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Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Applications of Metamaterials

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A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2021) | Viewed by 46237

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Prof. Dr. Ernesto Limiti

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Department of Electronic Engineering, University of Roma Tor Vergata, 00133 Roma, Italy
Interests: active and passive microwave and millimeter-wave devices; antennas and wave propagations; electromagnetic systems; MMIC passive components; amplifiers; nonlinear microwave circuits
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Mohammad Alibakhshikenari

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Department of Electronic Engineering, University of Roma Tor Vergata, 00133 Roma, Italy
Interests: antennas and wave-propagations; array antennas; metamaterials and metasurfaces; synthetic aperture radars (SAR); multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems; waveguide slotted antenna arrays; substrate integrated waveguides (SIWs); antenna impedance matching networks; filters; on-chip antennas; microwave; millimeter-waves and terahertz applications; terahertz integrated circuits; and electromagnetic compatibilities
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Metamaterials are artificial structures that can be designed to exhibit specific electromagnetic properties not commonly found in nature. Metamaterials with simultaneously negative permittivity (ε) and permeability (µ) have received substantial attention in the scientific and engineering communities. Science magazine even named metamaterials as one of the top ten scientific breakthroughs (since 2003). The main relevant characteristic of metamaterial transmission lines is the fact that they allow further controllability of the main line parameters, that is, the phase constant (or phase shift of the line) and the characteristic impedance, as compared to conventional transmission lines. Such superior control ability on the line parameters opens the door to the design of Millimeter-wave and Terahertz components featured by compact size, high performance, and/or exhibiting novel functionalities. Indeed, the analogy between metamaterial transmission lines and effective media metamaterials is the controllability of their properties beyond those achievable with their conventional counterparts. The unique properties of metamaterials have allowed novel applications, concepts, and devices to be developed. In this special issue, the fundamental electromagnetic properties of metamaterials and the physical realization of these materials are reviewed based on a general transmission line (TL) approach. The general TL approach provides insight into the physical phenomena of metamaterials and provides an efficient design tool for metamaterials applications. In addition, novel Millimeter-wave and Terahertz devices based on metamaterials and their applications are presented.

Prof. Dr. Ernesto Limiti
Dr. Mohammad Alibakhshikenari
Guest Editors

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Keywords

Metamaterials
Transmission lines (TL)
Composite right/left-handed Transmission Lines (CRLH-TLs)
Left-handed (LH) materials
Millimeter-wave applications
Terahertz applications
Antennas and propagation
Leaky-wave antennas
Filters
Couplers
Communication systems
Substrate integrated waveguides (SIWs)
Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems
Electromagnetic Band-Gap (EBG) structures
Power Amplifiers
Millimeter-Wave Sources and Detectors
Terahertz Sources and Detectors

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 61454 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Design of an Integrated Sub-6 GHz and mmWave MIMO Antenna for 5G Handheld Devices

by Hassan Khalid, Wahaj Abbas Awan, Musa Hussain, Adeela Fatima, Mudassir Ali, Niamat Hussain, Salahuddin Khan, Mohammad Alibakhshikenari and Ernesto Limiti

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(18), 8331; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11188331 - 08 Sep 2021

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 4356

Abstract

The reported work demonstrates the design and realization of an integrated mid-band (sub-6 GHz) and mmWave multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) antenna for 5G handheld devices. The proposed prototype consists of the two-port MIMO configuration of the mid-band antenna placed at the top and bottom of the substrate, while the 4-port mmWave MIMO antenna is placed sideways. The MIMO configuration at the top and bottom consists of a two-element array to achieve high gain at the mid-band spectrum, while the antennas placed sideways are optimized to cover the 5G-mmWave band spectrum. The overall dimensions of the board were selected the same as the of smartphones, i.e., 151 mm × 72 mm. The mid-band antenna has an operational bandwidth of 2.73 GHz, whereas the mmWave antenna has an impedance bandwidth of 3.85 GHz with a peak gain of 5.29 and 8.57 dBi, respectively. Furthermore, the design is analyzed for the various MIMO performance parameters; it was found that the proposed antennas offer high performance in terms of envelop correlation coefficient (ECC), diversity gain (DG), mean effective gain (MEG) and channel capacity loss (CCL) within operational range. A fabricated prototype was tested and measured results show strong agreement with predicted results. Moreover, the proposed work is compared with state-of-the-art work for the same applications to demonstrate its potential for targeted application. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Applications of Metamaterials)

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14 pages, 2610 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Design and Realization of a Frequency Reconfigurable Multimode Antenna for ISM, 5G-Sub-6-GHz, and S-Band Applications

by Adnan Ghaffar, Xue Jun Li, Wahaj Abbas Awan, Syeda Iffat Naqvi, Niamat Hussain, Boon-Chong Seet, Mohammad Alibakhshikenari, Francisco Falcone and Ernesto Limiti

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(4), 1635; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11041635 - 11 Feb 2021

Cited by 32 | Viewed by 3129

Abstract

This paper presents the design and realization of a compact size multimode frequency reconfigurable antenna. The antenna consists of a triangular-shaped monopole radiator, originally inspired from a rectangular monopole antenna. Slots were utilized to notch the desired frequency while the PIN diodes were utilized to achieve frequency reconfigurability. The antenna can operate in wideband, dual-band, or tri-band mode depending upon the state of the diodes. To validate the simulation results, a prototype was fabricated, and various performance parameters were measured and compared with simulated results. The strong agreement between simulated and measured results along with superior performance as compared to existing works in the literature makes the proposed antenna a strong candidate for ISM, 5G-sub-6 GHz, and S-band applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Applications of Metamaterials)

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21 pages, 15376 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Metamaterial Based Design of Compact UWB/MIMO Monopoles Antenna with Characteristic Mode Analysis

by Adamu Halilu Jabire, Adnan Ghaffar, Xue Jun Li, Anas Abdu, Sani Saminu, Mohammad Alibakhshikenari, Francisco Falcone and Ernesto Limiti

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(4), 1542; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11041542 - 08 Feb 2021

Cited by 28 | Viewed by 3317

Abstract

In this article, a novel metamaterial inspired UWB/multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna is presented. The proposed antenna consists of a circular metallic part which formed the patch and a partial ground plane. Metamaterial structure is loaded at the top side of the patches for bandwidth improvement and mutual coupling reduction. The proposed antenna provides UWB mode of operation from 2.6–12 GHz. The characteristic mode theory is applied to examine each physical mode of the antenna aperture and access its many physical parameters without exciting the antenna. Mode 2 was the dominant mode among the three modes used. Considering the almost inevitable presence of mutual coupling effects within compact multiport antennas, we developed an additional decoupling technique in the form of perturbed stubs, which leads to a mutual coupling reduction of less than 20 dB. Finally, different performance parameters of the system, such as envelope correlation coefficient (ECC), channel capacity loss (CCL), diversity gain, total active reflection coefficient (TARC), mean effective gain (MEG), surface current, and radiation pattern, are presented. A prototype antenna is fabricated and measured for validation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Applications of Metamaterials)

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13 pages, 1027 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Gap Waveguide-Based Compact Rectangular Waveguide to a Packaged Microstrip Inline Transition

by José M. Pérez-Escudero, Alicia E. Torres-García, Ramón Gonzalo and Iñigo Ederra

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(14), 4979; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10144979 - 20 Jul 2020

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3749

Abstract

In this paper two different simple to design and easy to manufacturing transitions from a microstrip to rectangular waveguide based on ridge and groove gap waveguides are studied. The first one is based on a combination of a groove and ridge gap waveguide. In this case, the microstrip substrate occupies the whole bottom metallic housing block, namely, the transition and the gap between the bed of nails and the lid; therefore, it does not require any substrate shaping. Nevertheless, the transition needs to replace groove waveguide by ridge gap waveguide sections to avoid higher-order mode excitation. In the second approach, based on only a groove gap waveguide, the substrate is shaped to be only in the microstrip section, that is, outside the bed of nails area. This leads to a simplification of the design procedure. Prototypes of both transitions have been characterized, showing good agreement with the simulations taking into account the manufacturing tolerances. Performance comparable to the state-of-the-art in this frequency band has been achieved. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Applications of Metamaterials)

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13 pages, 1053 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Optimal Planning for the Development of Power System in Respect to Distributed Generations Based on the Binary Dragonfly Algorithm

by Mohammad Hossein Kakueinejad, Azim Heydari, Mostafa Askari and Farshid Keynia

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(14), 4795; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10144795 - 13 Jul 2020

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 1734

Abstract

With the increasing number of population and the rising demand for electricity, providing safe and secure energy to consumers is getting more and more important. Adding dispersed products to the distribution network is one of the key factors in achieving this goal. However, factors such as the amount of investment and the return on the investment on one side, and the power grid conditions, such as loss rates, voltage profiles, reliability, and maintenance costs, on the other hand, make it more vital to provide optimal annual planning methods concerning network development. Accordingly, in this paper, a multilevel method is presented for optimal network power expansion planning based on the binary dragonfly optimization algorithm, taking into account the distributed generation. The proposed objective function involves the minimization of the cost of investment, operation, repair, and the cost of reliability for the development of the network. The effectiveness of the proposed model to solve the multiyear network expansion planning problem is illustrated by applying them on the 33-bus distribution network and comparing the acquired results with the results of other solution methods such as GA, PSO, and TS. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Applications of Metamaterials)

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9 pages, 586 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Characterization of Optically-Reconfigurable Metasurfaces by a Free Space Microwave Bistatic Technique

by Houssemeddine Krraoui, Charlotte Tripon-Canseliet, Ivan Maksimovic, Stefan Varault, Gregoire Pillet, Stefano Maci and Jean Chazelas

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(12), 4353; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10124353 - 25 Jun 2020

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1638

Abstract

Microwave performance extraction of optically-controlled squared frequency-selective surface (FSS) structures printed on highly resistive (HR) silicon substrate are presented, from a innovative bistatic microwave photonic characterization technique operating in the 40 to 60 GHz frequency range, commonly used for radar cross section (RCS) measurements. According to typical physical photon absorption phenomenon occurring in photoconductive materials, these structures demonstrate experimentally a bandpass filtering frequency response cancellation through reflection coefficient measurements, under specific incident collective illumination in the Near-infrared region (NIR). This behaviour is attributed to their microwave surface impedance modification accordingly to the incident optical power, allowing ultrafast reconfigurability of such devices by optics Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Applications of Metamaterials)

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12 pages, 1615 KiB

Open AccessArticle

S-Band Class-C-F Power Amplifier with 2nd Harmonic Control at the Input

by Xiaoxiao Li, Paolo Colantonio, Franco Giannini, Hongxi Yu and Chenchen Lin

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(1), 259; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10010259 - 29 Dec 2019

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3032

Abstract

Power amplifiers (PAs) are the most power-consuming devices in a transmitter. Their performance in efficiency is crucial to the efficiency of the whole system. Therefore, the issue of high efficiency PA has remained hot over the years. This paper presents an approach to design an S-band single stage class-F PA biased in class-C condition. Through the manipulation of the 2nd harmonic at the input, shaping the voltage waveform at the gate node, a class-F PA with proper output matching network (OMN) is realized. The proposed class-C-F PA achieved 60% drain efficiency (DE) and 36.3 dBm of output power around the 3 dB compression point. The methodology of taking the input non-linearity into consideration is also presented. Its feasibility has been verified through both the design and measurements. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Applications of Metamaterials)

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13 pages, 2316 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

High Performance Asymmetric Coupled Line Balun at Sub-THz Frequency

by Abdul Ali, Jongwon Yun, Herman Jalli Ng, Dietmar Kissinger, Franco Giannini and Paolo Colantonio

Appl. Sci. 2019, 9(9), 1907; https://doi.org/10.3390/app9091907 - 09 May 2019

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 6175

Abstract

In this paper, we report a high-performance balun with characteristics suitable for future broadband sub-THz differential circuits. The idea of the balun is based on three asymmetric coupled lines, which enhance the odd mode capacitances to equalize the even/odd mode phase velocities. The [...] Read more.

λ

/2), while the outer lines form short stubs (

λ

/4). To further reduce the phase imbalance, the short stubs in one of the arms of the balun are connected with vias and a lower metal layer. The balun is developed using the standard 130-nm SiGe BiCMOSback-end process and EM simulated with ADS momentum and Sonnet. The −10-dB reflection coefficient (S

_{11}

) bandwidth of the balun is 136 GHz (88–224 GHz). It shows insertion loss (including RF pads) <1.5 dB, phase imbalance <7 degrees, and amplitude imbalance <1 dB at 94–177 GHz. Furthermore, a scaled-down version of the balun operates on the WR-6, WR-5, and WR-4 frequency bands without significant degradation in its performance. Such characteristics of the balun make it an ideal candidate for various broadband differential circuits. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Applications of Metamaterials)

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8 pages, 1615 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Theoretical Investigation of a Simple Design of Triple-Band Terahertz Metamaterial Absorber for High-Q Sensing

by Tao Chen, Runyu Zhao and Ben-Xin Wang

Appl. Sci. 2019, 9(7), 1410; https://doi.org/10.3390/app9071410 - 03 Apr 2019

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3041

Abstract

This paper presents a simple metamaterial design to achieve the triple-band near-perfect absorption response that can be used in the area of sensor application. The introduced absorber consists of an array of Au strip and a bulk flat Au film separated by an insulator dielectric layer. Three narrow-band resonance absorption peaks are obtained by superposing three different modes (a fundamental mode resonance and two high-order responses) of the Au strip. These resonance modes (in particular of the last two modes) have large sensitivity to the changes of the surrounding index, overlayer thickness and the refractive index of the overlayer. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Applications of Metamaterials)

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14 pages, 7279 KiB

Open AccessArticle

MM-Wave Phased Array Quasi-Yagi Antenna for the Upcoming 5G Cellular Communications

by Naser Ojaroudi Parchin, Mohammad Alibakhshikenari, Haleh Jahanbakhsh Basherlou, Raed A. Abd-Alhameed, Jonathan Rodriguez and Ernesto Limiti

Appl. Sci. 2019, 9(5), 978; https://doi.org/10.3390/app9050978 - 08 Mar 2019

Cited by 62 | Viewed by 6809

Abstract

The focus of this manuscript was to propose a new phased array antenna design for the fifth generation (5G) mobile platforms. Eight elements of compact Quasi-Yagi antennas were placed on the top portion of smartphone printed circuits board (PCB) to form a beam-steerable phased array design. The −10 dB impedance-bandwidth of proposed 5G smartphone antenna spans from 25 GHz to 27 GHz providing 2 GHz bandwidth with less than −16 dB mutual coupling function. A coax-to-microstripline with a truncated crown of vias around the coaxial cable was used as a feeding mechanism for each radiation element. An Arlon Ad 350 substance with properties of ε = 3.5, δ = 0.003, and h = 0.8 mm was chosen as the antenna substrate. The proposed phased array antenna provides wide-angle scanning of 0°~75° with more than 10 dB realized gain levels. For the scanning angle of 0°~60°, the antenna array provides more than 90% (−0.5 dB) radiation and total efficiencies. In addition, the specific absorption rate (SAR) function and radiation performance of the design in the presence of the user-hand/user-hand have been studied. The results validate the feasibility of the proposed design for use in the 5G handheld devices. Furthermore, using the presented Quasi-Yagi elements, the radiation properties of 2 × 2, 4 × 4, and 8 × 8 planar arrays were studied and more than 8.3, 13.5, and 19.3 dBi directivities have been achieved for the designed planar arrays. The results show that the designed arrays (linear & planar) satisfy the general requirements for use in 5G platforms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Applications of Metamaterials)

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14 pages, 2615 KiB

Open AccessArticle

New Empirical Path Loss Model for 28 GHz and 38 GHz Millimeter Wave in Indoor Urban under Various Conditions

by Zyad Nossire, Navarun Gupta, Laiali Almazaydeh and Xingguo Xiong

Appl. Sci. 2018, 8(11), 2122; https://doi.org/10.3390/app8112122 - 01 Nov 2018

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 6774

Abstract

Due to rapid development in mobile communication technology in recent years, the demand for high quality and high capacity networks with thorough coverage has become a major necessity. Several models have been developed for predicting wireless signal coverage in urban areas, but these models suffer from inadequately calculating certain conditions, such as weather and building materials, especially window size. In this paper, we propose a new path loss prediction model based on the measurement of new indicators, such as window size, temperature, and humidity conditions, after which an extensive statistical analysis using a linear regression technique was implemented in order to validate the new indicators. As the new indicators were incorporated into the Okumura model to derive a new path loss model, the results showed that the proposed model provides an accurate prediction of the received signal strength in a given propagation environment. Our model enhanced the prediction of path loss by 10% when compared to the Okumura and by 15% when compared to the COST-Hata. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Applications of Metamaterials)

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