In this paper, the authors propose a circularly polarized printed antenna combining a slot array antenna and a patch antenna, with dual-band operation. The proposed antenna has good isolation performance, is compact, and has simple configuration. This antenna is composed of two parts, a patch antenna (for Rx) on the top, and a slot array antenna (for Tx) on the bottom, respectively. The element layout is such that the lower radiation element is not hidden by the upper one for wide observation angle. Hence, both radiation elements can naturally radiate the targeted polarization. Both slot array and patch antenna are fed by electromagnetically coupled microstrip line feed. With such a configuration, it is possible to efficiently obtain good isolation characteristics for both frequency bands. Furthermore, this antenna can be easily composed and it is not necessary to use any feeding pin or via hole. The target of this antenna is mobile communications applications such as mobile satellite communications, base-station of wireless LAN, etc. Here, the design techniques are discussed and the numerical and experimental analyses are presented.

This paper presents a simple but high resolution DOA estimation method using second-order differential of MUSIC spectrum. MUSIC method is paid attention as one of "Superresolution" DOA estimation methods because of their brilliant characteristics, however MUSIC also has the problem of estimation accuracy in severe environments like low SNR, small number of snapshots, or incident waves from closely-spaced angles. Especially the case of two or more incident waves from closely-spaced angles, MUSIC often fails in making spectrum peaks that leads inaccurate DOA estimation. We pay attention to the fact that the second-order differential of MUSIC spectrum makes negative peaks around the original DOAs even when MUSIC spectrum does not make peaks there. We try to estimate DOAs not by MUSIC spectrum but by the second-order differential of the MUSIC spectrum, and to find its peaks for being estimated DOAs. The performance of the present method is evaluated in compared with MUSIC and Root-MUSIC methods through computer simulations and experiments.

In this research, a sub-array preconditioner is applied to improve the convergence of conjugate gradient (CG) iterative solver in the fast multipole method and fast Fourier transform (FMM-FFT) implementation on a large-scale finite periodic array antenna with arbitrary geometry elements. The performance of the sub-array preconditioner is compared with the near-group preconditioner in the array antenna analysis. It is found that the near-group preconditioner achieves a little better convergence, while the sub-array preconditioner can be easily constructed and programmed with less CPU-time. The efficiency of the CG-FMM-FFT with high efficient preconditioner has been demonstrated in numerical analysis of a finite periodic array antenna.

Optically controlled beam forming techniques are effective for phased-array antenna control. We have developed the Fourier transform optical beamformer (FT-OBF). The antenna radiation pattern inputted into an amplitude spatial light modulator (A-SLM) is optically Fourier transformed to a specific phase-front light beam equivalent to an antenna excitation in the FT-OBF. Optical signal processing, used the Fourier transform optics, is effective to large-scale, two-dimensional, and high-speed signal processing. To implement a flexible and finer antenna beam pattern control, we use an A-SLM as input image formation of the FT optics. And, to realize a small-size FT-OBF, we use symmetric triplet lenses with convex, concave and convex lens. The total optical system becomes below 1/5 length compared with the length using single lens. Finally, we evaluated the developed FT-OBF with the generated amplitude and phase distributions, which excitation signal of an array antenna. We measured an antenna radiation beam pattern, beam steering and beam width control, in the C-band. Measurement results agreed with theoretical calculated results. These results show the feasibility of the spatial light modulator based FT-OBF.

This paper proposes new resource management schemes for multiple data streams in an orthogonal frequency and space division multiplex access (OFSDMA) system using Radio-on-Fiber (RoF) ubiquitous antennas. The proposed schemes classify the services into some classes in which the number of sub-carriers is dynamically assigned according to the requested data size. The computer simulation results show that the proposed schemes improve the number of users satisfying the required bit error rate (BER) level as well as the average throughput and also show that the RoF ubiquitous antennas can improve system capacity.

Ad hoc DMAC protocols have been proposed to improve spatial reuse, but directional transmissions have the problem of deafness. In the ToneDMAC protocol [9], an omnidirectional out-of-band tone after transmitting DATA or ACK mitigates deafness, but cannot prevent the interference packets caused by retransmissions to node in deafness. In this paper, we propose a dual-tone DMAC protocol with the out-of-band start-tone and stop-tone. In the proposed MAC protocol, a start-tone prevents retransmissions to node in deafness and decreases the packet collision probability. Throughput performance of the proposed MAC protocol is confirmed by simulations using Qualnet ver. 3.8 simulator.

An electrooptic near-field mapping system based on a gain-switched distributed feedback (DFB) pulsed laser and a CdTe electrooptic crystal was used for characterizing stationary and transient near-field patterns of conventional and uniplanar compact photonic band gap (UC-PBG) patch antennas. Effect of the UC-PBG structure on reduction in surface waves in the UC-PBG patch antenna was experimentally verified by comparing stationary and transient near-field measurement of the conventional and UC-PBG patch antennas.

In this letter, we propose two different joint transmit and receive antenna subset selection schemes for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems on the basis of capacity maximization criterion. We assume that perfect channel state information (CSI) is known at the receiver but unknown to the transmitter. As the selection signaling is perfectly fed back to the transmitter, we propose a flexible two-step selection algorithm (TSSA) in practical MIMO channel scenarios. Computer simulations show that TSSA can maximize the capacity at low computation cost in most scenarios. It performs well in terms of capacity, computational complexity and flexibility. Furthermore, we propose a simplified algorithm based on the correlation matrix when the channel correlation information (CCI) is known to the transmitter. Simulation results show that the proposed correlation matrix based selection algorithm is only slightly inferior to an optimal selection algorithm.

This paper proposes a new rectangular horn with two orthogonal multiple-step taper sections for obtaining a dual-polarized elliptical-beam. One of the sections has a stepwise sectoral taper configuration on both sidewalls that starts with a square waveguide feed and then the other is a taper one on both top and bottom walls toward the rectangular aperture. The proposed taper configuration is useful enough to control higher-order modes required for an elliptical beam and is so simple to apply optimization design based on mode-matching approach. As a design example, we present a rectangular horn with -10 dB beamwidth of 33 90at 9.5-10.5 GHz. The effectiveness of the proposed horn is verified numerically and experimentally.

In this paper, we evaluated the characteristics of the magnetic core loop antenna that is used to receive long wave radio signals for time standards. To evaluate the receiving sensitivity of the antenna, we calculated the antenna factor of the magnetic core loop antenna by combining a magnetic field simulation and a circuit simulation. The simulation results are in good agreement with the results obtained from the experiments. We then investigated the optimization of the antenna shape, and showed the relation between the shape of the magnetic core and the receiving sensitivity.

A one dimensional (1-D) based tree structure algorithm is proposed for estimating the 2D-DOAs of the signals impinging on a uniform rectangular array. The key idea of the proposed algorithm is to successively utilize the 1-D MUSIC algorithm several times, in tree structure, to estimate the azimuth and the elevation angles independently. Subspace projectors are exploited in conjunction with the 1-D MUSIC algorithms to decompose the received signal into several signals each coordinated by its own 2D-DOA. The pairing of the azimuth estimates and the associated elevation estimates is naturally determined due to the tree structure of the algorithm.

We investigate the performance of a code division multiple access (CDMA) system employing local polynomial approximation (LPA) smart antenna under moving user scenario. A closed form for average signal to interference plus noise power ratio (SINR) is derived, where the angular velocity of a target user is invariant during an observation interval. This SINR is independent of user velocity, and consequently it induces the independence of bit error rate (BER) with respect to the user velocity, while the use of conventional smart antenna shows significant degradation in the system performance by moving user.

In this study we have employed an effective technique for dosimetric analyses of base station antennas in an underground environment. The technique combines a ray-tracing method and the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method to calculate the specific absorption rate (SAR) in the human body. The ray-tracing method was applied to evaluate the incident fields in relation to the exposed subject in a three-dimensional space, while the FDTD method was used to calculate the detailed SAR distributions in the human body. A scenario under an underground passage with the installation of a top-loaded monopole antenna was analyzed to investigate the relationship between the actual antenna exposure and a plane-wave exposure. The results show that the plane-wave exposure overestimated the whole-body average SAR in most cases, although this was not always true for peak SAR. The finding implies not only the usefulness of the present uniform-exposure-based reference level for the whole-body average SAR evaluation but also the necessity of modeling actual underground environment for high-precision local peak SAR evaluation.

An InGaP/GaAs HBT MMIC amplifier with an active balun has been developed for ultra-wideband radio systems (UWB). The MMIC was designed to drive a self-complementary antenna with a balanced mode, where an input impedance is 60π ohms. The MMIC consists of a common mode negative feed back ultra-wideband amplifier circuit, an active balun circuit, and a high impedance drive circuit. The developed amplifier provides a 3-dB gain roll-off bandwidth from 2.4 GHz to 10.8 GHz with a 14.1-dB linear power gain, and a linear power output up to 3 dBm. The developed amplifier with the active balun provides a 3-dB gain roll-off bandwidth from 2.3 GHz to 8.6 GHz with a 21.3-dB power gain in a balanced mode, and a linear power output up to 0.6 dBm. The measured total group delay is less than 32 psec. Output signals at the balanced output terminals of the MMIC were kept inverted with a steep pulse shape for an impulse input signal of 57-psec pulse width.

This paper presents novel multi-band equilateral triangular microstrip antennas (ET-MSAs) fed by an L-shaped feeding probe. Two types of the ET-MSA are proposed in this paper; they are ET-MSA with closed folded slots and open folded slots with an embedded bridge. The antenna prototypes presented in this paper assume four folded slots in which a metal strip is inserted to realize a good multi-band performance. In addition, the open folded slots, in which the metal strip inside the folded slot is connected to the ET-MSA by the embedded metal bridge, leads to miniaturize the antenna. The proposed antennas are printed on the top layer of a PTFE substrate while the L-probe is printed on the bottom one. The L-shaped probe is utilized due to its tremendous performance in providing a wideband impedance matching. Five resonant frequencies of the ET-MSAs with closed folded slots and with open folded slots are predicted by the electromagnetic simulator (IE3D) based on the method of moment, respectively. Some parametric studies have been also investigated to meet an appropriate multi-band performance. A broadside radiation pattern and gain of 3.0-7.0 dBi have been confirmed by the measurement for the entire observed frequencies. Measured results agree well with the prediction. Thus, these antenna systems are demonstrated to be useful models for a multi-band planar antenna.

We investigate selection transmit multi-input multi-output systems where only a single transmit antenna is selected for the transmission and multiple receive antennas are employed for maximal ratio combining. Antenna selection is performed by a generalized selection criterion based on the ordinal number of the strength of the received signal-to-noise ratio.

This paper presents an advanced and extensive utilization approach of microwave resonant fields, and the applications to push-push oscillators and reconfigurable planar antennas. The excellent coherency, synchronous harmonics and the degenerative orthogonal modes of electromagnetic field built up on microwave resonators are noticeable features in this approach. Another crucial point is the resonant field controllability that is especially essential feature for reconfigurable antennas in this paper. All the features can be realized by embedding semiconductor devices and/or IC's on a microwave resonator. Push-push oscillators and reconfigurable planar antennas are described as good examples of this approach. The push-push oscillators can generate very higher frequency signals due to the selective use of the 4th harmonic up to the 8th harmonic resonant fields, suppressing undesired harmonic signals. As a result, very high frequency band oscillators up to millimeter-wave bands with good suppression of undesired harmonic signals can be easily realized at very low cost by use of commercially available active devices for low frequency bands. The reconfigurable planar antennas are also demonstrated, where the boundary condition of the resonant field on planar antennas can be purposefully controlled to realize reconfigurable antenna performances by the semiconductor devices embedded on the patch as well. The orthogonal linear polarization controllable patch, the dual-band switching patch and the continuously frequency controllable patch have been demonstrated as the successful applications of this approach.

This paper presents a scheme for accurately detecting the number of incident waves arriving at array antennas. The array antenna and MIMO techniques are developing as 4th generation mobile communication systems and wireless LAN technologies, and the accurate estimation of the propagation environment is becoming more important. This paper emphasizes the accurate detection of the number of incident waves; one of the important characteristics in multidirectional communication. There are some recent papers on accurate detection but they have problems of estimation accuracy or computational cost in severe environment like low SNR, small number of snapshots or waves with close angles. Hence, AIC and MDL methods based on statistics and information theory are still often used. In this paper, we propose an accurate estimation method of the number of arrival signals using the orthogonality of subspaces derived from preliminary estimation of signal subspace. The proposed method accurately estimates the number of signals also in severe environments where AIC and MDL methods can hardly estimate. We evaluate the performance of these methods through some computer simulation and experiments in anechoic chamber.

In this paper, an adaptive array antenna is implemented to enhance the performance of digital TV ISDB-T reception. Issues of realizing the proposed array antenna and its implementation by a joint hardware-software solution are also presented in this paper. Instead of using known reference signals, the proposed method utilizes the GI (Guard Interval) and a periodic property of OFDM signal as a constraint to realize MRC (Maximum Ratio Combining) and SMI (Sample Matrix Inversion) adaptive beam-forming algorithms. Experimental results show that the proposed system drastically improves the quality of reception. Moreover, the proposed system can achieve excellent performance under the conditions of strong interferences.

A novel two-dimensional (2D) beam scanning antenna array using composite right/left-handed (CRLH) leaky-wave antennas (LWAs) is proposed. The antenna array consists of a set of CRLH LWAs and a Butler matrix (BM) feeding network. The direction of the beam can be scanned two-dimensionally in one plane by changing frequency and in the other plane by switching the input ports of the BM. A four-element antenna array in the microstrip line configuration operating at 10.5 GHz is designed with the assistance of full-wave simulations based on the method of moment (MoM) and the finite-element method (FEM). The antenna array is fabricated and radiation characteristics are measured. The wide range 2D beam scanning operation with the angle from -30 deg to +25 deg in one plane by sweeping frequency from 10.25 GHz to 10.7 GHz and with four discrete angles of -46 deg, -15 deg, +10 deg, and +35 deg in the other plane by switching the input port is achieved.