Dual-Probe Near-Field Phaseless Antenna Measurement System on Board a UAV.

On-site antenna measurement has been recently attracting an increasing interest in order to assess the antenna performance in real operational environments. The complexity and cost of these kind of measurements have been significantly cut down due to recent developments in unmanned aerial vehicles' (UAVs) hardware and antenna measurement post-processing techniques. In particular, the introduction of positioning and geo-referring subsystems capable of providing centimeter-level accuracy together with the use of phase retrieval techniques and near-field to far-field transformation algorithms, have enabled near field measurements using UAVs. This contribution presents an improved UAV-based on-site antenna measurement system. On the one hand, the simultaneous acquisition on two measurement surfaces has been introduced and calibrated properly, thus reducing geo-referring uncertainties and flight time. On the other hand, the positioning and geo-referring subsystem has been enhanced by means of a dual-band real time kinematics (RTK) unit. The system capabilities were validated by measuring an offset reflector antenna, and the results were compared with the measurements at the spherical range in the anechoic chamber and with the measurements collected with a previous version of the implemented system.

Design of Non-Uniform Antenna Arrays for Improved Near-Field MultiFocusing.

An extended method for Near-Field Multifocusing on antenna arrays, including the optimization of the locations for the elements of the array, is proposed. Multifocusing is gaining attention in recent years due to the growth of applications such as Internet of Things, or 5G, where a wireless link between a number of sensors and devices must be established, and energy or interference must be managed efficiently. Multifocusing requirements may be addressed by optimizing the feeding weights that must be applied to the elements of an array, but the proposed methodology also optimizes their locations, increasing the degrees of freedom by allowing a non-uniform structure for the array, leading to more efficient structures or better compliance with the specifications. Some experiments are presented to validate the method, showing that it is able to determine the weights and mesh of the array to fulfill the requirements, both obtaining an arbitrary distribution of elements or following a predefined geometric model.

Multiview three-dimensional reconstruction by millimetre-wave portable camera.

Millimetre-wave imaging is a powerful non-destructive inspection technique which has become widely used in areas such as through-the-wall imaging or concealed weapon detection. Nevertheless, current systems are usually limited to either a single view point providing a limited 3D millimeter-wave model or a multiview relying on the accurate movement of a robot arm through precise positions resulting in very bulky systems. In this paper, we present a set of techniques to achieve a multiview millimetre-wave scanner. The aperture of the scanner is kept below 16 cm so it can be portable and, consequently, multiview can be achieved by simple hand movements. In addition, optical images are also acquired with a two-fold purpose: i) building a complementary 3D-model by employing Structure from Movement (SfM) techniques; ii) estimating the scanner position and poses. The proposed technology is illustrated for people screening, proving the capacity of the system to detect hidden weapons.

A Six-Fold Symmetric Metamaterial Absorber.

A novel microwave metamaterial absorber design is introduced along with its manufacturing and characterization. Significant results considering both bandwidth and angular stability are achieved. Parametric analysis and simplified equivalent circuit are provided to give an insight on the key elements influencing the absorber performance. In addition, the constitutive parameters of the effective medium model are obtained and related to the absorber resonant behavior. Moreover, a new thinner and more flexible absorber version, preserving broad bandwidth and angular insensitive performance, is simulated, and an 8 × 8 unit-cells prototype is manufactured and measured for a limited angular margin in an anechoic chamber.

A Thin C-Band Polarization and Incidence Angle-Insensitive Metamaterial Perfect Absorber.

A novel metamaterial absorber design able to operate in the C frequency band is presented, along with an analysis and a method to improve both its bandwidth and its angular stability. Simulation results for a FR4-based design are shown for comparison with existing designs. In addition, a simplified equivalent circuit is provided for a better understanding of the great angular stability and wide bandwidth exhibited by the proposed structure. Moreover, simulations, manufacturing and measurements of a thinner and more flexible metamaterial absorber, keeping the angular stability of the former one, while providing a wide bandwidth, are presented.

A Compact Band-Pass Filter with High Selectivity and Second Harmonic Suppression.

The design of a novel band-pass filter with narrow-band features based on an electromagnetic resonator at 6.4 GHz is presented. A prototype is manufactured and characterized in terms of transmission and reflection coefficient. The selective passband and suppression of the second harmonic make the filter suitable to be used in a C band frequency range for radar systems and satellite/terrestrial applications. To avoid substantial interference for this kind of applications, passive components with narrow band features and small dimensions are required. Between 3.6 GHz and 4.2 GHz the band-pass filter with harmonic suppression should have an attenuation of at least 35 dB, whereas for a passband, less than 10% is sufficient.