Unconventional Array Design for New Generation Communications and Sensing Systems
"Solution towards 'widescan/wideband/agile/reconfigurable/modular/ligth/multi-functional' systems"
Andrea Massa, Giacomo Oliveri, Paolo Rocca, University of Trento, Italy
November 6, Royal H, 09:00-16:20
Antenna arrays are a key technology in several electromagnetics applicative scenarios, including satellite and ground wireless communications, MIMO systems, remote sensing, biomedical imaging, radar, wireless power transmission, and radioastronomy. The objective of the short course is therefore to provide the attendees the fundamentals of Antenna Array synthesis, starting from intuitive explanations to rigorous mathematical and methodological insights about their behavior and design. Moreover, recent synthesis methodologies will be also discussed with particular emphasis on unconventional architectures for complex communications and radar systems within a new optimality framework.
Course Program
- Introduction to Antenna Arrays
- Antenna Arrays Classification
- Short Review of Conventional Arrays and Synthesis Techniques
- Focus on Unconventional Arrays and Trends in Synthesis Techniques
- Thinned Arrays
- Sparse Arrays
- Clustered/Tiled Arrays
- Overlapped/Multi-Function Arrays
- Review on Advances on Unconventional Arrays Applications
- Telecommunication Applications (towards 5G and beyond)
- Radars/Sensing Applications
- Biomedical Applications
- Wireless Power Transmission Applications
- Conclusions and Final Remarks
- New Trends in Theory/Techniques/Applications
Recent Developments and Future Trends in Digital Phased Arrays
Caleb Fulton, University of Oklahoma, USA
November 5, Grand C, 11:10-13:00
In the last three decades, digital phased array technology has evolved from demonstrations in narrow-band testbeds to mature, full-scale system developments. This tutorial will outline work done on several intermediate programs in the United States, specifically focusing on modeling and general theory, architectural aspects, calibration considerations, and dynamic range issues in these modern systems. Details will be provided on a number of testbeds and engineering demonstrators, particularly from the University of Oklahoma, ranging from a mid-scale cylindrical array to future development opportunities at scales beyond 10,000 elements. Finally, future research opportunities will be discussed.
Supply-Modulated Power Amplifiers for Efficiency Enhancement
Zoya Popović, University of Colorado at Boulder, USA
November 5, Room 3, 11:10-13:00
Supply modulation (envelope tracking) can improve PA efficiency if both the PA and the envelope modulator (dynamic supply) are efficient and the dynamic supply has a slew rate that corresponds to many times the signal bandwidth. For very wideband signals, continuous supply modulators in switching operation have degraded efficiency and other approaches are proposed with average (reduced slew rate) tracking. This in turn introduces nonlinearities and pre-distortion is required, which typically negatively impacts either efficiency or output power. The increasing demand for the same PA to amplify simultaneous signals over a wide RF bandwidth compounds the difficulty of obtaining efficiency and linearity simultaneously, over a range of output power levels. This tutorial will overview the benefits and challenges of supply-modulated efficient PAs through examples ranging from a hybrid 2-4 GHz octave-bandwidth PA for amplifying multiple widely spaced carriers, to X-band MMIC PAs with GaN MMIC discrete supply modulators, and a 18-25 GHz MMIC GaN PA for >200 MHz bandlimited noise signals with reduced slew-rate tracking and analog predistortion for gain linearization.
Wireless Powering- From Harvesting µW/CM2 to KW Capacitive Powering for Vehicles
Zoya Popović, University of Colorado at Boulder, USA
November 4, Room 3, 14:00-15:50
This tutorial overviews wireless power transfer for power levels from uW to kW. The ultra-low power density application is in far-field harvesting at GHz frequencies for unattended wireless sensors and IoT devices. Several examples will be shown, including harvesting sidelobes from a 4.3GHz altimeter radar antenna on a Boeing 737 aircraft for powering health-monitoring aircraft sensors. At the high power levels, near-field capacitive power transfer is chosen in the 6 MHz range for powering stationary vehicles and vehicles in motion. In this case, over 85% efficiency is achieved for 1kW of capacitive power transfer while meeting safety standards in the vicinity of the vehicle through a near-field phased array approach. Other approaches, such as power beaming and multi-mode shielded wireless powering will also be discussed.
Advances in the Linearization of Microwave and Millimeter-wave Power Amplifiers
Prof. Allen Katz, The College of New Jersey, USA
November 5, Room 3, 09:00-10:50
This talk provides the various tradeoffs involved in the decision to include linearization in the design of microwave and millimeter-wave power amplifiers. Emphasis will be placed on efficiently producing linear power over very wide (multi-GHz and octave) bandwidths and at frequencies to 100 GHz and above. The latest developments in power amplifier technology, including millimeter-wave GaN devices will be considered. The application of linearization to linear photonic transmission systems will also be considered.
Stand on the Antennas and Propagation Standards
Vikass Monebhurrun, SUPELEC, France; Lars Foged, MVG, Italy; Vince Rodriguez, Satimo, France
November 4, Room 5, 14:00-15:50
The IEEE Antennas and Propagation Standards Committee (AP-S/SC), sponsored by the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S), develops and maintains standards that are within the fields of antennas and propagation. The objective of the short course is to disseminate information about the standards developed for antennas, propagation and electromagnetics applications, and to encourage their use.
Non-Linear GaN Models and Model-Based RFMW PA Design
Prof. Larry Dunleavy, Modelithics, USA
November 4, Room 3, 14:00-15:50
An up-to-date survey of large signal (LS) and nonlinear models for power amplifier design will be presented, emphasizing on compact LS models for GaN models suitable for power amplifier design. Behavioral LS models will be presented along with advantages and disadvantages as compared to compact models. Important developments in related technologies that have had significant impact on large signal modeling, such as automated small and large signal network analyzers, wafer probe capability, and harmonic balance simulator software, will also be discussed.
Design of Broadband, Linear, and High-Efficiency Mm-Wave Power Amplifiers by
Prof. Hua Wang, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
November 5, Room 3, 14:20-16:10
With 5G communication just around the corner, there is a rapidly increasing need for high-performance mm-Wave power amplifiers. However, these next-generation mm-Wave PAs are often expected to deliver nearly “perfect” performance. They should offer large output power to ensure sufficient link budget, broad bandwidth to support multi-standard communication or frequency reconfigurability/agility, high peak and back-off efficiency for energy saving, and also inherent linearity for Gbit/s complex modulations with minimum or even no digital pre-distortions (DPD). It is noteworthy that in conventional design notions a given PA design should simply take trade-offs among these performance aspects, instead of trying to achieve all of them. Interestingly, this somehow unreasonable quest for “perfect” mm-Wave PAs has recently stimulated a new wave of mm-Wave PA innovations at both circuit levels and architecture levels, which have substantially advanced the state of the art. In this talk, we will first present the design fundamentals of power amplifiers with an emphasis for wireless communication applications. The state of the art of mm-Wave PAs in different device technologies will be reviewed based on the "Georgia-Tech Power Amplifiers Performance Survey." We will next present several recent mm-Wave PA designs that feature various design techniques and innovations at both circuit-level (nonlinearity compensation, continuous-mode operations, broadband harmonic tuning) and architecture-level (such as Doherty and outphasing PAs). We will also showcase several mm-Wave PA/antenna co-design examples that exploit new antenna structures as a new design paradigm to further enhance mm-Wave PA output power and efficiency.