Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Publication Date

Fall 12-1-2021

Abstract

Telecommunication has rapidly evolved in the past decades, quickly becoming one of the most expansive industries, especially with the presence of new attractive eras like 5Gnetworks, automotive radars, and CubeSats. The use of miniaturized satellites such as CubeSats for cheaper and wider communication coverage has opened the possibilities for cluster satellite communication. These units exist in a continuously varying environment as much physical as electromagnetic. Hence, the establishment of a successful communication link among the space units but also ground stations becomes challenging. This new situation can be confronted with the installation of new reconfigurable antennas. These are emitting units performing diverse radiating characteristics on demand. In other words, one reconfigurable antenna can take the role of multiple antennas of different properties. This fact also troubleshoots the real estate limitations on CubeSats. Greater benefits for modern wireless systems that outcome from such an antenna type, are the improved spectrum efficiency by enabling more than one operation, the enhanced carrier (signal) power, the reduction of the interference, the mitigation of multipath and Faraday rotation phenomena, and many more. This dissertation aims to provide a series of novel reconfigurable antennas with frequency, pattern-space, and polarization agility. The antennas employ reconfigurable networks for meeting the diversity properties while concluding the system to a single RF port. The antennas are formed by planar structures with a PCB fabrication process to reduce size and cost, but also to ease their assemble on CubeSat units or any device that requires switchable radiating properties.

Keywords

Antennas, Matching Networks, CubeSats, Reconfigurable, Frequency, Pattern, Polarization

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Electrical Engineering

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Electrical and Computer Engineering

First Committee Member (Chair)

Christos Christodoulou

Second Committee Member

Mark Gilmore

Third Committee Member

Joseph Costantine

Fourth Committee Member

Youssef Tawk

Fifth Committee Member

Firas Ayoub

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