Advanced Antenna Design Techniques and Energy Harvesting Methods for 5G and beyond Technologies

A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Microwave and Wireless Communications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2022) | Viewed by 12682

Special Issue Editors

Wireless Innovations in Engineering Research Group, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
Interests: RF microwave and antenna design; computational electromagnetic; wireless sensor networks; embedded systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
Interests: wireless networking; wireless communications; networking protocols; radio frequency integrated circuits; wireless sensor networks; video streaming; system optimization; evolutionary computing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Microelectronics Systems, Gdansk University of Technology, 80-233 Gdansk, Poland
Interests: high-frequency design; simulation-driven design; design automation; numerical modeling, optimization, design of experiments

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Guest Editor
Department of Engineering, Reykjavik University, 102 Reykjavik, Iceland
Interests: surrogate modeling; simulation-driven design; design optimization; design automation; antenna engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the explosive and rapid development of wireless technologies, the ambient wireless power density is growing, since there are an increasing number of various electromagnetic power sources such as cellular mobile base stations, digital TV towers, and Wi-Fi routers. Energy harvesting or energy scavenging is a process by which energy is extracted from external sources and stores for small, wireless sensor networks and handheld devices. The energy harvesting has a variety of natural and artificial energy sources such as radiofrequency (RF) energy, thermal energy, vibration energy, and solar energy, which are used to give power to devices directly and stored in batteries or capacitors for later use. The energy harvesting resources are divided into five categories: photonic, thermal, kinetic, electromagnetic, and structure power. Among all these sources, RF energy harvesting has gained a lot of popularity in recent years because of the increased power density of ambient RF energy. RF energy harvesting by using rectifying antenna technologies is a feasible solution to convert the ambient RF power to usable DC power. A rectenna is a particular type of antenna that rectifies incoming electromagnetic waves into DC current. A typical RF energy harvesting system consists of four main components: receiving antenna, matching network, rectifying circuit, and DC output. An antenna is the main part, which is used to capture the incident RF energy. With the rapid growth of wireless systems, and addition of 5G technology in the industry, an antenna design needs to be compact and small, cost effective, light-weight, omnidirectional radiation pattern, and easily integrated with the modern wireless communication systems’ advanced technologies.

The objective of this Special Issue is to publish new research in the field of advanced antenna techniques and energy harvesting algorithms for 5G and beyond technologies. We request researchers, engineers, and scientists to contribute their peer review research that explains research gaps including, but not limited to:

  • 5G antennas;
  • reconfigurable antennas;
  • metamaterials and meta-surface;
  • 6G antennas;
  • wearable technology;
  • SIW-based antennas;
  • smart and compact antennas;
  • multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas;
  • rectenna design; 
  • impedance matching network;
  • rectifying circuits.

Dr. Adnan Ghaffar
Dr. Xuejun Li
Prof. Dr. Anna Pietrenko-Dabrowska
Prof. Dr. Slawomir Koziel
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • 5G antennas
  • reconfigurable antennas
  • metamaterials and meta-surface
  • 6G antennas
  • wearable technology
  • SIW-based antennas
  • smart and compact antennas
  • multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas
  • rectenna design
  • impedance matching network
  • rectifying circuits

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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25 pages, 5338 KiB  
Article
A Triband Slot Patch Antenna for Conformal and Wearable Applications
by Erfeng Li, Xue Jun Li and Boon-Chong Seet
Electronics 2021, 10(24), 3155; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10243155 - 17 Dec 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3682
Abstract
With the rapid development of wireless communication technology and the Internet of Things (IoT), wireless body area networks (WBAN) have been thriving. This paper presents a triband patch antenna with multiple slots for conformal and wearable applications. The proposed antenna operates at 5.8, [...] Read more.
With the rapid development of wireless communication technology and the Internet of Things (IoT), wireless body area networks (WBAN) have been thriving. This paper presents a triband patch antenna with multiple slots for conformal and wearable applications. The proposed antenna operates at 5.8, 6.2, and 8.4 GHz. The antenna was designed with a flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate, and the corresponding conformal tests and on-body performance were conducted via simulation. The antenna demonstrated promising gain and acceptable fluctuations when applied on curvature surfaces. The specific absorption rate (SAR) for on-body simulation also suggests that this antenna is suitable for wearable applications. Full article
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26 pages, 7878 KiB  
Article
An Artificial Magnetic Conductor-Backed Compact Wearable Antenna for Smart Watch IoT Applications
by Muhammad Aamer Shahzad, Kashif Nisar Paracha, Salman Naseer, Sarosh Ahmad, Muhammad Malik, Muhammad Farhan, Adnan Ghaffar, Mousa Hussien and Abu Bakar Sharif
Electronics 2021, 10(23), 2908; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10232908 - 24 Nov 2021
Cited by 28 | Viewed by 4260
Abstract
Smart watch antenna design is challenging due to the limited available area and the contact with the human body. The strap of smart watch can be utilized effectively for integration of the antenna. In this study, an antenna integrated on a smart watch [...] Read more.
Smart watch antenna design is challenging due to the limited available area and the contact with the human body. The strap of smart watch can be utilized effectively for integration of the antenna. In this study, an antenna integrated on a smart watch strap model using computer simulation technology (CST) was designed. The antenna was designed for industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) frequency bands at 2.45 and 5.8 GHz. Roger 3003C was used as substrate due to its semi-flexible nature. The antenna size is 28.81 × 19.22 × 1.58 mm3 and it has a gain of 1.03 and 5.97 dB, and efficiency of 80% and 95%, at 2.45 and 5.8 GHz, on the smart watch strap, respectively. A unit cell was designed having a dimension of 19.19 × 19.19 × 1.58 mm3 to mitigate the effect of back radiation and to enhance the gain. The antenna backed by the unit cell exhibited a gain of 2.44 and 6.17 dB with efficiency of 50% and 72% at 2.45 and 5.8 GHz, respectively. The AMC-backed antenna was integrated into a smart watch strap and placed on a human tissue model to study its human proximity effects. The specific absorption rate (SAR) values were calculated to be 0.19 and 1.18 W/kg at the designed ISM frequencies, and are well below the permissible limit set by the FCC and ICINPR. Because the antenna uses flexible material for wearable applications, bending analysis was also undertaken. The indicated results prove that bending along the x- and y-axes has a negligible effect on the antenna’s performance and the antenna showed excellent performance in the human proximity test. The measured results of the fabricated antenna were comparable with the simulated results. Thus, the designed antenna is compact, has high gain, and can be used effectively for wireless IoT applications. Full article
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Review

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27 pages, 7549 KiB  
Review
A Recent Approach towards Fluidic Microstrip Devices and Gas Sensors: A Review
by Suleiman Aliyu Babale, Kashif Nisar Paracha, Sarosh Ahmad, Sharul Kamal Abdul Rahim, Zainab Yunusa, Muhammad Nasir, Adnan Ghaffar and Abdenasser Lamkaddem
Electronics 2022, 11(2), 229; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11020229 - 12 Jan 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3133
Abstract
This paper aims to review some of the available tunable devices with emphasis on the techniques employed, fabrications, merits, and demerits of each technique. In the era of fluidic microstrip communication devices, versatility and stability have become key features of microfluidic devices. These [...] Read more.
This paper aims to review some of the available tunable devices with emphasis on the techniques employed, fabrications, merits, and demerits of each technique. In the era of fluidic microstrip communication devices, versatility and stability have become key features of microfluidic devices. These fluidic devices allow advanced fabrication techniques such as 3D printing, spraying, or injecting the conductive fluid on the flexible/rigid substrate. Fluidic techniques are used either in the form of loading components, switching, or as the radiating/conducting path of a microwave component such as liquid metals. The major benefits and drawbacks of each technology are also emphasized. In this review, there is a brief discussion of the most widely used microfluidic materials, their novel fabrication/patterning methods. Full article
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