A Compact Mu-Near-Zero Metamaterial Integrated Wideband High-Gain MIMO Antenna for 5G New Radio Applications.

This article demonstrates a compact wideband four-port multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna system integrated with a wideband metamaterial (MM) to reach high gain for sub-6 GHz new radio (NR) 5G communication. The four antennas of the proposed MIMO system are orthogonally positioned to the adjacent antennas with a short interelement edge-to-edge distance (0.19λmin at 3.25 GHz), confirming compact size and wideband characteristics 55.2% (3.25-5.6 GHz). Each MIMO system component consists of a fractal slotted unique patch with a transmission feed line and a metal post-encased defected ground structure (DGS). The designed MIMO system is realized on a low-cost FR-4 printed material with a miniature size of 0.65λmin × 0.65λmin × 0.02λmin. A 6 × 6 array of double U-shaped resonator-based unique mu-near-zero (MNZ) wideband metamaterial reflector (MMR) is employed below the MIMO antenna with a 0.14λmin air gap, improving the gain by 2.8 dBi and manipulating the MIMO beam direction by 60°. The designed petite MIMO system with a MM reflector proposes a high peak gain of 7.1 dBi in comparison to recent relevant antennas with high isolation of 35 dB in the n77/n78/n79 bands. In addition, the proposed wideband MMR improves the MIMO diversity and radiation characteristics with an average total efficiency of 68% over the desired bands. The stated MIMO antenna system has an outstanding envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) of <0.045, a greater diversity gain (DG) of near 10 dB (>9.96 dB), a low channel capacity loss (CCL) of <0.35 b/s/Hz and excellent multiplexing efficiency (ME) of higher than -1.4 dB. The proposed MIMO concept is confirmed by fabricating and testing the developed MIMO structure. In contrast to the recent relevant works, the proposed antenna is compact in size, while maintaining high gain and wideband characteristics, with strong MIMO performance. Thus, the proposed concept could be a potential approach to the 5G MIMO antenna system.

Broadband Plasmonic Metamaterial Optical Absorber for the Visible to Near-Infrared Region.

An oblique angle and polarization insensitive metamaterial absorber (MA) are highly desired for the visible and infrared optical applications like, wave energy harvesting, optical filters, and detecting thermal leaks and electrical defects. In this paper, a multi-layered MA consisting of two layers of tungsten resonators on a silicon dioxide substrate, coated with additional SiO2 materials is investigated. The unit cell size of the MA is 0.5λ × 0.5λ × 0.8λ, at the lowest wavelength. The proposed MA offers an average absorption of 92% from 400 nm to 2400 nm with stable oblique incident angles up to 45°. The structure also achieves polarization insensitivity at the entire visible and near-infrared spectrum. Moreover, the MA is found highly compatible for solar absorber applications with high y AAM1.5. The structure is also compatible for filter application in optical communication system by modifying the plasmonic nano structure. The modified structure can block the wavelengths of the visible band (450 nm to 800 nm) and transmit optical communication bands (800 to 1675 nm). These versatile absorption and filtering performance make the proposed design highly potential for solar energy harvesting, photodetection, thermal imaging, photo-trapping, and optical communications applications.

A 32-Bit Single Quadrant Angle-Controlled Chipless Tag for Radio Frequency Identification Applications.

A 32-bit chipless RFID tag operating in the 4.5-10.9 GHz band is presented in this paper. The tag has a unique multiple-arc-type shape consisting of closely packed 0.2 mm wide arcs of different radii and lengths. The specific tag geometry provides multiple resonances in frequency domain of an RCS plot. A frequency domain coding technique has also been proposed to encode the tag's RCS signature into a 32-bit digital identification code. The tag has an overall dimension of 17.9 × 17.9 mm2, resulting in a high code density of 9.98 bits/cm2 and spectral efficiency of 5 bits/GHz. The proposed tag is built on a low loss substrate bearing a very small footprint, thereby making it extremely suitable for large-scale product identification purposes in future chipless RFID tag systems.

Flexible, Fully Printable, and Inexpensive Paper-Based Chipless Arabic Alphabet-Based RFID Tags.

This work presents the design and analysis of newly developed reconfigurable, flexible, inexpensive, optically-controlled, and fully printable chipless Arabic alphabet-based radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. The etching of the metallic copper tag strip is performed on a flexible simple thin paper substrate (ϵr = 2.31) backed by a metallic ground plane. The analysis of investigated tags is performed in CST MWS in the frequency range of 1-12 GHz for the determination of the unique signature resonance characteristics of each tag in terms of its back-scattered horizontal and vertical mono-static radar cross section (RCS). The analysis reflects that each tag has its own unique electromagnetic signature (EMS) due to the changing current distribution of metallic resonator. This EMS of each tag could be used for the robust detection and recognition of all realized 28 Arabic alphabet tags. The study also discusses, for the first time, the effect of the change in font type and size of realized tags on their EMS. The robustness and reliability of the obtained EMS of letter tags is confirmed by comparing the RCS results for selective letter tags using FDTD and MoM numerical methods, which shows very good agreement. The proposed tags could be used for smart internet of things (IoT) and product marketing applications.

Numerical Analysis of MIM-Based Log-Spiral Rectennas for Efficient Infrared Energy Harvesting.

This work presents the design and analysis of a metal-insulator-metal (MIM)-based optical log spiral rectenna for efficient energy harvesting at 28.3 THz. To maximize the benefits of the enhanced field of the proposed nano-antenna in the rectification process, the proposed design considers the antenna arms (Au) as the electrodes of the rectifying diode and the insulator is placed between the electrode terminals for the compact design of the horizontal MIM rectenna. The rectifier insulator, Al2O3, was inserted at the hotspot located in the gap between the antennas. A detailed analysis of the effect of different symmetric and asymmetric MIM-configurations (Au-Al2O3-Ag, Au-Al2O3-Al, Au-Al2O3-Cr, Au-Al2O3-Cu, and Au-Al2O3-Ti) was conducted. The results of the study suggested that the asymmetric configuration of Au-Al2O3-Ag provides optimal results. The proposed design benefits from the captured E-field intensity, I-V, resistivity, and responsivity and results in a rectenna that performs efficiently.

A Planar Ultrawideband Patch Antenna Array for Microwave Breast Tumor Detection.

In this paper, a compact planar ultrawideband (UWB) antenna and an antenna array setup for microwave breast imaging are presented. The proposed antenna is constructed with a slotted semicircular-shaped patch and partial trapezoidal ground. It is compact in dimension: 0.30λ × 0.31λ × 0.011λ, where λ is the wavelength of the lowest operating frequency. For design purposes, several parameters are assumed and optimized to achieve better performance. The prototype is applied in the breast imaging scheme over the UWB frequency range 3.10-10.60 GHz. However, the antenna achieves an operating bandwidth of 8.70 GHz (2.30-11.00 GHz) for the reflection coefficient under-10 dB with decent impedance matching, 5.80 dBi of maximum gain with steady radiation pattern. The antenna provides a fidelity factor (FF) of 82% and 81% for face-to-face and side-by-side setups, respectively, which specifies the directionality and minor variation of the received pulses. The antenna is fabricated and measured to evaluate the antenna characteristics. A 16-antenna array-based configuration is considered to measure the backscattering signal of the breast phantom where one antenna acts as transmitter, and 15 of them receive the scattered signals. The data is taken in both the configuration of the phantom with and without the tumor inside. Later, the Iteratively Corrected Delay and Sum (IC-DAS) image reconstructed algorithm was used to identify the tumor in the breast phantom. Finally, the reconstructed images from the analysis and processing of the backscattering signal by the algorithm are illustrated to verify the imaging performance.

Robust Detection for Chipless RFID Tags Based on Compact Printable Alphabets.

This work presents a novel technique for designing chipless radio frequency identification (RFID) tags which, unlike the traditional tags with complex geometries, are both compact and printable. The tags themselves are alphabets, which offers the advantage of efficient visual recognition of the transmitted data in real-time via radio frequency (RF) waves. In this study, the alphabets (e.g., a, b and c) are realized by using copper etching on a thin dielectric substrate (TLX-8) backed by a ground plane. It is shown that the original signature of the frequency response of the backscattered radar cross-section (RCS) of the letter, displays dips that are unique to the individual letters. The tags have been simulated, fabricated and their monostatic cross-sections have been measured by using a dual-polarized Vivaldi antenna in the frequency band ranging from 6 to 13 GHz. The study also includes, for the first time, a detailed analysis of the impact of changing the shape of the tag owing to variation in the font type, size, spacing, and orientation. The proposed letters of the alphabet are easily printable on the tag and provide an efficient way to visually recognized them and, hence, to detect them in a robust way, even with a low coding density of 2.63 bit/cm2. The advantages of the proposed novel identification method, i.e., utilization of the both co- and cross-polar RCS characteristics for the printable clipless RFID tags are the enhancement of the coding density, security and better detection of the alphabet tags with different fonts by capturing the tag characteristics with better signal to noise ratio (SNR). Good agreement has been achieved between the measured and simulated results for both co- and cross-polarized cases.