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              Antenna and microwave laboratory

 

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Lab Coordinator: Prof. Satish Kumar Sharma

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EE540L: This course familiarizes the students with design, measurement techniques and device characterizations of microwave components and devices using HP 8753B/D, vector network analyzers and some computer software. After basic calibration procedures are covered, the students design microwave circuits including attenuators, filters and impedance matching circuits using surface mount discrete components as well as micro-strip lines. The students simulate the designs with Ansoft Designer, LINC2 or PUFF, after that the circuits are fabricated and tested. The measurement results are compared with simulation data for possible improvements. Group delays and time domain measurements follow. The two design projects include the design, simulation, fabrication and measurements of branchline power dividers, and coupled line band pass filters, etc. The projects are a team effort. Although all students need to design and simulate the device individually, each group of three to four students will meet to decide which design will be actually fabricated and tested. 
This course is built on the knowledge and skills acquired from materials covered in EE310, EE340, EE430, EE450 and EE540. 

Antenna and Microwave Research: Following antenna and microwave research topics/projects are under investigation:

  1. Reconfigurable Antennas and Arrays
  2. Planar Ultra-wide Bandwidth (UWB) Antennas and Arrays
  3. Dielectric Resonator Antennas (DRA) and Arrays
  4. Feeds for Reflector Antennas
  5. Wideband Microstrip Antennas/Arrays
  6. Beam Steering Antennas/Smart Antennas
  7. Radio-Frequency-Identification (RFID) Antennas
  8. Microwave Power Dividers/Couplers/Filters
  9. RF MEMS Phase Shifters
  10. Computational Electromagnetics
  11. Novel Electromagnetic Materials (Metamaterial/Electromagnetic Bandgap Materials) for antenna and microwave applications
  12. Remote Education Antenna Laboratory (REAL): Antenna Kits for teaching undergraduate antenna course

Measurement Instruments, Fabrication Materials, and EM Analysis Tools: Following instruments, fabrication materials, and software are available for antennas and microwave device analysis, simulation, optimization and measurement with the possibility of future expansions:

  1. Anechoic chamber from Orbit/FR.
  2. Antenna Radiation Pattern Measurement System upto 18 GHz from Orbit/FR
  3. Vector Network Analyser upto 40 GHz from Anritsu
  4. CST's Microwave Studios
  5. Test Fixture
  6. Antenna measurement demonstration kits
  7. Power meters, VSWR meters, EMI measurement, and RF Signal Generators
  8. Ansoft HF Lab Package (full wave analysis tools)
  9. LINC2 and PUFF for microwave component analysis
  10. Different substrate materials, wires, and connectors and access to PCB milling machine

Sponsored Research:

  • National Science Foundation (NSF) ($400,000.00 as PI), CAREER Award: Novel Reconfigurable Aperture Antennas and Arrays for Compact Multifunctional Antenna Solutions, from August 2009 to July 2014 (Current)
  • NextGen Aeronautics ($200,000.00 as SDSU PI), DARPA SBIR, Phase II program: Platform Independent Omni-Directional Antennas (IODA “YODA”) after invitation from DARPA for two years (Current)
  • NextGen Aeronautics ($28,000.00 as SDSU PI), DARPA SBIR, Phase I program: Platform Independent Omni-Directional Antennas (IODA “YODA”), fromFebruary 2009 to October 2009 (Completed)
  • National Science Foundation (NSF) ($136,844.00 through Statement of Work to Carnegie Mellon University’s PI Prof. D. Stancil and SDSU Co-PI Prof. M. Gupta): Remote Education Antenna Laboratory (REAL). The project was completed from December 2006 to March 2009 duration. (Completed)
  • University Grant Program (UGP) Award ($6,500.00, as PI): Investigations on concentric dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs) and arrays with wide bandwidth for Wireless Communications from January, 2008 to June 2009 (Completed)
  • University Grant Program (UGP) Award ($7,645.00, as PI): Investigations on Compact Microstrip Slot Antenna Configurations for Ultra-wideband (UWB) Wireless Communications from January 2007 to June 2008 (Completed)

 

Current Research Students:

  • Ph. D. Students:
  1. Alberto Rodriguez
  2. Nathan Labadie
  • M. S. (EE) Students:
  1. Alex R. Moody
  2. Ashish Tuteja
  3. Anup Kulkarni
  4. Balamurugan Sanmugam
  5. Dave R. West
  6. Elias Mireless
  7. Josh Patin
  8. Kirthika Nahalingam
  9. Manveer Kaur Brar
  10. Pankaj Dagar
  11. Rahul Bakshi
  12. Shiv K. Varanasi
  13. Tuan Q. Tran

Graduated Research Students:

  1. Abhishek Singh (MS, EE)
  2. Anubhava Jain (MS, EE)
  3. Christopher Meagher (MS, EE)
  4. Justin Church (MS, EE)
  5. Kiran K. Thota (M. Eng.)
  6. Nathan Labadie (MS, EE)
  7. Sunil Rajgopal (MS, EE)

VISITING PROFESSOR: Prof. Hong-Goo Cho, Kookmin University