Investigation of Several Novel Radio-Frequency Techniques - Biologically Inspired Direction Finding, 3D Printed RF Components and Systems, and Fundamental Aspects of Antenna Matching

Abstract

This dissertation presents the investigation of biologically inspired direction finding (DF) and localization systems, 3D printing solution for RF components and systems, and fundamental aspects of antennas regarding bandwidth and power efficiency. Biologically inspired direction finding and localization systems are explored first. Inspired by the human binaural auditory system, an improved direction of arrival (DoA) estimation technique using two antennas with a lossy scatterer in between them to achieve additional magnitude cues is proposed. By exploiting the incident-angle- dependent magnitude and phase differences between the two antennas with specially designed scatterer, the DoA of an incident signal from two-dimensional (2-D) / three- dimensional (3-D) space can be estimated. Besides, compact DF systems with enhanced directional sensitivity using a scatterer of high permittivity in between adjacent closely spaced electrically-small antennas are examined. Inspired by the human monaural auditory system, a novel single-antenna DF technique is also proposed by exploiting the incident-angle-dependent spectra for a broadband RF signal only. In addition, a wideband superior DF system utilizing Luneburg lens and uniformly placed detectors on the equator of the lens is evaluated. The DoA is estimated using the amplitude distribution of the received signals at the detectors. Moreover, A portable inventory localization system utilizing hybrid RF (for direction, using previously introduced DF techniques) and ultrasound (for distance) signals is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Next, a multilayer phased array system is designed and individual parts are printed to demonstrate the applicability of hybrid thermal wire-mesh embedding (for conductors) and thermoplastic extrusion (for dielectrics) techniques for additively manufacturing RF17integrated systems. Finally, fundamental aspects of antennas in terms of bandwidth limit for reactive matching and power efficiency for non-Foster matching are analyzed.