Summary
International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation
2010
Session Number:4FA3
Session:
Number:4FA3-5
Investigative Study On The Development Of A Green UWB Antenna
T. Peter, R. Nilavalan, Hattan F. AbuTarboush, S. W. Cheung, Y.F. Weng,
pp.-
Publication Date:2010/11/23
Online ISSN:2188-5079
Summary:
With the growing popularity of wireless, there is also an increasing need to make and keep it greener through more efficient power usage. A recent green technology approach in the cellular industry is to reduce or virtually eliminate the amount of power absorbed by the mobile handset user and to redirect that power towards an improvement in power transmitted to the base station [1]. However, in UWB wireless applications such an approach would not make significant impact as the user’s body is not in direct contact with the devices unless designed as a wearable antenna. For UWB applications, a major hurdle is the inverse relationship of the data rate to range or transmission distance constrained by the FCC’s power limitation of -41.3dBm for the frequency band of 3.1GHz to 10.6 GHz. The green technology approach in UWB applications thus would be improving the transmission range, or maintaining the range and improving the data rate for the same power allowed by the commission. The power level in this case not being considered a point for argument as it is deemed to be really low compared to other applications in the wireless applications. However, with recent approvals to go beyond these bands to higher frequency bands in the millimetre wave region of 60Ghz and subsequently, up to 79Ghz, could necessitate the need to consider the power aspect as the maximum power level approved has been increased accordingly [2]. The green aspect could then really come into play if the power usage also can be lowered and still achieve a desired range or data rate or both. In this paper, an investigate study to design an antenna design that can save the personal area network (PAN), wide personal area network (WPAN) and the wireless industry in general, power usage through improved efficiency and using 25% to 50% less power is explored. The proposed semi-planar UWB microstrip antenna design aims to achieve this by attempting to improve the gain by 3dB or 6dB more than its planar version of the same size in the horizontal plane thus effectively reducing its power requirement by half or by quarter respectively. The antenna design if successful can be used in the 3.1 to 10.6 GHz frequency band in a reciprocate manner by keeping the power level constant and extending the coverage or range of transmission, or maintaining the range and reducing the power required, or a combination of both whereby reducing the power level by 50% instead of by 25% and extending its transmission correspondingly thus achieving an optimum both ways. These can be achieved through controllers in the devices that incorporate this antenna design. The design concept can be extended to narrowband applications thus making the semi-planar microstrip design universal or portable and as a result widening its applications possibly to the cellular industry. In such scenarios, the antenna is expected to demonstrate higher transmission power to a base station compared to the existing antenna of the cellular device. The resultant benefits of the improved output power could be many such as improved battery life, improved range and improved efficiency.