Renal Denervation (RDN) has been developed as a potential treatment for hypertension that is resistant to traditional antihypertensive medication. This technique involves the ablation of nerve fibers around the renal artery from inside the blood vessel, which is intended to suppress sympathetic nerve activity and result in an antihypertensive effect. Currently, clinical investigation is underway to evaluate the effectiveness of RDN in treating treatment-resistant hypertension. Although radio frequency (RF) ablation catheters are commonly used, their heating capacity is limited. Microwave catheters are being considered as another option for RDN. We aim to solve the technical challenges of applying microwave catheters to RDN. In this paper, we designed a catheter with a helix structure and a microwave (2.45 GHz) antenna. The antenna is a coaxial slot antenna, the dimensions of which were determined by optimizing the reflection coefficient through simulation. The measured catheter reflection coefficient is -23.6 dB using egg white and -32 dB in the renal artery. The prototype catheter was evaluated by in vitro experiments to validate the simulation. The procedure performed successfully with in vivo experiments involving the ablation of porcine renal arteries. The pathological evaluation confirmed that a large area of the perivascular tissue was ablated (> 5 mm) in a single quadrant without significant damage to the renal artery. Our proposed device allows for control of the ablation position and produces deep nerve ablation without overheating the intima or surrounding blood, suggesting a highly capable new denervation catheter.

In this paper, a single-layer circular polarizer for linear polarized horn antenna is proposed. The multiple reflected waves between the aperture and array provide desired phase differences between vertical and horizontal polarizations. The measured gain of the fabricated antenna is 14.4 dBic and the half power beamwidths of the vertical polarization are 28 and 24 deg. and those of the horizontal polarization are 31 and 23 degrees in the vertical and horizontal planes. The polarizer has a low impact on the gain and beamwidth of the primary horn antenna and their changes are within 1.7 dB and 10 degrees. The 3 dB fractional bandwidth of the axial ratio is measured to be 1.4%.

This paper studies the secrecy outage probability of transmit antenna selection (TAS) with hybrid generalized selection combining (GSC)/selection combining (SC) in amplify and forward (AF)-multiple input multiple output (MIMO) relay system. This paper derives the exact cumulative distribution (CDF) expression of the received signal to noise ratio (SNR) for TAS with hybrid GSC/SC system. Using derived CDF, this work derives the lower bound and asymptotic forms for the hybrid combining system for the secrecy outage probability. Asymptotic results shows that the proposed hybrid system provides the secrecy diversity of product of the number of antennas in the relay node and the number with the smaller number of antennas among the source node and user node. An interesting result is that the secrecy diversity order is independent of the number of combining signals and the number of eavesdroppers.

Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) is an effective technology to improve the energy and spectral efficiency of wireless powered communication network (WPCN). Under user cooperation, we propose an IRS-assisted WPCN system where the wireless devices (WDs) collect wireless energy in the downlink (DL) and then share data. The adjacent single-antenna WDs cooperate to form a virtual antenna array so that their information can be simultaneously transmitted to the multi-antenna common hybrid access point (HAP) through the uplink (UL) using multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology. By jointly optimizing the passive beamforming at the IRS, the active beamforming in the DL and the UL, the energy consumed by data sharing, and the time allocation of each phase, we formulate an UL throughput maximization problem. However, this optimization problem is non-convex since the optimization variables are highly coupled. In this study, we apply the alternating optimization (AO) technology to decouple the optimization variables and propose an efficient algorithm to avoid the difficulty of directly solving the problem. Numerical results indicate that the joint optimization method significantly improves the UL throughput performance in multi-user WPCN compared with various baseline methods.

In this paper, we propose a novel communication scheme that combines reconfigurable intelligent surface with transmitted adaptive space shift keying (RIS-TASSK), where the number of active antennas is not fixed. In each time slot, the desired candidate antenna or antenna combination will be selected from all available antenna combinations for conveying information bits. Besides, an antenna selection method based on channel gains is proposed for RIS-TASSK to improve the bit error rate (BER) performance and decrease the complexity, respectively. By comparing with the RIS-aided transmitted space shift keying and RIS-aided transmitted generalized space shift keying schemes, the simulation and theoretical results show that the proposed scheme has better BER performance and appropriate complexity.

Low signal power and susceptibility to interference cause difficulties for traditional global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers in tracking weak signals. Extending coherent integration time is a common approach for enhancing signal gain. However, coherent integration time cannot be indefinitely increased owing to navigation bit sign transition, receiver dynamics, and clock noises. This study proposes a cross-correlation phase combining (CPC) algorithm suitable for distributed multi-antenna receivers to improve carrier-tracking performance in weak GNSS signal conditions. This algorithm cross-correlates each antenna’s intermediate frequency (IF) signal and local carrier to detect the phase differences. Subsequently, the IF signals are weighted to achieve phase alignment and coherently combined. The carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) and carrier phase equation of the combined signal were derived for the CPC algorithm. Global positioning system (GPS) signals received by distributed antenna array with six elements were used to validate the performance of the algorithm. The results demonstrated that the CPC algorithm could effectively achieve signal phase alignment at 32 dB-Hz, resulting in a combined-signal CNR enhancement of 6 dB. The phase-tracking error variance was reduced by 72% at 30 dB-Hz compared with that of a single-antenna signal. The algorithm exhibited low phased array calibration requirements, overcoming the limitations associated with coherent integration time and effectively enhancing tracking performance in weak-signal environments.

In this paper, we delve into wireless communications in the 300 GHz band, focusing in particular on the continuous bandwidth of 44 GHz from 252 GHz to 296 GHz, positioning it as a pivotal element in the trajectory toward 6G communications. While terahertz communications have traditionally been praised for the high speeds they can achieve using their wide bandwidth, focusing the beam has also shown the potential to achieve high energy efficiency and support numerous simultaneous connectivity. To this end, new performance metrics, EIRPλ and EINFλ, are introduced as important benchmarks for transmitter and receiver performance, and their consistency is discussed. We then show that, assuming conventional bandwidth and communication capacity, the communication distance is independent of carrier frequency. Located between radio waves and light in the electromagnetic spectrum, terahertz waves promise to usher in a new era of wireless communications characterized not only by high-speed communication, but also by convenience and efficiency. Improvements in antenna gain, beam focusing, and precise beam steering are essential to its realization. As these technologies advance, the paradigm of wireless communications is expected to be transformed. The synergistic effects of antenna gain enhancement, beam focusing, and steering will not only push high-speed communications to unprecedented levels, but also lay the foundation for a wireless communications landscape defined by unparalleled convenience and efficiency. This paper will discuss a future in which terahertz communications will reshape the contours of wireless communications as the realization of such technological breakthroughs draws near.

This paper introduces a wireless-powered relay transceiver designed to extend 5G millimeter-wave coverage. It employs an on-chip butler matrix, enabling beam control-free operation. The prototype includes PCB array antennas and on-chip butler matrix and rectifiers manufactured using a Si CMOS 65 nm process. The relay transceiver performs effectively in beam angles from -45° to 45°. In the 24 GHz wireless power transmission (WPT) mode, it generates 0.12 mW with 0 dBm total input power, boasting an RF-DC conversion efficiency of 12.2%. It also demonstrates communication performance at 28 GHz in both RX and TX modes with a 100 MHz bandwidth and 64QAM modulation.

In this letter, we study the dynamic antenna grouping and the hybrid beamforming for high altitude platform (HAP) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. We first exploit the fact that the ergodic sum rate is only related to statistical channel state information (SCSI) in the large-scale array regime, and then we utilize it to perform the dynamic antenna grouping and design the RF beamformer. By applying the Gershgorin Circle Theorem, the dynamic antenna grouping is realized based on the novel statistical distance metric instead of the value of the instantaneous channels. The RF beamformer is designed according to the singular value decomposition of the statistical correlation matrix according to the obtained dynamic antenna group. Dynamic subarrays mean each RF chain is linked with a dynamic antenna sub-set. The baseband beamformer is derived by utilizing the zero forcing (ZF). Numerical results demonstrate the performance enhancement of our proposed dynamic hybrid precoding (DHP) algorithm.

This study investigates the improvement of the channel capacity of 5-GHz-band multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication using microwave-guided modes propagating along a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe wall for a buried pipe inspection robot. We design a planar Yagi-Uda antenna to reduce transmission losses in communication with PVC pipe walls as propagation paths. Coupling efficiency between the antenna and a PVC pipe is improved by attaching a PVC adapter with the same curvature as the PVC pipe's inner wall to the Yagi-Uda antenna to eliminate any gap between the antenna and the inner wall of the PVC pipe. The use of a planar Yagi-Uda antenna with a PVC adaptor decreases the transmission loss of a 5-GHz-band microwave signal propagating along a 1-m-lomg straight PVC pipe wall by 7dB compared to a dipole antenna. The channel capacity of a 2×2 MIMO system using planar Yagi-Uda antennas is more than twice that of the system using dipole antennas.

We have developed an all-optical fiber link antenna measurement system for a millimeter wave 5th generation mobile communication frequency band around 28 GHz. Our developed system consists of an optical fiber link an electrical signal transmission system, an antenna-coupled-electrode electric-field (EO) sensor system for 28GHz-band as an electrical signal receiving system, and a 6-axis vertically articulated robot with an arm length of 1m. Our developed optical fiber link electrical signal transmission system can transmit the electrical signal of more than 40GHz with more than -30dBm output level. Our developed EO sensor can receive the electrical signal from 27GHz to 30GHz. In addition, we have estimated a far field antenna factor of the EO sensor system for the 28GHz-band using an amplitude center modified antenna factor estimation equation. The estimated far field antenna factor of the sensor system is 83.2dB/m at 28GHz.

Direction of arrival (DOA) estimation is an antenna array signal processing technique used in, for instance, radar and sonar systems, source localization, and channel state information retrieval. As new applications and use cases appear with the development of next generation mobile communications systems, DOA estimation performance must be continually increased in order to support the nonstop growing demand for wireless technologies. In previous works, we verified that a deep neural network (DNN) trained offline is a strong candidate tool with the promise of achieving great on-grid DOA estimation performance, even compared to traditional algorithms. In this paper, we propose new techniques for further DOA estimation accuracy enhancement incorporating signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) prediction and an end-to-end DOA estimation system, which consists of three components: source number estimator, DOA angular spectrum grid estimator, and DOA detector. Here, we expand the performance of the DOA detector and angular spectrum estimator, and present a new solution for source number estimation based on DNN with very simple design. The proposed DNN system applied with said enhancement techniques has shown great estimation performance regarding the success rate metric for the case of two radio wave sources although not fully satisfactory results are obtained for the case of three sources.

This paper proposes a multibeam digital predistorter (DPD) that suppresses intercarrier interference caused by nonlinear distortions of power amplifiers (PAs) while reducing the power consumption of a multibeam array antenna transmitter. The proposed DPD reduces power consumption by allowing the final PAs of the array antenna transmitter to operate in a highly efficient nonlinear mode and compensating for the nonlinear distortions of the PAs with a unified dedicated DPD per subarray. Additionally, it provides the required high-quality signal transmission for high throughputs, such as realizing a 256-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) transmission instead of a 64-QAM transmission. Specifically, it adds an inverse-component signal to cancel the interference from an adjacent carrier of another beam. Consequently, it can suppress the intercarrier interference in the beam direction and improve the error vector magnitude (EVM) during the multibeam transmission, in which the frequency bands of the beams are adjacent. The experimental results obtained for two beams at 28.0 and 28.4GHz demonstrate that, compared with the previous single-beam DPD, the proposed multibeam DPD can improve the EVM. Also, they demonstrate that the proposed DPD can achieve an EVM value of <3%, which completely satisfies the 3GPP requirements for a 256-QAM transmission.

In 5th generation (5G) and Beyond 5G mobile communication systems, it is expected that numerous antennas will be densely deployed to realize ultra-broadband communication and uniform coverage. However, as the number of antennas increases, total power consumption of all antennas will also increase, which leads to a negative impact on the environment and operating costs of telecommunication operators. Thus, it is necessary to simplify an antenna structure to suppress the power consumption of each antenna. On the other hand, as a way to realize ultra-broadband communication, millimeter waves will be utilized because they can transmit signals with a broader bandwidth than lower frequencies. However, since millimeter waves have a large propagation loss, a propagation distance is shorter than that of low frequencies. Therefore, in order to extend the propagation distance, it is necessary to increase an equivalent isotropic radiated power by beamforming with phased array antenna. In this paper, a phased antenna array module in combined with analog radio over fiber (A-RoF) technology for 40-GHz millimeter wave is developed and evaluated for the first time. An 8×8 phased array antenna for 40-GHz millimeter wave with integrated photodiodes and RF chains has been developed, and end-to-end transmission experiment including 20km A-RoF transmission and 3-m over-the-air transmission from the developed phased array antenna has been conducted. The results showed that the 40-GHz RF signal after the end-to-end transmission satisfied the criteria of 3GPP signal quality requirements within ±50 degrees of main beam direction.

In this study, an overloaded large-scale distributed antenna network is considered, for which the number of active users is larger than that of antennas distributed in a base station coverage area (called a cell). To avoid overload, users in each cell are divided into multiple user groups, and, to reduce the computational complexity required for multi-user multiple-input and multiple-output (MU-MIMO), users in each user group are grouped into multiple user clusters so that cluster-wise distributed MU-MIMO can be performed in parallel in each user group. However, as the network size increases, conventional computational methods may not be able to solve combinatorial optimization problems, such as user scheduling and user clustering, which are required for performing cluster-wise distributed MU-MIMO in a finite amount of time. In this study, we apply quantum computing to solve the combinatorial optimization problems of user scheduling and clustering for an overloaded distributed antenna network and propose a quantum computing-based user scheduling and clustering method. The results of computer simulations indicate that as the technology of quantum computers and their related algorithms evolves in the future, the proposed method can realize large-scale dense wireless systems and realize real-time optimization with a short optimization execution cycle.

This paper proposes a dual-polarized filtering antenna with extracted-pole unit (EPU) using LTCC substrate. The EPU realizes the high skirt characteristic of the bandpass filter with transmission zeros (TZs) located near the passband without cross coupling. The filtering antenna with EPU is designed and fabricated in 28GHz band for 5G Band-n257 (26.5-29.5GHz). The measured S11 is less than -10.6dB in Band-n257, and the isolation between two ports for dual polarization is greater than 20.0dB. The measured peak antenna gain is 4.0dBi at 28.8GHz and the gain is larger than 2.5dBi in Band-n257. The frequency characteristics of the measured antenna gain shows the high skirt characteristic out of band, which are in good agreement with electromagnetic (EM)-simulated results.

To cope with ever growing mobile data traffic, we recently proposed a concept of cellular ultra-dense radio access network (RAN). In the cellular ultra-dense RAN, a number of distributed antennas are deployed in the base station (BS) coverage area (cell) and user-clusters are formed to perform small-scale distributed multiuser multi-input multi-output (MU-MIMO) transmission and reception in each user-cluster in parallel using the same frequency resource. We also proposed a decentralized interference coordination (IC) framework to effectively mitigate both intra-cell and inter-cell interferences caused in the cellular ultra-dense RAN. The inter-cell IC adopted in this framework is the fractional frequency reuse (FFR), realized by applying the channel segregation (CS) algorithm, and is called CS-FFR in this paper. CS-FFR divides the available bandwidth into several sub-bands and allocates multiple sub-bands to different cells. In this paper, focusing on the optimization of the CS-FFR, we find by computer simulation the optimum bandwidth division number and the sub-band allocation ratio to maximize the link capacity. We also discuss the convergence speed of CS-FFR in a cellular ultra-dense RAN.

We experimentally evaluated transmission characteristics of 120-GHz-band close-proximity wireless link that employs a split-ring resonator (SRR) millimeter-wave (MMW) absorber integrated on planar slot antennas in 120-GHz-band close-proximity wireless links. We fabricated the SRR MMW absorber made of a 0.28-μm-thick TaN film on a quartz substrate, and integrated it on planar single slot antennas. When the TaN SRRs are not integrated on the planar slot antennas, multiple reflections between the two antennas occur, and a >10-dB fluctuation of S21 at 100-140GHz is observed. When the TaN SRRs are integrated on the planar antennas, the fluctuation of S21 is suppressed to be 3.5dB at 100-140GHz. However, the transmittance of the close-proximity wireless link decreases by integrating TaN SRRs on the planar slot antenna because of reflection at the quartz substrate surface. The integration of the radiator that is composed of single SRR with two capacitors just above the slot antenna increased S21 by 3.5dB at 125GHz. We conducted a data transmission experiment over a close-proximity wireless link that employs radiator-and-TaN-SRR-integrated slot antennas for Tx and Rx, and succeeded to transmit 10-Gbit/s data over the close-proximity wireless link for the first time.

In this paper, user set selection in the allocation sequences of round-robin (RR) scheduling for distributed antenna transmission with block diagonalization (BD) pre-coding is proposed. In prior research, the initial phase selection of user equipment allocation sequences in RR scheduling has been investigated. The performance of the proposed RR scheduling is inferior to that of proportional fair (PF) scheduling under severe intra-cell interference. In this paper, the multi-input multi-output technology with BD pre-coding is applied. Furthermore, the user equipment (UE) sets in the allocation sequences are eliminated with reinforcement learning. After the modification of a RR allocation sequence, no estimated throughput calculation for UE set selection is required. Numerical results obtained through computer simulation show that the maximum selection, one of the criteria for initial phase selection, outperforms the weighted PF scheduling in a restricted realm in terms of the computational complexity, fairness, and throughput.

To understand the radiation mechanism of an electrically small spherical helix antenna, we develop a theory on the radiation characteristics of the antenna. An analytical model of the antenna presuming a current on the wire to be sinusoidally distributed is proposed and analyzed with the spherical wave expansion. The radiation efficiency, radiation resistance, and radiation patterns are obtained in closed-form expression. The radiation efficiency evidently varies with the surface area of the wire and the radiation resistance depends on the square of the length of the wire. The obtained result for the radiation pattern illustrates the tilt of the pattern caused by the modes asymmetric to the z-axis. The radiation efficiency formula indicates a good agreement between the simulation and measurement result. In addition, the radiation resistance of the theoretical and simulation results exhibits good agreement. Considering the effect of the feeding structure of the fabricated antenna, the radiation resistance of the analytical model can be treated as a reasonable result. The result of radiation pattern also shows good agreement between the simulation and measurement results excluding a small contribution from the feeding cable acting as a scatterer.