Analysis and Design of a Planar Radiating Element for Automotive Satellite Broadcasting Reception Systems

Roberto Torres Sánchez
EPFL, 2011
Thèse EPFL

Résumé

The present thesis deals with the electromagnetic modeling, design and practical implementation of a planar antenna for the reception of satellite broadcasting services from user terminals on board automotive platforms. This antenna is intended to address the market of low cost consumer applications. As a consequence, stringent structural and performance-to-price ratio requirements have to be imposed. The antenna has been conceived as a low profile phased array, on a multilayer planar technology, with fully electronic beam steering and polarization tracking capabilities. The success of this approach strongly relies on the ability of designing highly sophisticated planar multilayered radiators that will act as array elements providing both adequate performance and enough geometrical flexibility to match the constraints dictated by the imposed array topology and structure. The main subject of this thesis is the basic building block of such an antenna, the so-called Elementary Radiating Cell. This cell not only comprises the bare radiators but also the passive circuits (hybrids, power combiners, long via-holes through the multilayered substrates) able to connect the radiating elements to the array beamforming feeding network. The implementation of this Elementary Radiating Cell must be compatible with the available multilayer technologies and with the selected array lattice. This severely limits the available volume and poses some trade-off problems, whose solution has been one of the most challenging efforts in this thesis. This thesis has been carried out in the framework of a joint project between the European Space Agency, several key industrial partners in the sector of satellite R&D and consumer applications, led by IMST-Germany, and the EPFL Laboratoire d'électromagnétisme et d'Acoustique (EPFL-LEMA). The project has demonstrated the feasibility of the electronically steered phased array antenna concept in the development of a new generation of compact satellite terminals for the automotive market.

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https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/166930?ln=fr

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Roberto Torres Sánchez
EPFL, 2011
Thèse EPFL

Résumé

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/166930?ln=fr

À propos de ce résultat

Concepts associés (17)

Concepts associés

Chargement

Publications associées (12)

Publications associées

Chargement

The present thesis deals with the design of a planar antenna array for the communication between a civil aircraft (Dassault's Falcon) and an Inmarsat satellite. The final goal is to provide high speed Internet access in X/Ku-Band (8-12GHz / 12-18GHz), and possibly even in K/Ka- Band (18-27GHz / 17-40GHz). The study starts with the Ku-Band only, then evolves towards the transmission band and finishes with their Ka-Band counterparts. The main constraint of the thesis is that the final result should be a low profile antenna that will be easy to integrate below the fuselage of an aircraft. At the same time, the antenna has to provide a beam steering mechanism in order to track the position of the targetted satellite while the aircraft is moving. The usual way to achieve it is to implement some dedicated electronic chips below each radiating element of array. Dassault Aviation has its own alternate and more mechanical oriented solutions. Since the communication system is intended for top-notch business jets produced in small series, cost is not here a decisive criterion. This thesis assumes the existence of the beam-steering system and concentrates on a proof of concept and careful design of the antenna elements that will constitute the final array. They have to satisfy tight constraints in terms of size, return loss, mutual coupling with neighbors, efficiency, radiation pattern and dual circular polarization quality. Printed multilayer antennas have been retained as the best candidates, and themain parts of the thesis have been dedicated to their study. The thesis concludes with the presentation of an apparently completely unrelated and independant topic, namely the simulation of nanoscale 2D planar structures based on Graphene. The rationale for this last chapter is to provide a prospective study of the use of Graphene to create a variable capacitance. This component is always needed in the beamforming network of reconfigurable and scanning arrays. Our laboratory is developing a deep knowledge of the electromagnetic properties of Graphene-based devices and these varicaps could lead to very interesting applications in high frequencies, once the Graphene technology has definitely progressed. Thanks to electrostatics Green's functions, a variable capacitor based on Graphene has been simulated, and a Quantumeffect -the Quantum capacitance of Graphene- has been successfully tackled from a numerical point of view.

EPFL2016

Chargement

A simple & [and] accessible front-end satellite receiver for communications and e-learning in emerging countries

Olivier Videme Bossou

For the universities of the emergent countries, and those of Cameroon in particular, the fight to reach a durable development requires to know the needed scientific and technical information for their development, how to get it and to spread it out among partners in the country. Obviously, the complete answer to these preoccupations lies well beyond the framework of this project, but a projection, partial but highly significant, can nevertheless be obtained if one concentrates one's efforts on a specific technological field : in the present study, we shall treat of antennas for telecommunications systems. This subject is highly suitable as example and potential incubator for future achievements. The ultimate goal is to design and carry out the fabrication of a system of satellite communications adapted to the financial resources and to the development needs of the universities of the South. First of all, we will review the state of the art in satellite communication systems, both for already operating ones and also for new systems, still under development. Then we will determine which system of satellite telecommunications has a receiver and communication fees with affordable costs : our choice will be made on Worldspace satellite system, which was actually designed for developing countries. We will also review the status of planar antenna and low noise amplifier technology, and then explicit the basic challenge involved in our thesis project. One of the aims of this project is to use local wood as dielectric in SSFIP type antennas. Before using a material as dielectric in an antenna design, it must be characterized. Before carrying the characterization of local wood species, we will begin by reviewing some commonly used dielectric measurement techniques. Then we will carry out a series of measurements to characterize the species of wood growing in the Cameroonian forest. At the end of the series of measurements and according to the dielectric losses observed, we will select the species of wood best suited to make a good substrate for a microstrip antenna. Next, we will design, manufacture and test low cost antennas. These antennas must satisfy not only technical criteria compatible with those of the telecommunications system chosen but, even most importantly, it must meet socioeconomic criteria : the antennas must be manufactured with low cost and locally available materials, making use of simple technological processes. Once we have found the wood species that exhibits the lowest dielectric losses, we will simulate, and then manufacture the SSFIP type antenna with wood as substrate and aluminium as conducting element. Then we will measure its characteristics and check whether they are compatible with those of a Worldspace receiver. The signal received from the satellite by the antenna is very weak. It will be important to strengthen the received signal with a low noise amplifier (LNA) before connecting the antenna to the receiver. Thus the antenna and the LNA constitute an active antenna and form what we call here the radiofrequency (RF) front-end. We will design, manufacture and measure the LNA characteristics. A simple manufacturing process must be used to realize these antennas, because later on they must be manufactured locally in Cameroon : this is a determining challenge to ensure the economic independence, which is essential in our thesis project. Afterwards we will join the LNA to the planar antenna and connect the active antenna obtained in this manner to a commercial Worldspace receiver. Finally, we will perform receiving tests of the Worldspace radio station with the system designed. In parallel, our project includes a second goal, which presents an equivalent significance. We will use existing Matlab codes to develop an online course to teach antenna theory. In addition, at the end of the project and when the Cameroonian local manufacture would have started, we will put all algorithms used for the antenna design on the web site in a multi-media applet, together with a complete documentation of all the manufacturing technologies used. The courses that already exist in Lausanne and Yaounde, relating to the description of other types of antennas will be added, thus leading to a complete teachware that would ensure the durability and the dissemination of the results obtained, and would provide an invaluable tool for teaching and training.

EPFL2007

Chargement

Challenges in Computational Electromagnetics

Ruzica Golubovic

To meet strict requirements of the information society technologies, antennas and circuit elements are becoming increasingly complex. Frequently, their electromagnetic (EM) properties cannot be anymore expressed in closed-form analytical expressions mainly because of the multitude of irregular geometries found in actual devices. Therefore, accurate and efficient (in terms of computational time and memory) electromagnetic models coupled with the robust optimization techniques, are needed in order to be able to predict and optimize the behavior of the innovative antennas in complex environments. The contribution of this thesis consists in the development and improvement of accurate electromagnetic modeling and optimization algorithms for an ubiquitous class of antennas, the planar printed antennas. The approach most commonly used to model and analyze this type of structures is the Integral Equation (IE) technique numerically solved using the Method of Moments (MoM). From the computational point of view, the main challenge is to develop techniques for efficient numerical evaluation of spatial-domain Green's functions, which are commonly expressed in terms of the well-known Sommerfeld integrals (SIs), i.e., semi-infinite range integrals with Bessel function kernels. Generally, the analytical solution of the SIs is not available, and their numerical evaluation is notoriously difficult and time-consuming because the integrands are both oscillatory and slowly decaying, and might possess singularities on and/or near the integration path. Due to the key role that SIs play in many EM problems, the development of fast and accurate techniques for their evaluation is of paramount relevance. This problem is studied in detail and several efficient methods are developed. Finally, the applicability of one of these methods, namely the Weighted Averages (WA) technique, is extended to the challenging case appearing in many practical EM problems: the evaluation of semi-infinite integrals involving products of Bessel functions. However, the development of effective analysis codes is only one aspect. At least equally important is the availability of reliable optimization techniques for an adequate design of antennas. For that purpose, the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is introduced in the context of our analysis codes. Moreover, the innovative hybrid version of the PSO algorithm, called the Tournament Selection PSO, has been proposed with the aim of even further improving convergence performances of the classical PSO algorithm. Detailed theoretical description of this socially inspired evolutionary algorithm is given in the thesis. Finally, the characteristics of both algorithms are compared throughout several EM optimization problems.

EPFL2011

Chargement

A simple & [and] accessible front-end satellite receiver for communications and e-learning in emerging countries

Olivier Videme Bossou

EPFL2007

Challenges in Computational Electromagnetics

Ruzica Golubovic

EPFL2011

EPFL2016