Stefan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Reconfigurable metasurfaces (RMSs) are promising solutions for beamforming and sensing applications including 5G and beyond wireless communications, satellite and radar systems, and biomarker sensing. In this work, three distinct RMS architectures – reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs), meta-transmission lines (meta-TLs), and substrate integrated waveguide leaky-wave antennas (SIW-LWAs) are developed and characterized. The ever-increasing demand for higher data rates and lower latencies has propelled the telecommunications industry to adopt higher frequencies for 5G and beyond wireless communications. However, this transition to higher frequencies introduces challenges in terms of signal coverage and path loss. Many base stations would be necessary to ensure signal fidelity in such a setting, making bulky phased array-based solutions impractical. Consequently, to meet the unique needs of 5G and beyond wireless communication networks, this work proposes the use of RISs characterized by low-profile, low-RF losses, low-power consumption, and high-gain capabilities, making them excellent candidates for future wireless communication applications. Specifically, RISs at sub-6GHz, mmWave and sub-THz frequencies are analyzed to demonstrate their ability to improve signal strength and coverage.
Further, a linear meta-TL wave space is designed to achieve miniaturization of true-time delay beamforming structures such as Rotman lenses which are traditionally bulky. To address this challenge, a modified lumped element TL model is proposed. A meta-TL is created by including the mutual coupling effects and can be used to slow down the electromagnetic signal and realize miniaturized lenses. A proof-of-concept 1D meta-TL is developed to demonstrate about 90% size reduction and 40% bandwidth improvement.
Furthermore, a conformable antenna design for radio frequency-based tracking of hand gestures is also detailed. SIW-LWA is employed as the radiating element to couple RF signals into the human hand. The antenna is envisaged to be integrated in a wristband topology and capture the changes in the electric field caused by various movements of the hand. The scattering parameters are used to track the changes in the wrist anatomy. Sensor characterization showed significant sensitivity suppression due to lossy multi-dielectric nature tissues in the wrist. However, the sensor demonstrates good coupling of electromagnetic energy making it suitable for on-body wireless communications and magnetic resonance imaging applications.
ContributorsKashyap, Bharath Gundappa (Author) / Trichopoulos, Georgios C (Thesis advisor) / Balanis, Constantine A (Committee member) / Aberle, James T (Committee member) / Alkhateeb, Ahmed (Committee member) / Imani, Seyedmohammedreza F (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
The reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) shown in this work is a programmable metasurface integrated with a dedicated microcontroller that redirects an impinging signal to the desired direction. Its characteristic allows the RIS to act as a mirror for microwave signals. Unlike a perfect electric conductor (PEC), the RIS has much more flexibility in redirecting signals. This work involves the measurement of a passive, fixed beam, 25x32 element mmWave RIS that operates at 28.5 GHz. Bistatic and monostatic measurement setups are both used to find the radar cross section (RCS) of the RIS. The process of creating the measurement setups and the final measurement results is discussed. The measurement setup is further characterized using the High-Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) software and the final measurement results are compared to analytical solutions computed using MATLAB. The first prototype of the RIS has a loss of 8.4 dB when compared to a PEC and is physically curved. There is also a side lobe at the boresight of the RIS board that is only 8 dB less than the main beam in best-case scenario. This curvature causes issues with the monostatic measurement because it changes the phase that arrives at the RIS. The second prototype of the RIS has only 5.84 dB of loss compared to PEC. This measurement setup behaves mostly as expected when comparing the measurement results to the analytical solutions and given the limitations of the setup. A collimating lens was used as a part of the setup which reflects part of the incoming signal. The edge of the lens also causes diffraction. These factors contribute to multipath interference arriving at the receive antenna and increases measurement error. The lens also creates unequal amplitude illumination across the surface of the RIS which changes the RCS pattern. Using the lens allows a more space-efficient setup while still obtaining relatively constant phase illuminating across the RIS board.
ContributorsTjahjadi, Brian (Author) / Trichopoulos, Georgios C (Thesis advisor) / Aberle, James T (Committee member) / Imani, Seyedmohammadreza F (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
In this dissertation, I implement and demonstrate a distributed coherent mesh beamforming system, for wireless communications, that provides increased range, data rate, and robustness to interference. By using one or multiple distributed, locally-coherent meshes as antenna arrays, I develop an approach that realizes a performance improvement, related to the number of mesh elements, in signal-to-noise ratio over a traditional single-antenna to single-antenna link without interference. I further demonstrate that in the presence of interference, the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio improvement is significantly greater for a wide range of environments. I also discuss key performance bounds that drive system design decisions as well as techniques for robust distributed adaptive beamformer construction. I develop and implement an over-the-air distributed time and frequency synchronization algorithm to enable distributed coherence on software-defined radios. Finally, I implement the distributed coherent mesh beamforming system over-the-air on a network of software-defined radios and demonstrate both simulated and experimental results both with and without interference that achieve performance approaching the theoretical bounds.
ContributorsHoltom, Jacob (Author) / Bliss, Daniel W (Thesis advisor) / Alkhateeb, Ahmed (Committee member) / Herschfelt, Andrew (Committee member) / Michelusi, Nicolò (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023