A small broadband omni-directional printed antenna comprising symmetrically arranged trapezoid elements is investigated for broadband Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) and low center frequency characteristics. Two symmetrical trapezoid elements are printed on the bottom side of the substrate and are connected to a small ground plane printed on the same side over two strips. The trapezoid elements and the strips are excited in an electromagnetically coupled manner by the monopole element set between the trapezoid elements. Two resonance characteristics arise because the resonance part changes depending on the frequency, and a broad bandwidth becomes possible. The center frequency can be lowered by changing the shapes of the trapezoid elements. The monopole element length is a very important parameter for impedance matching. The space between the monopole element and the trapezoid elements is an important parameter for the optimization of two resonance characteristics. The proposed antenna is shown to achieve a VSWR bandwidth (≤2) of 28.9%, a low profile, and omni-directional pattern features. The measured and numerical results are in good agreement.

Employing a triangular dielectric phase shifter simplifies the beam forming network of an offset beam array antenna because this structure achieves phase control in a single configuration. This paper proposes a design method for a low loss offset beam planar antenna that incorporates a triangular dielectric plate phase shifter on parallel microstrip feedlines. Our design method reduces the loss of the phase shifter by optimizing the microstrip line width. By using the proposed design equation, the optimum low loss phase shifter configuration can be easily established. In addition, this paper presents the actual design of a triangular plate considering size reduction. The results of experiments of the offset beam antenna indicate that our design method is effective in obtaining a simple, low loss, and compact configuration.

This paper proposes a new digital beamforming adaptive array antenna (DBFAAA) that is effective in severe multipath environments in which timing and carrier synchronization circuits cannot function ideally resulting in the DBFAAA losing control. The proposed DBFAAA has two stages. In the first, the DBFAAA captures the desired signal and establishes synchronization. In the second, the DBFAAA optimizes the beam pattern of the signal. The proposed configuration employs an eigenvector beam of the maximum eigenvalue in the first stage beam-forming. In addition, a fractionally-spaced-tapped-delay-line (FS-TDL) with real tap weights, which is placed after the beam-former, is applied to achieve timing synchronization. The behavior of the proposed DBFAAA for asynchronous sampling data is investigated and the results indicate that the proposed configuration enables asynchronous sampling at the A/D converter. A prototype of the proposed DBFAAA achieving 38-Mbps real-time data communication is introduced and the transmission performance is shown.

This paper describes a metasurface designed utilizing either a Frequency Selective Surface (FSS) that has band-pass characteristics or one with band-rejection filtering characteristics in order to clarify the relationship between the filtering characteristics of the FSS and the Perfect Magnetic Conductor (PMC) characteristics of the metasurface. The effects of the filtering characteristics of the FSS on the PMC characteristics of the metasurface are described. Calculation results confirm that a low profile metasurface can be achieved using these FSSs. In addition, the effects of the size of the metasurface on the PMC characteristics of the surface are shown.

The use of directional antenna and polarization diversity techniques has been reported to achieve good MIMO performance. Low-profile, small structures are required to configure the MIMO antenna with these techniques. First, we assume downlink transmission in indoor MIMO systems and present the design guidelines for the radiation pattern to obtain large channel capacity by the ray-tracing method. We then propose a uni-directional, dual-polarized MIMO antenna with a thickness of 0.24λ based on the design guidelines. The proposed antenna consists of dipole antennas mounted horizontally to the ground plane and cavity backed slot antennas for vertical polarization. We apply the proposed antenna to 2 2 MIMO transmission and demonstrate the effectiveness of channel capacity enhancement in an actual environment. The improvement factor is revealed to be +16.2% with place averaged value compared to sleeve antenna configuration.

This paper reviews the antenna system for Japanese celullar systems and PHS (Personal Handphone System). The unique features of the Japanese cellualr system are multi-band operation, compact diversity antennas, electronic beam tilting, and indoor booster systems. The original antennas for the above purpose will be described. The PHS is also a unique mobile communication system in Japan, and is mainly used for high speed, low cost data transmission. Its original antennas are also presented in this paper.

An important barrier to the application of high-temperature superconducting microwave filters is their power-handling capability. To clarify the key parameters for improving the power-handling capability of rf filters based on high-temperature superconductors with microstrip structures, we synthesize bandpass filters with different layouts using several kinds of thin film high-temperature superconductors, and subject them to third-order intermodulation measurements. By improving the sensitivity of the measurement set-up through the selective reduction of the fundamental output signals, we succeed in measuring the intermodulation signals of the superconducting filters. The experimental results indicate that increasing the film thickness and utilizing MBE-grown films of NdBa2Cu3O7 films are effective in obtaining high-power handling microstrip filters.

This paper proposes a novel bidirectional rod antenna (BIRA) comprising a collinear antenna and parasitic wires as a base station antenna for a street microcell. The spacing between the collinear antenna and the parasitic wire, and the length of the parasitic wires, which are the design parameters obtaining a bidirectional pattern, are investigated using the moment method. The results show that wide spacing enlarges the bandwidth obtaining the bidirectional pattern, however it decreases the gain. Furthermore, to enlarge the bandwidth, a BIRA with arc parasitic plates whose radius is the same as that of the radome is also proposed. The configuration can be constructed using the same exterior as the BIRA with parasitic wires. It is also shown that the arc parasitic plates enlarge the bandwidth in proportion to the area projected onto the tangential plane at the center of the arc. Finally, a prototype of the proposed antenna is shown.

High frequency bands such as the 3-GHz band have received much attention as frequency resources for broadband mobile communication systems. Radio Frequency (RF) integrated antennas are considered to be useful as base station antennas in decreasing the feeding loss that is otherwise inevitable in high frequency bands and they ensure sufficient power for broadband transmission. One problem in actualizing RF integrated antennas is miniaturizing the duplexer, which is generally large, among the RF circuitry components. To downsize the duplexer, we consider separately locating the transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) antennas. To suppress further the mutual coupling between the Tx and Rx antennas, we investigate a filter integrated antenna configuration. In this paper, we consider an aperture coupled patch antenna as the base antenna configuration and propose a new filter integrated antenna that comprises multiple rectangular elements installed between the coupling slot and radiation element of the Rx antenna. The simulation and measurement results confirm that the new antenna reduces the mutual coupling in the transmission frequency band up to 5.7 dB compared to the conventional slot coupled patch antenna configuration.

This paper proposes a novel adaptive array configuration that reduces high-power co-channel interference (CCI) by utilizing the difference in arrival times between CCI and the desired signal in asynchronous TDD systems. The proposed adaptive array extracts only the CCI and employs pre-null steering for only the CCI by utilizing the fact that only the CCI arrives during the guard time in asynchronous TDD systems. Since the proposed adaptive array enables us to apply the Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) algorithm through synchronization with the desired signal using the output signal obtained by pre-null steering, high quality transmission can be achieved even in the presence of high-power CCI. Moreover, based on measurements using a fading simulator and field data, an adaptive array testbed exemplifying the proposed configuration is presented to show the reduction in the high-power CCI.

To realize a highly efficient small antenna, high-Tc superconductors are adopted to fabricate both a self-resonating helical radiator and a quarter-wave matching circuit. The actual gain and bandwidth measured at 478 MHz using a 1/45-wavelength radiator were respectively 1.5 dBi and 0.35%, indicating that this type of antenna has a high radiation efficiency and a fairly wide bandwidth. It is also confirmed through experiments and theoretical simulations that a decrease in the surface resistance of the radiator more effectively improves the radiation efficiency than a decrease in the surface resistance of the matching circuit.

This paper proposes a novel bi-directional rod antenna comprising a narrow patch and parasitic elements for base station antennas of street microcell systems. It is shown that the parasitic elements improve the antenna efficiency of an ordinary bi-directional printed antenna and make it possible to form the antennas using conventional substrates. This paper also proposes a suitable configuration for the array and investigates radiation characteristics of the configuration. Finally, a prototype of the bi-directional rod antenna is presented and the effectiveness of the bi-directional antenna is evaluated.

This paper proposes a hardware configuration using only single pole dual throw (SPDT) switches to realize the previously proposed automatic calibration method using transmitting signals (ACT) for the adaptive array in TDD communication systems. The proposed configuration obtains the same calibration values as the conventional ACT does while reducing the number of switch branches. The transmission pattern using the proposed calibration method is also presented based on an experimental adaptive array testbed in an actual microcell environment. The experimental results show that the ideal radiation pattern formation is achieved by employing the proposed calibration method in an environment with a moving terminal station and where arriving co-channel interference exists.

This paper investigates the performance of multiple monopole antennas mounted on a card-type terminal, which is expected to be used in the systems beyond 3 G, based on the calculated and measured radiation patterns for the 2.0 GHz. We characterize the feasible performance of quarter-wavelength monopole antennas mounted on a card-type terminal in a multiple antenna configuration with narrow element spacing of less than a half-wavelength assuming that the antennas used must satisfy the space restrictions of the mobile terminal. Performance figures of merit for the multiple antenna performance include the beamforming gain, correlation coefficient, and MIMO channel capacity. Furthermore, we investigate the influence of a finite ground plane on the characteristics of multiple monopole antennas using a typical antenna configuration comprising a simple finite ground plane and multiple monopole antennas to discuss the fundamental characteristics.

This paper proposes a new small multiband printed antenna for wireless telecommunications modules that can realize Machine-to-Machine applications. We reconfigure our previous antenna to cover the 700MHz, 800MHz, and 900MHz bands, and add two new elements (second strips) to cover the 2GHz band. The new antenna achieves operation in quad-bands: 700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz, and 2GHz. Frequency characteristics are analyzed using electromagnetic-simulation software based on the method of moments, and the validity of the numerical results is shown based on measured Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) characteristics and the radiation patterns of a prototype antenna. The proposed antenna is compact with a VSWR bandwidth (≤2) of 27.5% in bands including 700MHz, 800MHz, and 900MHz, and a VSWR bandwidth (≤2) of 10.6% in the band including 2GHz. We clarify that the operating mechanism in the 2GHz band is equivalent to that of a one wavelength folded offset fed dipole antenna comprising a monopole element and second strips, and that the operating frequency in the 2GHz band can be determined by the path length from the tip of the monopole element to the tip of the second strip via a feeding point.

The adaptive base station antenna is an attractive candidate for establishing high-speed and highly-reliable wireless communication systems. From a commercial viewpoint, since the cost and complexity of adaptive antennas depend on the number of elements, optimizing the antenna configuration while considering the propagation environment is necessary to reduce the number of elements. This paper first presents the Angle of Arrival (AOA) characteristics of delayed waves in a street microcell environment, typically used in urban microcell systems. Then the antenna configuration and antenna spacing suitable for the street microcell are investigated utilizing bit error rate (BER) performance simulations using practical delay profiles and AOAs. The effectiveness of bidirectional elements with respect to the BER performance is also investigated. As the results, we found that broadside array with the spacing of 2.5 wavelengths is suitable for adaptive base station antennas for high data-rate wireless systems placed in a street microcell environment. We also found that bidirectional elements alleviate the BER degradation due to the grating lobe of the antenna with wide element spacing without increasing the antenna size.

This paper proposes a novel configuration of an elevated base station using an adaptive array for TDMA systems, which can simultaneously decrease the CCI (co-channel interference) and form a circular cell. The proposed base station comprises two sets of transceivers and antenna arrays, and an adaptive beam control unit. The transceivers work in different time slots. The circular cell that suppresses the interference is achieved by integrating the pattern control of the two antenna arrays. The effectiveness of the proposed base station configuration is evaluated by field measurements using an adaptive array testbed. We confirm that the proposed base station achieves a channel capacity that is approximately 30% greater than that of a base station employing an omni-directional antenna and generates an omni-zone with reduced CCI in an actual microcell system. Furthermore, we confirm by computer simulation that the proposed base station establishes a communicable area that is approximately 1.8 times larger than that of a base station employing an omni-directional antenna.

A filter integrated antenna configuration that suppresses the coupling signal from the transmitter (Tx) to receiver (Rx) base station antenna is investigated. We propose an aperture coupled patch antenna with multiple trapezoidal elements installed on the substrate of the Rx antenna between the radiation and feed layers in order to increase the bandwidth in the Rx band while maintaining low mutual coupling in the Tx band. The mutual coupling characteristics and the fractional bandwidth of the Rx antenna are presented as functions of the shape and width of the trapezoidal elements.