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Advanced Antenna Array Technologies and Applications
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Advanced Antenna Array Technologies and Applications

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 May 2025 | Viewed by 5948

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Paulo M. Mendes

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CMEMS–UMinho, University of Minho, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal
Interests: microsystems; RF microelectronics; wireless sensor networks; biomedical devices; antennas; neural interfaces; wireless power
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Carlos Lima

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Affiliation CMEMS–UMinho, University of Minho, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal
Interests: machine learning; medical image segmentation
Dr. Hugo Daniel da Costa Dinis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CMEMS–UMinho, University of Minho, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal
Interests: RF and microwave devices; electromagnetic engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Wireless communications are a fundamental component of modern society. Antenna arrays play an important role in this field, as they provide a vast set of advantages such as high directivity and adaptive beamforming to improve the wireless link. Antenna arrays are employed in several applications such as 5G, MIMO, GNSS for autonomous vehicles, wireless power transfer, radar, and satellite, aerospace, and mobile communications. Antenna arrays prove to be essential even for military and safety applications, through, for example, null-pointing operations to mitigate interferences, both accidental and intentional. With the increase of computational power of modern systems, complex algorithms which were unfeasible in the past become real possibilities to improve antenna array performances. This, in turn, can pave the way for sizeable advancements in this technology and its applications, using recent advances in the fields of, for example, artificial intelligence, RF circuits, additive manufacturing, and graphene.

Authors are invited to submit to this Special Issue their contributions to the advancement of antenna array technology, from the development of novel antenna elements and arrays, to control algorithms and electronics, applications of antenna arrays, and so on. Both theoretical and experimental studies are welcome, as well as review and tutorial papers.

Dr. Paulo M. Mendes
Dr. Carlos Lima
Dr. Hugo Daniel da Costa Dinis
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 1518 KiB  
Article
Software-Defined Platform for Global Navigation Satellite System Antenna Array Development and Testing
by Diogo Gomes, Diogo Baptista, Hugo Dinis, Paulo M. Mendes and Sérgio Lopes
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(21), 9621; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14219621 - 22 Oct 2024
Viewed by 752
Abstract
With the increasing demand for accurate and robust positioning solutions, the use of GNSS antenna arrays has gained significant attention. However, their development and testing are frequently constrained by the inflexibility of traditional hardware platforms, often requiring extensive reconfiguration throughout the development cycle. [...] Read more.
With the increasing demand for accurate and robust positioning solutions, the use of GNSS antenna arrays has gained significant attention. However, their development and testing are frequently constrained by the inflexibility of traditional hardware platforms, often requiring extensive reconfiguration throughout the development cycle. This paper presents a platform based on a system on chip to develop a highly flexible software-controlled system that is capable of directly sampling up to 16 antenna elements. Multibeam digital beamforming is implemented using the available FPGA resources and the resulting signal is reproduced by the integrated DAC and can be connected to any conventional single antenna GNSS receiver. This paper presents the architecture of the platform, detailing its components and capabilities. Our experimental results demonstrate that the system can phase shift every channel with errors of less than 0.5° and can reconfigure 4 simultaneous beams of a 16-antenna array at speeds of 1.2 kHz, and 20 beams at around 400 Hz. The average delay introduced by each channel of the system is around 381 ns with a maximum deviation of 1.05 ns. The delay was also measured for the implementation using 4 beams, which achieves a slightly bigger average delay of 384.6 ns while keeping the variation to 5 to 6 ns. This system is intended to be used as the backbone for the development of antenna arrays and beamforming algorithms. Given its flexibility, it is not necessary to develop new hardware between development iterations or even for different systems, as only the software layer needs to be modified. Consequently, it is possible to expedite the development stage before producing dedicated solutions for industrial applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Antenna Array Technologies and Applications)
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20 pages, 12931 KiB  
Article
A Design Proposal Using Coherently Radiating Periodic Structures (CORPSs) for 2-D Phased Arrays of Limited Scanning
by Gilberto Calvillo, Marco A. Panduro, Elizvan Juarez, Alberto Reyna and Carlos del Rio
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(18), 8409; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14188409 - 18 Sep 2024
Viewed by 615
Abstract
New configurations of 2-D phased arrays are proposed in this paper for reducing the number of phase shifters. This design methodology is based on the use of a novel coherently radiating periodic structures (CORPSs) block for 2-D phased arrays. Two new antenna systems [...] Read more.
New configurations of 2-D phased arrays are proposed in this paper for reducing the number of phase shifters. This design methodology is based on the use of a novel coherently radiating periodic structures (CORPSs) block for 2-D phased arrays. Two new antenna systems for 2-D phased arrays are studied and analyzed utilizing the CORPSs blocks of four inputs and nine outputs. These CORPSs feeding blocks are applied in a smart way to feed the planar antenna arrays by generating the required phase plane and reducing the number of control ports. Interesting results are provided based on the experimental measurements and full-wave simulations. These results illustrate a great reduction of the active devices (phase shifters), providing a good design compromise in terms of the scanning range and side lobe level performance. Furthermore, the provided results illustrate a maximum reduction capability in the number of phase shifters of 81%, considering a scanning range of ±30° in azimuth and ±30° in elevation. A raised cosine distribution is applied to reach side lobe levels of −19 dB for ±18° and −17 dB for ±30° in elevation. These benefits could be of interest to designers of phased antenna systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Antenna Array Technologies and Applications)
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17 pages, 4552 KiB  
Article
Theoretical Transmission Model of Helical Loop Antenna in Cased Wells and Channel Characteristics Analysis
by Zhiqiang Li and Junyan Lin
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(14), 6060; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14146060 - 11 Jul 2024
Viewed by 858
Abstract
In the environment of oil and gas wells, the shielding effect of metal casing increases the difficulty of applying wireless electromagnetic wave transmission technology in such wells. This paper constructs a theoretical model of downhole electromagnetic helical loop transmission based on the finite [...] Read more.
In the environment of oil and gas wells, the shielding effect of metal casing increases the difficulty of applying wireless electromagnetic wave transmission technology in such wells. This paper constructs a theoretical model of downhole electromagnetic helical loop transmission based on the finite element method. The magnetic loop is equated with the helical loop antenna in the model. By means of simulation calculations, this study deeply investigates the impact of various factors, such as working frequency within the cased well, drilling fluid resistivity, formation resistivity, drill string dimensions, and electrical conductivity, on the attenuation pattern of the helical loop antenna. The results show that low-frequency signals experience relatively less attenuation underground, while high-frequency signals demonstrate better transmission effects over shorter distances. Moreover, drilling fluids with low resistivity are more suitable for short-distance transmission, whereas high resistivity can effectively reduce signal attenuation and improve transmission distance. The variation in formation resistivity has a relatively small impact on signal transmission and can be considered negligible. In terms of drill string characteristics, as the electrical conductivity of the drill collars increases, signal attenuation gradually decreases, and the amplitude of the received signal is enhanced. With the inner and outer diameters of the drill collars remaining the same, a finer inner diameter of the casing aids electromagnetic wave short-distance transmission, whereas a thicker casing can reduce electromagnetic wave attenuation. Theoretical and practical results are in good agreement through field trial comparative analysis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Antenna Array Technologies and Applications)
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13 pages, 3462 KiB  
Article
Reduction of Phase Shifters in Planar Phased Arrays Using Novel Random Subarray Techniques
by Juan L. Valle, Marco A. Panduro, Carlos del Río Bocio, Carlos A. Brizuela and David H. Covarrubias
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(13), 5917; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14135917 - 6 Jul 2024
Viewed by 1074
Abstract
Reducing the number of phase shifters by grouping antenna elements into subarrays has been extensively studied for decades. The number of phase shifters directly affects the cost, complexity, and power consumption of the system. A novel method for the design of phased planar [...] Read more.
Reducing the number of phase shifters by grouping antenna elements into subarrays has been extensively studied for decades. The number of phase shifters directly affects the cost, complexity, and power consumption of the system. A novel method for the design of phased planar antenna arrays is presented in this work in order to perform a reduction of up to 70% in the number of phase shifters used by the array, while maintaining the desired radiation characteristics. This method consists of creating fusions of subarrays to generate random sequences that form the best feeding network configuration for planar phased arrays. The obtained solution allows scanning the mainlobe at θ=−40∘ elevation with a range of scanning of [−75∘<ϕ<75∘] in the azimuth plane, while maintaining a side lobe level below −10 dB and achieving a reduction of 62% in the number of phase shifters. It is shown that each solution is created based on search criteria, which influence the morphology of the array in terms of subarray size and orientation. The proposed methodology shows great flexibility for creating new phased antenna array designs that meet the requirements of specific applications in a short period of time. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Antenna Array Technologies and Applications)
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11 pages, 5051 KiB  
Article
Virtual Antenna Arrays with Frequency Diversity for Radar Systems in Fifth-Generation Flying Ad Hoc Networks
by Alberto Reyna, Jesús C. Garza, Luz I. Balderas, Jonathan Méndez, Marco A. Panduro, Gonzalo Maldonado and Lourdes Y. García
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(10), 4219; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14104219 - 16 May 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 969
Abstract
This paper proposes the design of virtual antenna arrays with frequency diversity for radar systems in fifth-generation flying ad hoc networks. These virtual arrays permit us to detect targets from the sky with flying drones. Each array element is composed of a microstrip [...] Read more.
This paper proposes the design of virtual antenna arrays with frequency diversity for radar systems in fifth-generation flying ad hoc networks. These virtual arrays permit us to detect targets from the sky with flying drones. Each array element is composed of a microstrip antenna mounted on quadcopter drones and is virtually connected with the other elements. The antennas are tuned to work at the lower fifth-generation frequency band of 3.5 GHz. The design process considers the optimization of frequency offsets and positions for each element to obtain a side lobe level reduction. This methodology is carried out by particle swarm optimization. Several design examples are presented with random frequency offsets and non-uniform positions. These designs are compared to uniform-spaced arrays excited with Hamming frequency offsets. The simulation results show that using random frequency offsets and non-uniform positions provides a minor side lobe level reduction. This research demonstrates the feasibility of using virtual arrays for radar systems in fifth-generation flying ad hoc networks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Antenna Array Technologies and Applications)
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16 pages, 7501 KiB  
Article
Dual-Band Frequency Selective Surface-Backed Reflectarray for High-Speed Ka-Band Satellites
by Ahmet Hulusi Gülseren, Aytaç Alparslan and Nurhan Türker Tokan
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(7), 2928; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14072928 - 30 Mar 2024
Viewed by 1057
Abstract
A dual-band, dual-polarized frequency selective surface (FSS)-backed multilayer reflectarray antenna is designed for 5G high-speed satellites operating at Ka-band uplink and downlink frequencies (20/30 GHz). A reflectarray antenna system consists of two reflectarrays that are separated from each other by an FSS layer [...] Read more.
A dual-band, dual-polarized frequency selective surface (FSS)-backed multilayer reflectarray antenna is designed for 5G high-speed satellites operating at Ka-band uplink and downlink frequencies (20/30 GHz). A reflectarray antenna system consists of two reflectarrays that are separated from each other by an FSS layer that behaves as a planar bandpass filter at Ka-band satellite uplink frequencies. Each reflectarray antenna is designed with dual-polarized unit cells. In order to achieve a uniform phase distribution across the reflectarray surface, physical dimensions and positions of the unit cells with a fixed periodicity are carefully chosen. The FSS conductor is etched to the bottom layer of the 30 GHz reflectarray substrate to save cost and weight. The reflectarray performance is analyzed by using CST Microwave Studio and array theory. A prototype is fabricated, and the results are experimentally verified. The gain of the reflectarray is measured as 21.13 dBi and 26.94 dBi at 20 and 30 GHz, respectively. A crosspol level of more than 35 dB is observed at both frequencies. The simulated and measured results show that the proposed reflectarray is suitable for high-speed Ka-band satellites. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Antenna Array Technologies and Applications)
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