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At least 181 records · Page 10

Slot-line end-fire antennas for THz frequencies

Tapered slot-line endfire antennas, of BLTSA type, have been fabricated on 1.7 micron thin SiO2/Si3N4 (epsilon (sub r) = 4.5) dielectric membranes. The antenna patterns, in the E-, H-, D- and D-cross planes, were measured at 270, 348, 370, and 802 GHz using bismuth micro bolometer detectors. The antennas have approximately 12 dB directivity, and the -10 dB beam widths are 50 and 55 degrees in the E- and H-planes at 348 GHz, respectively. The measurements at millimeter/submillimeter wavelengths compare well with scale measurements at 45 GHz as well as with theoretical predictions. The overall results are encouraging and show that slot-line antennas can be fabricated for use at THz frequencies. Furthermore, it is shown that the very thin SiO2/Si3N4 membranes are strong enough to be used in practical applications.

Ekstroem, H.↗

Multilayer Microstrip Slot And Dipole Array Antenna

Multilayer antenna structure contains interleaved linear subarrays of microstrip dipole and slot radiating antenna elements to provide compact, dual-band antenna. Structure also contains associated microstrip transmission lines, plus high-power amplifiers for transmission and low-noise amplifiers for reception. Overall function is to transmit in horizontal polarization at frequency of 29.634 GHz and receive in vertical polarization at 19.914 GHz, in direction 44 degrees from broadside to antenna. Antenna structure is part of apparatus described in "Steerable K/Ka-band Antenna for Land-Mobile Satellite Applications," NPO-18772.

Tulintseff, Ann N.↗

Design and Development of Aerogel-Based Antennas for Aerospace Applications: A Final Report to the NARI Seedling

As highly porous solids possessing low density and low dielectric permittivity combined with good mechanical properties, polyimide (PI) aerogels offer great promise as an enabling technology for lightweight aircraft antenna systems. While they have been aggressively explored for thermal insulation, barely any effort has been made to leverage these materials for antennas or other applications that take advantage of their aforementioned attributes. In Phase I of the NARI Seedling Project, we fabricated PI aerogels with properties tailored to enable new antenna concepts with performance characteristics (wide bandwidth and high gain) and material properties (low density, environmental stability, and robustness) superior to the state of practice (SOP). We characterized electromagnetic properties, including permittivity, reflectivity, and propagation losses for the aerogels. Simple, prototype planar printed circuit patch antennas from down-selected aerogel formulations were fabricated by molding the aerogels to net shapes and by gold-metalizing the pattern onto the templates via electron beam evaporation in a clean room environment. These aerogel based antennas were benchmarked against current antenna SOP, and exhibited both broader bandwidth and comparable or higher gain performance at appreciably lower mass. Phase II focused on the success of the Phase I results pushing the PI aerogel based antenna technology further by exploring alternative antenna design (i.e., slot coupled antennas) and by examining other techniques for fabricating the antennas including ink jet printing with the goal of optimizing antenna performance and simplifying production. We also examined new aerogel formulations with better moisture and solvent resistance to survive processing conditions. In addition, we investigated more complex antenna designs including passive phased arrays such as 2x4 and 4x8 element arrays to assess the scalability of the aerogel antenna concept. Furthermore, we explored the possibility of developing these arrays in thin, flexible form to make conformable antennas.

insulation↗

Analysis of a slot loaded microstrip disk antenna for circular polarisation

A method is presented to analyze a circular microstrip disk antenna loaded with a narrow, inclined slot at its center and fed by a coaxial probe. Making use of the exact dyadic Green's functions for a grounded dielectric slab due to electric and magnetic currents, Richmond's reaction integral equation in conjunction with the method of moments (Galerkin), a generalized h-parameter equivalent network for the loaded patch is obtained. An expression for the input impedance of a slot loaded microstrip patch is obtained from the equivalent parameters. The theoretical results are compared with the experiment.

Rao, Y. R.↗

Multifrequency synthetic aperture radar antenna comparison study

Three multifrequency, dual polarization SAR antenna designs are reviewed. The SAR antenna design specifications were for a "straw man' SAR which would approximate the requirements for projected shuttle-based SAR's. Therefore, the physical dimensions were constrained to be compatible with the space shuttle. The electrical specifications were similar to those of SIR-A and SIR-B with the addition of dual polarization and the addition of C and X band operation. Early in the antenna design considerations, three candidate technologies emerged as having promise. They were: (1) microstrip patch planar array antennas, (2) slotted waveguide planar array antennas, and (3) open-ended waveguide planar array antennas.

Blevins, B. A.↗

Self-contained sub-millimeter wave rectifying antenna integrated circuit

The invention is embodied in a monolithic semiconductor integrated circuit in which is formed an antenna, such as a slot dipole antenna, connected across a rectifying diode. In the preferred embodiment, the antenna is tuned to received an electromagnetic wave of about 2500 GHz so that the device is on the order of a wavelength in size, or about 200 microns across and 30 microns thick. This size is ideal for mounting on a microdevice such as a microrobot for example. The antenna is endowed with high gain in the direction of the incident radiation by providing a quarter-wavelength (30 microns) thick resonant cavity below the antenna, the cavity being formed as part of the monolithic integrated circuit. Preferably, the integrated circuit consists of a thin gallium arsenide membrane overlying the resonant cavity and supporting an epitaxial Gallium Arsenide semiconductor layer. The rectifying diode is a Schottky diode formed in the GaAs semiconductor layer and having an area that is a very small fraction of the wavelength of the 2500 GHz incident radiation. The cavity provides high forward gain in the antenna and isolation from surrounding structure.

Siegel, Peter H.↗

Dual frequency, dual polarized, multi-layered microstrip slot and dipole array antenna

An antenna array system is disclosed which uses subarrays of slots and subarrays of dipoles on separate planes. The slots and dipoles respectively are interleaved, which is to say there is minimal overlap between them. Each subarray includes a microstrip transmission line and a plurality of elements extending perpendicular thereto. The dipoles form the transmission elements and the slots form the receive elements. The plane in which the slots are formed also forms a ground plane for the dipoles--hence the feed to the dipole is on the opposite side of this ground plane as the feed to the slots. HPAs are located adjacent the dipoles on one side of the substrate and LNAs are located adjacent the slots on the other side of the substrate. The dipoles and slots are tuned by setting different offsets between each element and the microstrip transmission line.

Tulintseff, Ann N.↗

Microrectenna: A Terahertz Antenna and Rectifier on a Chip

A microrectenna that would operate at a frequency of 2.5 THz has been designed and partially fabricated. The circuit is intended to be a prototype of an extremely compact device that could be used to convert radio-beamed power to DC to drive microdevices (see Figure 1). The microrectenna (see Figure 2) circuit consists of an antenna, a diode rectifier and a DC output port. The antenna consists of a twin slot array in a conducting ground plane (denoted the antenna ground plane) over an enclosed quarter-wavelength-thick resonant cavity (denoted the reflecting ground plane). The circuit also contains a planar high-frequency low-parasitic Schottky-barrier diode, a low-impedance microstrip transmission line, capacitors, and contact beam leads. The entire 3-D circuit is fabricated monolithically from a single GaAs wafer. The resonant cavity renders the slot radiation pattern unidirectional with a half-power beam width of about 65. A unique metal mesh on the rear of the wafer forms the backplate for the cavity but allows the GaAs to be wet etched from the rear surface of the twin slot antennas and ground plane. The beam leads protrude past the edge of the chip and are used both to mount the microrectenna and to make the DC electrical connection with external circuitry. The antenna ground plane and the components on top of it are formed on a 2- m thick GaAs membrane that is grown in the initial wafer MBE (molecular beam epitaxy) process. The side walls of the antenna cavity are not metal coated and, hence, would cause some loss of power; however, the relatively high permittivity (epsilon=13) of the GaAs keeps the cavity modes well confined, without the usual surface-wave losses associated with thick dielectric substrates. The Schottky-barrier diode has the usual submicron dimensions associated with THz operation and is formed in a mesa process above the antenna ground plane. The diode is connected at the midpoint of a microstrip transmission line, which is formed on 1- m-thick SiO (permittivity of 5) laid down on top of the GaAs membrane. The twin slots are fed in phase by this structure. To prevent radio-frequency (RF) leakage past the slot antennas, low-loss capacitors are integrated into the microstrip transmission line at the edges of the slots. The DC current- carrying lines extend from the outer edges of the capacitors, widen approaching the edges of the chip, and continue past the edges of the chip to become the beam leads used in tacking down the devices. The structure provides a self-contained RF to DC converter that works in the THz range.

Siegel, Peter↗

A Study of Various Beacon Antennas for an Orbiting Sample Container of a Future Mars Sample Return Mission

This paper presents some results of a study of various options for a near-omnidirectional low-gain antenna at UHF frequencies, for a Mars Orbiting Sample Return Container (OS). The OS is part of a concept study for a future mission to return samples from Mars. It would be a critical component of such a mission, which would contain the Mars samples. The notional OS would be returned by a separate spacecraft to Earth. The OS would be identified and located by the spacecraft for pick-up from orbit by a beacon signal broadcast via a surface antenna. Several antenna designs were considered, but two promising ones are presented here which have good patterns with a better than 2:1 VSWR (Voltage Standing Wave Ratio), but meet different criteria for OS design options. One is a patch-type antenna and the other a slot-type antenna. Some data and test results of a fabricated breadboard antenna as well as discussions are provided.

Jamnejad, Vahraz↗

NASA Tech Briefs, July 2006

Topics covered include: Airport Remote Tower Sensor Systems; Implantable Wireless MEMS Sensors for Medical Uses; Embedded Sensors for Measuring Surface Regression; Coordinating an Autonomous Earth-Observing Sensorweb; Range-Measuring Video Sensors; Stability Enhancement of Polymeric Sensing Films Using Fillers; Sensors for Using Times of Flight to Measure Flow Velocities; Receiver Would Control Phasing of a Phased-Array Antenna; Modern Design of Resonant Edge-Slot Array Antennas; Carbon-Nanotube Schottky Diodes; Simplified Optics and Controls for Laser Communications; Coherent Detection of High-Rate Optical PPM Signals; Multichannel Phase and Power Detector; Using Satellite Data in Weather Forecasting: I; Using Dissimilarity Metrics to Identify Interesting Designs; X-Windows PVT Widget Class; Shuttle Data Center File-Processing Tool in Java; Statistical Evaluation of Utilization of the ISS; Nanotube Dispersions Made With Charged Surfactant; Aerogels for Thermal Insulation of Thermoelectric Devices; Low-Density, Creep-Resistant Single-Crystal Superalloys; Excitations for Rapidly Estimating Flight-Control Parameters; Estimation of Stability and Control Derivatives of an F-15; Tool for Coupling a Torque Wrench to a Round Cable Connector; Ultrasonically Actuated Tools for Abrading Rock Surfaces; Active Struts With Variable Spring Stiffness and Damping; Multiaxis, Lightweight, Computer-Controlled Exercise System; Dehydrating and Sterilizing Wastes Using Supercritical CO2; Alpha-Voltaic Sources Using Liquid Ga as Conversion Medium; Ice-Borehole Probe; Alpha-Voltaic Sources Using Diamond as Conversion Medium; White-Light Whispering-Gallery-Mode Optical Resonators; Controlling Attitude of a Solar-Sail Spacecraft Using Vanes; and Wire-Mesh-Based Sorber for Removing Contaminants from Air.

Source record↗

A 94 GHz imaging array using slot line radiators

A planar endfire slotted-line antenna structure was investigated. It was found that the H-plane beamwidths are basically dependent upon the substrate properties, whereas the E-plane beamwidths are more strongly a function of the slot's shape and size. It is shown that these antennas produce symmetrical E and H-plane beamwidths while following Zucker's standard traveling-wave antenna beamwidth curves over some range of antenna normalized length. An empircally derived design formula for effective substrate thickness is shown to predict this range for linearly tapered slotted-line antennas. The experimental imaging properties of these arrays are presented and imaging theory is discussed. It is shown that a minimum spacing of elements is necessary for exact reconstruction for a sampled image in a diffraction limited system. Because these LTSA elements employ the traveling-wave mechanism of radiation, they can be spaced two times closer than a conical feed horn of comparable beamwidth.

Korzeniowski, T. L.↗

SPS solid state antenna power combiner

A concept for a solar power satellite antenna power combiner which utilizes solid state dc-rf converters is described. To avoid the power combining losses associated with circuit hybrids it is proposed that the power from multiple solid state amplifiers be combined by direct coupling of each amplifier's output to the radiating antenna structure. The selected power-combining antenna consists of a printed (metalized) microstrip circuit on a ceramic type dielectric substrate which is backed by a shallow lightweight aluminum cavity which sums the power of four microwave sources. The antenna behaves like two one-half wavelength slot-line antennas coupled together via their common cavity structure. A significant feature of the antenna configuration selected is that the radiated energy is summed to yield a single radiated output phase which represents the average insertion phase of the four power amplifiers. This energy may be sampled and, by comparison with the input signal, one can phase error correct to maintain the insertion phase of all solid state power combining modules at exactly the same value. This insures that the insertion phase of each SPS power combining antenna module is identical. An experiment verification program is described.

Fitzsimmons, G. W.↗

SPS solid state antenna power combiner

Solid state dc-rf converters offer potential improvements in reliability, mass and low voltage operation, provided that anticipated efficiencies in excess of 80 percent can be realized. Field effect transistors offer the greatest potential in the SPS frequency band at 2.45 GHz. To implement this approach it is essential that means be found to sum the power of many relatively low power solid state sources in a low-loss manner, and that means be provided to properly control the phase of the outputs of the large number of solid state sources required. To avoid the power combining losses associated with circuit hybrids it was proposed that the power from multiple solid state amplifiers be combined by direct coupling of each amplifier's output to the radiating antenna structure. The selected power-combining antenna consists of a unique printed (metalized) microstrip circuit on a ceramic type dielectric substrate which is backed by a shallow lightweight aluminum cavity which sums the power of four microwave sources. The antenna behaves like two one-half wavelength slot-line antennas coupled together via their common cavity structure.

Fitzsimmons, G. W.↗

Radial microstrip slotline feed network for circular mobile communications array

In mobile and satellite communications there is a need for low cost and low profile antennas which have a toroidal pattern. Antennas that have been developed for mobile communications include a L-Band electronically steered stripline phased array, a Ka-Band mechanically steered elliptical reflector antenna and a Ka-Band printed dipole. In addition, a L-Band mechanically steered microstrip array, a L-Band microstrip phased array tracking antenna for mounting on a car roof and an X-Band radial line slotted waveguide antenna have been demonstrated. In the above electronically scanned printed arrays, the individual element radiates normally to the plane of the array and hence require a phase shifter to scan the beam towards the horizon. Scanning in the azimuth is by mechanical or electronic steering. An alternate approach is to mount microstrip patch radiators on the surface of a cone to achieve the required elevation angle. The array then scans in the azimuth by beam switching.

Simons, Rainee N.↗