We propose a new, compact, center-fed reflector antenna that is capable of one-dimensional electronic beam scanning. The reflector profile in the vertical section (beam-scanning) is set to an imaging reflector configuration, while the profile in the orthogonal horizontal section (non-beam-scanning) is set to a Cassegrain antenna configuration. The primary radiator is a one-dimensional phased array antenna. We choose a center-fed configuration in order to reduce the antenna size as much as possible, despite the fact that the increased blocking area from the primary radiator causes degradation in efficiency compared to the typical offset-type configuration. In the proposed configuration, beam scanning is limited to one dimension, but utilize a compact, center-fed configuration that maintains the features of an imaging reflector antenna. We present the antenna configuration and design method and show that results obtained from the prototype antenna verify the predicted performance.

A novel circularly polarized antenna with square slot for broadband characteristics is proposed in this paper. The horizontal and vertical components of the L-shaped probe, which is a key element to generate circular polarization, are separated in the structure, contrary to the concept of joined probes. Another novelty, placing stubs in the slot, which are attached to the ground plane, is proposed to improve the axial ratio (AR) characteristics of the antenna by around 10%. Placing a reflector at a distance of λ0/4 from the antenna to obtain unidirectional patterns is effective when no stubs are placed in the slot. The antenna attains a < 10 dB return loss bandwidth of 47.5% (2.76-4.48 GHz) and < 3 dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidth of 42.47% (2.67-4.11 GHz) in measurement. Parametric studies on key parameters and measured results are also presented.

A trihedral corner reflector is often used for SAR polarimetric calibration. However, the scattering property of the reflector used for the calibration may not be correct if the high frequency approximation is not satisfied or if an incident angle deviates from the symmetric axis of the reflector. In order to know the conditions for precise SAR polarimetric calibration, we evaluated the polarimetric response of the reflector by a numerical simulation using the method of moment (MoM). It is found that allowable incident angle deviation is 5 degree to azimuth direction and 4 degree to elevation direction for precise SAR polarimetric calibration when the size of the reflector is 7.5 times larger than the wavelength of an incident wave.

As THz wave has the advantages of enough resolution and penetration to materials, it has been examined to be used for the imaging system. The propagation distance of THz wave is limited to be short. That is also the advantage for application to the indoor wireless communication etc. For the achievement of the ultra-high frequency oscillator (and concurrently transmitter) device, the properties of small, electronic excitation, the antenna constructed and being on the wafer are important. For the purpose, the Negative differential resistance Dual channel transistor (NDR-DCT) proposed by AIST is utilized. In this paper, as an initial theoretical analysis, we simulated the oscillation frequency of this device at about 100 GHz-1THz within the Terahertz band on which the above applications was expected. The equivalent circuit model of NDR-DCT was shown based on the analogy with the resonant tunnelling diode (RTDs), and the antenna as the resonance circuit part was designed by the numerical analysis. The possibility of the THz oscillation of this device was confirmed. The slit reflector that we proposed can realize the slot antenna on the device effectively and is suitable for three terminal structure semiconductor. its manufacturing is relatively easy.

A design method is proposed for a low-profile dual-shaped reflector antenna for the mobile satellite communications. The antenna is required to be low-profile because of mount restrictions. However, reduction of its height generally causes degradation of antenna performance. Firstly, an initial low-profile reflector antenna with an elliptical aperture is designed by using Geometrical Optics (GO) shaping. Then a Physical Optics (PO) shaping technique is applied to optimize the gain and sidelobes including mitigation of undesired scattering. The developed design method provides highly accurate design procedure for electrically small reflector antennas. Fabrication and measurement of a prototype antenna support the theory.

In this paper, CPW-fed slot antennas using loading metallic strips and a widened tuning stub (CPW-FSLW) which provides wideband operation on the flat, a Λ-shape reflector with horizontal plate that prevents the back radiation and provides the uni-directional radiation are investigated. We observe that the size and shape of the reflector have significant impact on the impedance matching and radiation patterns. By fabricating the CPW-FSLW on the Λ-shape reflector with horizontal plate structure, noticeable enhancements in both radiation pattern and bandwidth are achieved. The antennas are verified both through numerical simulations and also measurements of the experimental prototypes and these confirm the good performance antennas. It is found that the proposed antenna can deliver a measured impedance bandwidth of 64% from 1.6 to 3.1 GHz for VSWR ≤ 2. The antennas are designed to have wideband operation suitable for applications in GSM1800, GSM1900, PCS, IMT-2000 and WLAN bands.

This paper presents the switched-beam slot antenna over the electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) reflector. This antenna is composed of two slot elements fed with a phase difference and the EBG reflector, which is used in order to realize a low profile structure. The radiation characteristics of this antenna are calculated using the FDTD method. Calculations show that the height of the antenna using the EBG reflector is 60 % lower than that of the antenna using a perfect electric conductor (PEC) reflector. The radiation characteristics at the center of the operating frequency band in the EBG reflector are equivalent to that in the PEC reflector. It is shown that the tilt angle of the main beam in the elevation plane varies with the operating frequency, and the variation in the case of the EBG reflector is caused by its frequency-dependent reflection phase. Moreover, the radiation pattern of the fabricated antenna is measured. The results demonstrate that the low profile design can be achieved by using the EBG reflector, and reveal the influence of the EBG reflector on the antenna efficiency.

Ultra-wideband impulse-radio systems have the ability to resolve multiple paths of the transmit radio and to mitigate the fading. Rake reception is capable of combining these paths, thereby improving the signal-to-noise ratio. In LOS channel, however, the improvement may be comparatively small for the cost of increasing receiver system complexity. This is because the LOS path should be dominant for the total energy in all paths. In this paper the distribution of the energy captured by Rake receiver is first presented for 160 measured LOS channel cases and then discussed. Rake reception with reflector is next suggested in order to effectively increase the signal energy without increasing the complexity, that is, increased number of Rake fingers. The use of reflector is also suggested for non-LOS channel and experimentally discussed where the Rake gain is compared with conventional Rake without reflector. The measurement results show the usefulness.

We report on a channel drop filter with a mode gap in the propagating mode of a photonic crystal slab that was fabricated on silicon on an insulator wafer. The results, simulated with the 3-dimensional finite-difference time-domain and plane-wave methods, demonstrated that an index-guiding mode for the line defect waveguide of a photonic crystal slab has a band gap at wave vector k = 0.5 for a mainly TM-like light-wave. The mode gap works as a distributed Bragg grating reflector that propagates the light-wave through the line defect waveguide, and can be used as an optical filter. The filter bandwidth was varied from 1-8 nm with an r/a (r: hole radius, a: lattice constant) variation around the wavelength range of 1550-1600 nm. We fabricated a Bragg reflector with a photonic crystal line-defect waveguide and Si-channel waveguides and by measuring the transmittance spectrum found that the Bragg reflector caused abrupt dips in transmittance. These experimental results are consistent with the results of the theoretical analysis described above. Utilizing the Bragg reflector, we fabricated channel dropping filters with photonic crystal slabs connected between channel waveguides and demonstrated their transmittance characteristics. They were highly drop efficient, with a flat-top drop-out spectrum at a wavelength of 1.56 µm and a drop bandwidth of 5.8 nm. Results showed that an optical add-drop multiplexer with a 2-D photonic crystal will be available for application in WDM devices for photonic networks and for LSIs in the near future.

This paper examines polarimetric scattering characteristics caused by a dihedral corner reflector of finite size. The dihedral corner reflector is a basic model of double-bounce structure in urban area. The detailed scattering information serves the interpretation of Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (POLSAR) data analysis. The Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method is utilized for the scattering calculation because of its simplicity and flexibility in the target shape modeling. This paper points out that there exists a stable double-bounce squint angle region both for perfect electric conductor (PEC) and dielectric corner reflectors. Beyond this stable squint angular region, the scattering characteristics become completely different from the assumed response. A criterion on the double-bounce scattering is proposed based on the physical optics (PO) approximation. The detailed analyses on the polarimetric index (co-polarization ratio) with respect to squint angle and an experimental result measured in an anechoic chamber are shown.

This letter develops a practical sectorized antenna array using center-fed half-wavelength dipole antennas that are parallel to and a distance in front of a large ground plane reflector. Each element in the array is designed to provide coverage to isolate each 120sector from adjacent sectors. We derive a closed-form expression for spatial correlation function that can be used as guides in evaluating the effects of array spatial correlation on diversity performance in sectorized cellular communications.

In a two-microphone approach, interchannel differences in time (ICTD) and interchannel differences in sound level (ICLD) have generally been used for sound source localization. But those cues are not effective for vertical localization in the median plane (direct front). For that purpose, spectral cues based on features of head-related transfer functions (HRTF) have been investigated, but they are not robust enough against signal variations and environmental noise. In this paper, we use a "profile" as a cue while using a combination of reflectors specially designed for vertical localization. The observed sound is converted into a profile containing information about reflections as well as ICTD and ICLD data. The observed profile is decomposed into signal and noise by using template profiles associated with sound source locations. The template minimizing the residual of the decomposition gives the estimated sound source location. Experiments show this method can correctly provide a rough estimate of the vertical location even in a noisy environment.

The paper overviews and surveys Japan's reflector antennas for earth stations and radio telescopes since the 1960's. Some interferometers for radio astronomy are included. Japanese original technologies regarding reflector antenna design and measurement are also described. There are 35 figures and 3 tables.

Antennas for Japanese terrestrial microwave relay links have been developed since the1950's and put into commercial use up to now in Japan. In particular, the path-length lens antennas developed in 1953 represents a monumental achievement for terrestrial microwave relay links, and the offset antenna for 256 QAM radio relay links developed in 1989 has the best electrical performance in the world. This paper reviews the antennas for Japanese terrestrial microwave relay links that have historical significance and describes the antenna design technologies developed in Japan.

This paper describes a historical review of satellite onboard reflector antenna systems in Japan.

We design a four-reflector offset antenna satisfying the cross-polarization elimination condition and the broadband characteristics condition which consists of one primary horn, three subreflectors and one main reflector. The cross-polarization elimination condition for the four-reflector offset antennas is expressed by the equations of hyperbolas with the coordinate axes of the reciprocal of equivalent focal lengths. The configurations of the reflector system are derived simply from the graphical representation because four-reflector offset antennas satisfying these relationships exist on the hyperbolas with the coordinate axes of the reciprocal of equivalent focal lengths. Furthermore, we clarified that the derived condition for having planar phase front applying the broadband characteristics condition is independent of frequency. An actual design example for the four-reflector offset antennas satisfying the cross-polarization elimination condition and the condition for having planar phase front, both of which are independent of frequency is shown. The design method using the graphical representation is simpler than that of the tri-reflector offset antennas.

The vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) is becoming a key device in high-speed optical local-area networks (LANs) and even wide-area networks (WANs). This device is also enabling ultra parallel data transfer in equipment and computer systems. In this paper, we will review its physics and the progress of technology covering the spectral band from infrared to ultraviolet by featuring materials, fabrication technology, and performances such as threshold, output power, polarization, modulation and reliability. Lastly, we will touch on its future prospects.

This paper describes the recent progress made in developing wavelength tunable semiconductor light sources for WDM applications. Wide and quasi-continuous wavelength tunings were investigated for a wavelength-selectable laser and a wavelength tunable distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser having a super structure grating (SSG). A wavelength-selectable laser consisting of a DFB laser array, a multi-mode interferometer (MMI), and a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) demonstrated a quasi-continuous tuning range of 46.9 nm by using temperature control. A wavelength-tunable DBR laser with SSG exhibited a quasi-continuous tuning range of 62.4 nm by using three tuning current controls. Wavelength stabilization was also demonstrated under the temperature variations of 5.

The optical structure of a conventional backlight illumination system used for transmissive LCD of a mobile terminal is investigated. A structured LGP based on the total internal reflection is designed and fabricated. The LGP is characterized by optical micro-deflectors (MD) and micro-reflectors (MR). The guided light inside the LGP is reflected on the MR elements and directed toward the MD elements. The coming light ray is refracted on the MD element and as a result the ray is deflected on the LGP. The emergent light on the LGP has a wide zenith angle due to the LGP surface normal. A prism sheet whose function is based on the total internal reflection is set on the LGP. The emanated light from the LGP is reflected on the surface of the prism structure and redirected toward the surface normal. The illumination cone of the novel backlight is limited to horizontal range of 17 degrees and vertical range of 11 degrees. The illumination cone on the novel structure can be shaped by optical designs of the MD and MR elements. The peak brightness on the novel backlight structure is 1.44 times that of the conventional one. In this backlight structure, only one TIR prism sheet is used and a thickness reduction of about 250 µm is achieved.

Electric beam scanning reflector antennas provide beam scanning and pattern control, and can create narrow beams efficiently. However, they are not popular because the beam control circuit is large and difficult to realize. This paper proposes a new BFN configuration for cluster feeding of highly functional scanning antenna. The Enhanced PAttern Control nonswiTch (EPACT) BFN simplifies the beam control circuit and its control algorithm by using a fast Fourier transform (FFT) circuit, phase shifters, and a power divider. Furthermore, this paper proposes a design technique that uses modules to implement the FFT circuit and a method that optimizes amplifier placement to improve antenna efficiency. The design technique facilitates the manufacture of large-scale FFT circuits. The optimized amplifier location improves the antenna efficiency by eliminating the partial concentration of signal power.