Grant: Idea to Innovation

Mobile hotspots provide omnipresent Internet access through mobile broadband networks and support any Wi-Fi enabled device. This technology allows mobile computing devices, including laptops, smartphones, tablet computers (e.g. iPads), digital cameras, and game consoles to connect to the Internet through high-speed mobile broadband networks, in locations ranging from hotels to cars to homes. The majority of existing Wi-Fi hotspot devices includes one or multiple antennas with omni-directional fixed patterns, such as monopoles with a uniform radiation pattern around the antenna. In most home/small office applications or ad-hoc networks, the number of users at any given time is limited. This means that most of the available power is targeted towards areas where no user is present. This power is not only wasted, but also reflected, and thus contributes to a degradation of the signal-to-noise ratio of the device in the desired path that targets the user. One solution is to use antenna beam (pattern) steering in the hotspot or Wi-Fi modem device in order to maximize the power received by each user at a given time, thereby enhancing link reliability and data transfer rates. This requires directing the radiation pattern of the antenna (forming the beam) towards the optimum path. Directing the radiation pattern of the antenna requires specialized hardware, and provides an opportunity for innovative new technologies to improve upon current standards. In this project, we propose to accelerate precompetitive development of a steerable, dynamic antenna using an electro-mechanical method that consistently adapts its radiation pattern to the optimum beam form. Specifically, we propose the use of a Helically-shaped Electro-Mechanically Reconfigurable Antenna (HEMRA). The proposed concept relies on the use of smart material technologies to control the height, and thus the pitch angle, of such an antenna, by applying an electronic control signal.