Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

The increasing demand for broadband millimeter-wave systems for military and commercial applications has raised many challenges in several fields, particularly in radio engineering. One of these challenges is the design and characterization of antennas at mm-wave frequencies. For this purpose, various designs have been proposed, such as microstrip patches, CPW antennas, or slot antennas. However, these types of antennas, which fulfill the requirements in the microwave bands, do not offer sufficient performance in the mm-wave bands in terms of radiation efficiency. This is due to very high conductor losses arising from immense current densities at the strip edges, especially in the feeding networks. As an alternative to these designs, we have proposed several research projects that aim to design new advanced mm-wave antennas. In these projects, design and experimental characterization are the two most crucial steps for achieving high-performance. To achieve this, numerical analyses based on electromagnetic field simulations have firstly been used. Although numerical analysis provides a good guideline of the design, actual radiation pattern measurements are mandatory for accurately characterizing antenna performance. In this perspective, we propose a mm-wave antenna measurement setup. This measurement system is mainly composed of three parts: an anechoic chamber, a near-field scanner and a mm-wave vector network analyzer. The first two items are already installed and available in our RF laboratory, but the third item is the missing part of our measurement system. Therefore, in this proposal, we request a mm-wave vector network analyzer to cover a frequency range up to 67 GHz. The requested instrument will strengthen the equipment already available in our RF laboratory at INRS. The objectives of the present application are, (i) developing and testing new efficient mm-wave high-gain and broadband antennas for future mm-wave wireless communications systems, consistently with the specific needs of the high-technology Canadian industry, and (ii) train highly qualified personnel to respond to the scientific and technological challenges of our society.