Miniaturization of Ultra-wideband Antennas
Zhi Ning Chen
Institute for Infocomm Research
1 Fusionopolis Way, #21-01 Connexis, Singapore 138632
About the Talk: Ultra-wideband (UWB) has become the promising wireless technology in commercial applications such as next-generation short-range high-data-rate wireless communications, high resolution imaging, and high accuracy radar. The antenna is one of key designs in UWB wireless systems. This talk starts with a brief introduction of design challenges of UWB antennas, followed by state-of-the-art solutions. Then, the miniaturization technologies of UWB antennas are mainly addressed. The planar designs are highlighted due to their unique merits and wide adoption in practical applications. First, the newly developed technique to achieve the ground plane independent UWB antenna performance, one of the most challenging issues in small antenna design, is addressed. A design example is used to elaborate the mechanism of the method. Based on this concept, the antenna with further reduced size is designed to fit wireless USB dongles. Furthermore, an innovative compact diversity UWB antenna shows the advantage of ground-independence of small antenna in diversity applications. Last, the UWB antennas co-designed with filtering performance by using bandpass/bandstop filters integrated into the antenna is proposed to reduce the overall size of devices and enhance antenna performance. In the end, the trend of UWB antenna R&D is discussed according to applications and market demands with latest updated applications.
Dr Zhi Ning Chen received his BEng, MEng, PhD and DoE degrees all in Electrical Engineering from Institute of Communications Engineering (ICE), China and University of Tsukuba, Japan, respectively. During 1988-1995, he worked at ICE as Teaching Assistant, Lecturer and Associate Professor as well as Southeast University, China as Postdoctoral Fellow and later Associate Professor. During 1995-1997, he joined in City University of Hong Kong, China as Research Assistant and later Research Fellow. In 1997, he was awarded JSPS Fellowship to conduct his research at University of Tsukuba, Japan. In 2001 and 2004, he visited University of Tsukuba under JSPS Fellowship Program (senior level). In 2004, he worked at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, USA as Academic Visitor. Since 1999, he has worked with Institute for Infocomm Research (formerly known as Center for Wireless Communications and Institute for Communication Research) as Member of Technical Staff (MTS), Principal MTS, Senior Scientist, and Lead Scientist. He is currently appointed as Principal Scientist and Department Head for RF & Optical and concurrently Adjunct/Guest Professors at Southeast University, Nanjing University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tongji University and National University of Singapore.
Dr Chen has organized many international technical events as general chairs, technical program committee chairs, and key members of organizing committees. He is the founder of International Workshop on Antenna Technology (iWAT). He has published 270 journal and conference papers as well as authored and edited books entitled Broadband Planar Antennas, UWB Wireless Communication, Antennas for Portable Devices, and Antennas for Base Station in Wireless Communications. He also contributed to the books of UWB Antennas and Propagation for Communications, Radar, and Imaging as well as Antenna Engineering Handbook. He is holding 25 granted and filed patents with 15 licensed deals with industry. He is the recipient of the CST University Publication Award 2008, IEEE AP-S Honorable Mention Student Paper Contest 2008, IES Prestigious Engineering Achievement Award 2006, I2R Quarterly Best Paper Award 2004, and IEEE iWAT 2005 Best Poster Award.
His current research interest includes applied electromagnetics, antennas for applications of microwave, mmW, submmW, and THz in communication and imaging systems.
