Passive and active reconfigurable antenna design

The aim of this course is to provide students with an introduction to the design fundamentals of reconfigurable antennas and to show them some examples of current research developments.

• Course description
• Course programme
• Lecturers
• General information
• Flyer
• Registration fee
• Venue
• Accomodation
• Lectures

 
Organized by:

• European School of Antennas (Peter Hall)
• School of Advanced Professional Studies (Hermann Schumacher)
• Flexwin consortium (Luigi Boccia)
  
  

Official Website:
www.antennasvce.org/Community/Education/Courses?id_folder=414

Course Description

• Introduction
  Drivers to the need for reconfigurable antennas: Software defined radio; Cognitive radio; Other needs including defence and space applications; Types of Reconfigurable antennas: Frequency reconfiguration: Pattern and polarisation reconfiguration
• Practical Reconfigurable Antennas
  Using reconfigurable antennas in Cognitive radio applications; Combining Photonics and RF to produce more versatile reconfigurable systems; Reducing complexity of reconfigurable systems and increase reliability for harsh environments using graph theory; Using machine learning on FPGAs to produce self-adaptive reconfigurable antennas in cognitive radio; Detecting of Failures in Switch Reconfigurable Antenna Arrays; Embedding Reconfigurable Filters in antennas
• Introduction to Components and Analysis for Reconfigurable Antennas
  Introduction to components; Performance parameters for components; Microwave circuit and antenna analysis; System level behavioural models; Balanced to unbalanced converter technology; Active antennas
• Types of Reconfiguration Devices and Technology
  Semiconductors; MEMS; Integration of devices into antennas (including surface mount, LTCC; DC bias and other considerations
• Design Examples
  Examples of arrays with MEMS and/or MMIC reconfigurability: functional description
• MMIC introduction and design flow
  MMIC in antenna applications: system aspects and technology context; Introduction to MMIC, design process and strategies for re-configurability
• System integration
  Interconnects and assembling issues; Packaging and thermal management
• Semiconductor technologies and devices
  Semiconductor technologies; Reconfigurable Si-Ge MMIC design; MMIC building blocks, including active and passive blocks and on-chip re-configurability
• MMIC design
  MMIC simulation; Design examples; Layout generation

Lecturers

• Prof. Peter Hall (University of Birmingham, UK)
• Prof. Christos Christodoulou (University of New Mexico, USA)
• Dr. Peter Gardner (University of Birmingham, UK)
• Prof. Hermann Schumacher (University of Ulm, Germany)
• Prof. Wolfgang Menzel (University of Ulm, Germany)
• Prof. Giandomenico Amendola (University of Calabria, Italy)
• Prof. Bernd Tillack (IHP Microelectronics, Germany)
• Dr. Mehmet Kaynak (IHP Microelectronics, Germany)
• Dr. Tatyana Purtova (University of Ulm, Germany)
• Dr. Luigi Boccia (University of Calabria, Italy)

General information

Schedule:
25hrs of teaching - 2hrs of laboratory - 5hrs of personal exercises

Prerequisites:
Antenna basic theory- Familiarity with RF Systems - Microwave Circuits - RFIC

Availability:
20 students Credits: 2 ECTS for attendance and exercises

Course location:
University of Ulm, Albert-Einstein-Allee 45

Registration fee

• Non-profit institution : € 450*
• Profit institution: € 1.150*
• Grants will be offered to 4 students (see: Application for a grant)

      *€ 10 discount for IEEE, IET and EuMA members