Dielectric Resonator Antennas (DRA) for satellite and body area network applications Muhammad Faiz Alam To cite this version: Muhammad Faiz Alam. Dielectric Resonator Antennas (DRA) for satellite and body area network applications. Other. Université Paris-Est, 2012. English. ￿NNT: 2012PEST1057￿. ￿tel-00795292￿ HAL Id: tel-00795292 https://theses.hal.science/tel-00795292 Submitted on 27 Feb 2013 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. UNIVERSITE PARIS-EST Ecole Doctorale MSTIC THESIS Submitted for the partial requirement of Doctor of Philosophy Specialization: Electronics, Optronics and Systems Presented by Alam Muhammad Faiz Dielectric Resonator Antennas (DRA) for Satellite and Body Area Network Applications Etude et réalisation d’antennes diélectriques pour les applications satellitaires et corps (BAN). Thesis directed by Jean-Marc Laheurte Reviewers: Ala SHARAIHA Professor of Université de RennesI Olivier PASCAL Professor of Université ToulouseIII Examiners: Odile Picon Professor of Université Paris Est (UPEMLV) Jean-Marc Laheurte Professor of Université Paris Est (UPEMLV) Christophe Roblin Assistant Professor of TELECOM Paris Tech Benoit Pousssot Assistant Professor of Université Paris Est (UPEMLV) Dedicated to: Taha & Saira Acknowledgements I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my thesis director Jean Marc Laheurte, whose highly professional suggestions and rigorous guidance helped me a lot to succeed in my research work. Whenever I got stuck up in the complexities, far sighted and result oriented proposals always encouraged me to go deep into the issues to seek rationally all possible options before concluding the results. My estranged results and oddity based analysis were immediately corrected while core issues were directed to focus upon. This strategy and resourcefulness boosted my potential to perceive, evaluate and overcome timely the imminent errors encapsulated within every stage of research. I am really grateful to Madame Odile Picon, directress of Esycom for her support to smoothly go through all procedural and administrative tasks and to provide me a peaceful, friendly and competitive research environment. I am deeply indebted to Benoit Poussot and Thierry Alves for their ever readiness to suggest me novel and invaluable practicable tips so as to evaluate multi-faceted problems in simplest ways. It helped me to refine and optimize the final results. Their active and extensive involvement in patronizing me to handle sophisticated electronic instruments to be employed in antenna measurements and to test their capabilities in real application environment kept me abreast of the innovating technical knowledge. Obviously that will remain an asset for me throughout my professional carrier. Equally important is the contribution made by professors Marjorie Grzeskowiak, Elodie Richalot and Laurent Cirio to whom I have sought on and off their expert opinions related to my project. I deeply acknowledge their candid approach to pinpoint flaws and deficiencies in my work and to propose me how to opt different strategies to obtain the desired results. Their encouragement and sharing of ideas made me learn some additional tools to analyze and verify the final results. My senior colleagues and friends in Esycom such as Hakim Takhedmit, Ottara Berenger , Muhamad Nasserddin, Mame Diarra, Fatiha Elhatmi, Walid Haboubi and Rafael Quiroz significantly contributed in boosting my moral and keeping me always at high spirit. Research team at Esycom is incomplete without the mention of device fabrication experts Stephane PROTAT and David DELCROIX whose esteemed opinion made me to anticipate the possible constraints meted out to design structures and to devise an alternative strategy to avoid the wastage of time and manufacturing cost. I really appreciate their precious efforts to keep laboratory environment up-to-date both in terms of equipments and measurement facilities. I am thankful in advance to my reviewers and examiners for their valuable evaluation of the work and future guide line in the field of research. Finally I deeply appreciate the collaboration between Government of Pakistan (HEC) and Government of France to financially support the students to pursuit their PhD studies in this highly competitive and learning environment. Alam Muhammad Faiz July 2, 2012. i i i Abstract Technologies such as direct broad cast satellite system (DBSS), Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications , global positioning system (GPS), high accuracy airborne navigation system and a large variety of radar systems demand for high level of antenna performance. Similar is the requirement for upcoming land based wireless systems such as cellular and indoor communication systems that is needed some more specific and additional features added to the antenna to compensate for the deficiencies encountered in system’s performance. Though metallic antennas are capable enough to fulfil all the operational requirements, however at very high frequencies and under hostile temperature conditions they are constrained to face certain limitations. To avoid these constraints the performance of Dielectric Resonator Antennas (DRAs) is evaluated and their new applications are proposed. In the thesis, two types of antenna applications are sought: - First is for tracking and satellite applications that needs a larger aperture coverage in elevation plane. This coverage is realized with a good CP purity by proposing two ports dual linearly polarized DRA working at X-band. The DRA is excited by two orthogonal H-shaped aperture slots yielding two orthogonal polarizations in the broadside direction. A common impedance bandwidth of 5.9% and input port isolation of -35 dB are obtained. The broadside radiation patterns are found to be highly symmetric and stable with cross polarization levels -15dB or better over the entire matching frequency band. The maximum measured gain is found to be 2.5dBi at 8.4 GHz. - The 2nd type of antenna is a dual pattern diversity antenna to be used in the Body Area Network (BAN) context. This antenna combines a slot loop and DRA yielding broadside and end-fire radiation patterns respectively. Based upon the feeding techniques, the DG antenna is further divided into two categories one with planar feeds and the other with non-planar feeds (slot loop excited by planar CPW but DRA excited by vertical monopole) .Both types are successfully designed and measured upon body when configured into different propagation scenarios. The non-planar feeds antenna allows wider common impedance bandwidths than the planar feeds (4.95% vs 1.5%) . In both cases, a maximum value of DG=9.5dB was achieved when diversity performance tests were carried out in rich fading environments. This value is close to the one (10 dB) theoretically reached in a pure Rayleigh environment and was obtained with efficiencies of 70% and 85% for the slot loop and the DRA respectively. Therefore, we conclude that these antennas could be used on the shoulders or the chest of professional clothes (firemen, policemen, soldier) where full planar integration is not a key issue but where the communication must be efficient in harsh environments and for various gestures, positions and scenarios. Key Words: DRA, H-shaped aperture slots, Symmetric radiation patterns, Slot loop, Diversity Gain (DG), Body Area Network (BAN). ii i iv Résumé Que l’on considère les domaines des télécommunications, de la navigation ou de la localisation, un niveau élevé de performances de l'antenne permet de relâcher l’effort sur les niveaux de sensibilité des récepteurs ou les performances en linéarité et en gain des émetteurs. Il est donc utile de poursuivre des recherches sur de nouveaux types d’antennes en particulier pour les applications émergentes. Aux fréquences élevées et dans des conditions de température hostiles, les antennes à résonateur diélectrique (DRA) sont par exemple plus adaptées que les antennes métalliques. . Les antennes DRA, de par leur nature volumique, ont également la capacité de s’intégrer à des antennes métalliques 2D avec un couplage réduit. Dans la thèse, deux types d'applications de l’antenne DRA correspondant à ces 2 propriétés sont recherchés - la réalisation d’un élément rayonnant pour un réseau phasé embarqué sur un véhicule terrestre ou un avion. Cet élément de base requiert une couverture en élévation supérieure à celle des éléments imprimés pour permettre une poursuite typique de – 70°. Cette couverture dans un cône large est assurée avec une bonne pureté de polarisation circulaire en utilisant deux ouvertures à fente en H orthogonales parfaitement découplées en bande X. La bande passante commune en impédance pour les 2 ports est de 5.9% avec une isolation de -35 dB. Les diagrammes de type “broadside” sont très symétriques avec des niveaux de polarisation croisée inférieurs à -15dB sur toute la bande. Le niveau maximum de gain est 2.5dBi à 8.4 GHz. - La deuxième structure est destinée à la diversité d’antennes dans le contexte des réseaux corporels ou Body Area Network. L’antenne à diversité combine une antenne fente en boucle avec un DRA ce qui permet dans un espace compact de réaliser des diagrammes de type “broadside” et “endfire” respectivement. Les alimentations considérées sont de 2 types; Soit purement planaire (microruban et coplanaire) soit mixte en combinant une alimentation coaxiale et une alimentation coplanaire. Les antennes réalisées sont testées avec succès sur le corps pour différents types de scenarii. Lorsque les alimentations mélangent une alimentation coaxiale et une alimentation coplanaire, on obtient une bande passante en impédance commune supérieure au cas où les 2 ports sont planaires (4.95% vs 1.5%). Dans les deux cas, un gain en diversité de 9.5 dB est mesuré pour un milieu riche en multi-trajets. Cette valeur est proche du maximum théorique (10 dB) obtenu dans un canal de Rayleigh. On conclut donc que ces antennes compactes et peu sensibles à la présence du corps peuvent trouver leur place dans des vêtements professionnels (type pompier, pêcheur, etc…) où l’intégration n’est pas un élément clé mais où l’influence du milieu et la variété des mouvements et scénarii ne doivent pas empêcher un bon fonctionnement de l’antenne. Mots clés: DRA, ouverture en H, diagrammes de rayonnement symétriques, boucle fente, gain de diversité (DG), Body Area Network (BAN). v