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Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
1
Satellite and Reflector Plasma Antennas
Antenna Systems 2014
Dr. Ted Anderson, CEO
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
518-409-1010
tedanderson@haleakala-research.com
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
2
Haleakala R&D, Inc News
• Scientific American February 2008 issue on our plasma antenna technology. Page 22.
• Popular Mechanics article in July 2010 by David Hambling. Page 18.
• http://www.aps.org/meetings/unit/dpp/vpr2007/upload/anderson.pdf
• http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22113395/from/ET/
• http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/1114/1
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
3
Plasma Antenna book by Dr. Ted Anderson
• http://www.artechhouse.com/Plasma-Antennas/b/2130.aspx
• http://www.amazon.com/Plasma-Antennas-Theodore-Anderson/dp/160807143X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313592208&sr=1-1
• http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/plasma-antennas-theodore-anderson/1100484810?ean=9781608071432&itm=2&usri=plasma%2bantennas#CustomerReviews
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
4
Plasma Antenna book by Dr. Ted Anderson Plasma Antennas
Theodore Anderson, Haleakala Research and Development, Inc.
ISBN 978-1-60807-143-2Copyright 2011
ISBN 978-1-60807-143-2
Copyright 2011
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
5
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Peer Reviewed
Journal Articles Published
• Alexeff, I , Anderson, T., Experimental and Theoretical Results with Plasma Antennas, IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Vol. 34, No.2, April 2006 and Anderson, T., Alexeff, I.,
• Anderson, T., Alexeff, I , Plasma Frequency Selective Surfaces, IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Vol. 35, no. 2, p. 407, April 2007
• Alexeff, I , Anderson, T., Recent Results of Plasma Antennas, Physics of Plasmas, 15, 057104(2008)
• We have two more journal articles being processed for publication on our smart plasma antenna windowing and another on the lower thermal noise in plasma antennas
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
6
Summary of Key Points
• Core technical competencies & expertise of Haleakala R&D, Inc. – Applications for military and civilian antennas.
• Reconfigurable plasma antennas
• Reconfigurable plasma frequency selective surfaces
• Reconfigurable waveguides.
• Manufacturing & facility capabilities – Facilities to build plasma antenna, plasma FSS, and
plasma waveguides.
– Facilities to perform supporting experiments and computer modeling.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
7
Physics of Reflection and Transmission
of Electromagnetic Waves through
Plasma
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
8
Transmission and Reflection Properties The Concept of Cut-off and Filtering using Plasma Antennas
• The plasma frequency is proportional to the density of unbound electrons in the plasma or the amount of ionization in the plasma. The plasma frequency sometimes referred to a cutoff frequency is defined as:
where is the density of unbound electrons, e is the charge on the
electron, and me is the mass of an electron
• If the incident EM frequency on the plasma is greater than the plasma frequency
the EM radiation passes through the plasma and the plasma is transparent.
me
ene
p
24
p
en
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
9
Transmission and Reflection Properties The Concept of Cut-off and Filtering using Plasma Antennas
When
the plasma acts as a metal, and transmits and receives
microwave radiation.
Note, the incident frequency in the next slide is given as:
p
2
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
10
Transmission and Reflection Properties
• We can surround our plasma antenna by a ring of plasma tubes that act as a reflector. – If the plasma frequency in this ring is lower than that of the
received signal, the signal passes on to the plasma antenna.
– However, only those frequencies that are lower than the plasma frequency in the plasma antenna will be received.
– All higher frequencies pass through both the ring of plasma tubes and the plasma antenna without interacting.
– Mathematically, we can state that
– where the received signal is between the plasma frequency of the ring and the plasma frequency of the enclosed antenna.
– Since both the plasma frequency of the ring and the plasma frequency of the antenna can be reconfigured in milliseconds, the receiving notch can be moved about as desired
antennasignalring pp
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
11
Satellite Plasma Antennas
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
12
Plasma Antenna Advantages over Metal
Antennas as Satellite Antennas
• Plasma antennas have much less thermal noise than metal antennas at satellite frequencies. – Plasma antennas have higher data rates than corresponding
metal antennas at satellite frequencies
• Plasma antennas are reconfigurable and metal antennas are not.
• An arrangement of plasma antennas can be flat and effectively parabolic. – Better for antenna aesthetics.
• An arrangement of plasma antennas can electronically focus and steer RF signals without phased arrays. – Applications for both static (e.g. Direct TV) and dish antennas
attached to vehicles, ships, or aircraft.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
13
Non-Steerable but Reconfigurable
Plasma Reflector Antenna
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
14
Plasma Reflector Antenna:
Right – plasma reflector antenna installed in an electrical anechoic chamber
Left - metal reflector antenna designed to be an identical twin to the plasma antenna
The microwaves are generated by a line antenna, focused in one dimension
by the metal pillbox, and focused in the second dimension by either the plasma antenna or a metal twin
Metal Reflector Antenna
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
15
Corresponding Plasma
Reflector Antenna
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
16
Comparison of Plasma and Metal Reflector Antennas
• With this apparatus, stealth, reconfigurability, and protection from
electronic warfare is demonstrated.
• Reflected patterns were measured for conventional reflector
antenna and a plasma tube reflector for performance comparison.
• In these experiments, the antenna configurations were designed as
an offset fed, cylindrical parabolic reflector.
• The plate spacing of the feed parallel plates was chosen to allow the
resulting horizontal polarization (i.e. the electric field is parallel to the
long dimension of the reflector).
• The frequency of operation for the test was selected to be 3.0 GHz,
which is well within the bandwidth of the WR-284 waveguide being
used in the design.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
17
Comparison of Plasma and Metal Reflector Antennas
• The plasma configuration consisted of simply replacing
the solid reflector surface with a plasma tube
configuration having the same nominal shape and
dimensions.
• The plasma reflector is comprised of 17 fluorescent light
tubes. The tube spacing was chosen to provide efficient
operation at 3.0 GHz.
• The tubes were arranged to conform to the same
cylindrical parabolic shape as the baseline solid reflector.
• The tubes were supported by two vertically shaped
Plexiglass supports that were drilled with holes to slide
the tubes through.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
18
Comparison of Plasma and Metal Reflector Antennas
• The plasma tubes were fired in a pulse mode.
• Antenna patterns were measured at 3.0 GHz.
• Sample antenna patterns for the reference solid reflector and for the
Proof-of-Principle plasma reflector are plotted together.
• As seen in the figure, the patterns are a very good match between
the Proof-of-Principle plasma antenna and those of the reference
solid conventional antenna.
• The plots also show the received signal from the plasma antenna
when the tubes are not energized.
• It is seen that received signal has dropped by approximately –20 dB
in milliseconds. This signal level is primarily due to reflections from
the plasma containers and the electrodes. This level could easily be
reduced to below the –30 dB level with proper design attention.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
19
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
20
Non-Steerable but Reconfigurable Plasma Reflector Antenna Radiation Pattern – Previous Slide
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
21
Reduced sidelobe levels for
plasma antenna
Rel
ativ
e P
ow
er
(dB
) Azimuthal Radiation Pattern
Non-Steerable but Reconfigurable Plasma Reflector Antenna. Reduced sidelobes
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
22
Conclusions on Non-Steerable but Reconfigurable Plasma Reflector Antenna
• The main lobe plasma reflector antenna is identical to the main lobe of the corresponding metal reflector antenna.
• When the plasma antenna is turned off it is invisible to all RF frequencies.
• The plasma reflector antenna can operate at lower frequencies and be stealth at high frequencies.
– higher frequency RF waves will pass through a lower density plasma.
• The side lobes of the plasma reflector antenna are less than the side lobes of the corresponding metal reflector antenna.
– Soft surface effects of plasma
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
23 .
An Electronically Steerable
and Focusing Plasma Reflector
Antenna
New Work on Plasma Reflector
Antennas
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
24
Some Physics of Plasma
Transparency and Reflection • The plasma frequency is proportional to the density of unbound electrons in the
plasma or the amount of ionization in the plasma. The plasma frequency sometimes referred to a cutoff frequency is defined as:
where is the density of unbound electrons, e is the charge on the
electron, and me is the mass of an electron
• If the incident RF frequency on the plasma is greater than the plasma frequency
the EM radiation passes through the plasma and the plasma is transparent.
• When the opposite is true, plasma acts as a metal, and transmits and receives microwave radiation.
me
ene
p
24
en
p
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
25
An Electronically Steerable and
Focusing Plasma Reflector Antenna
• A plasma layer can reflect microwaves.
• A plane surface of plasma can steer and focus a microwave beam on a time scale of milliseconds.
• Definition of cutoff: the displacement current and the electron current cancel when electromagnetic waves impinge on a plasma surface. The electromagnetic waves are cutoff from penetrating the plasma
• The basic observation is that a layer of plasma beyond microwave cutoff reflects: – microwaves with a phase shift that depends on plasma density.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
26
An Electronically Steerable and
Focusing Plasma Reflector Antenna
• Exactly at cutoff, the displacement current and the electron current cancel
• Therefore there is a antinode at the plasma surface, and the electric field reflects in phase.
• As the plasma density increases from cutoff the reflected field increasingly reflects out of phase.
• Hence the reflected electromagnetic wave is phase shifted depending on the plasma density.
– This is similar to the effects of phased array antennas with electronic steering except that the phase shifting and hence steering and focusing comes from varying the density of the plasma from one tube to the next and phase shifters used in phased array technology is not involved.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
27
An Electronically Steerable and
Focusing Plasma Reflector Antenna
• This allows us to use a layer of plasma tubes to reflect
microwaves.
• By varying the plasma density in each tube, the phase of
the reflected signal from each tube can be altered.
– so the reflected signal can be steered and focused in
analogy to what occurs in a phased array antenna.
• The steering and focusing of the mirror can occur on a
time scale of milliseconds.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
28
Plasma Tubes
Input Microwaves
Reflected and Focused Microwaves
Schematic for an Electronically Steerable and Focusing
Plasma Reflector Antenna
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
29
Plasma satellite
(other
frequencies
apply) antenna
can be flush
with a wall,
roof, or any
static or
moving surface
which can be
flat or curved.
They can also
be mounted in
other ways
Banks of tubes containing
plasma
displaced and perpendicular to
each other
On the left a band of tubes containing plasma reflects EM
waves and steers and focuses the beam in one direction. On the right
a perpendicular bank of tubes containing plasma reflects and
steers and focuses the EM waves in the perpendicular direction. A horn antenna in the lower right transmits
or receives the EM waves. The banks of tubes containing plasma
can be flush with a surface or supported in other ways
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
30
Steering and Focusing when the
Plasma Density is Below Cutoff.
• Steering and focusing can also be achieved when the Plasma Density is below cutoff.
• An effective Snells Law causes refraction of electromagnetic waves passing through a plasma of variable density ( plasma density varying from container to container containing plasma )
• The speed of electromagnetic waves in a plasma is a function of plasma density.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
31
Steering and Focusing when the
Plasma Density is Below Cutoff.
Focused and/or steered Microwaves
Incident RF waves on the left impinge on plasma tubes with different densities but with the plasma densities below cutoff. Focusing or steering can be achieved depending on how the plasma densities are varied from tube to tube.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
32
Basic Plasma Satellite (works at other frequencies) Antenna
Design with Two Banks of Perpendicular Plasma Tubes for
Steering and/or focusing in Two Dimensions. This system can apply to both a moving or static surface and steer and/or
focus satellite signals by varying the plasma density among the plasma tubes
with computer control in space and/or time.
Plasma satellite
( works at other
frequencies)
antenna is
mounted between
the received or
transmitted
antenna signals in
which the two
banks of tubes
with plasma with
variable density
from one tube to
the next to steer
and focus the
antenna beam.
Receiving or Transmitting Plasma
or Metal Horn Antenna Carrying
Signal to TV, etc. This system eliminates the parabolic dish.
Tubes can be within a wavelength apart. Such
a wavelength corresponds to the transmitted
or received frequency.
This system can be completely encapsulated
in Synfoam of an aesthetical shape.
Plasma in tubes into the page steer
and/or focus satellite signals in the
z direction. Plasma in tubes parallel to the
page steer and/or focus satellite signals
azimuthally.
One dimensional ( with one bank of tubes)
steering and/or focusing may be enough for
the static satellite plasma antenna.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
33
Conclusions • An electronically steerable and focusing plasma reflector antenna
can be made by having plasma densities in the tubes above cutoff but with the plasma densities varying from tube to tube.
• An electronically steerable and focusing bank of plasma tubes can be made by having plasma densities in the tubes below cutoff but with the plasma densities varying from tube to tube.
• Electronic steering and focusing in either of the above cases can be made in two dimensions by having two perpendicular banks of tubes.
– This can also steer and focus horizontal, vertical, circular, and elliptically polarized signals.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
34
Conclusions (continued)
• With plasma electronic steering and focusing:
– parabolic reflector antennas are not needed.
– is in many ways a superior alternative to electronic
steering with phased arrays.
• At satellite frequencies the plasma antenna has
much less thermal noise than metal antennas
• The plasma antenna can provide better
performance satellite communications antennas
than metal antennas.
Conclusions (continued)
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
35
• Satellite plasma antennas benefit from the lower thermal noise at the frequencies
they operate.
• Ground based satellite antennas point at space where the thermal noise is about 5
degrees K. A low thermal noise, high data rate satellite plasma antenna system is
possible with low noise plasma feeds and a low noise receiver.
• Satellite plasma antennas can operate in the reflective or refractive mode.
• Satellite plasma antennas need not be parabolic but can be flat or conformal and
effectively parabolic.
• Electromagnetic waves reflecting off of a bank of plasma tubes get phase shifted as
a function of the plasma density in the tube. This becomes an effective phase array
except that the phase shifts are determined by the plasma density.
Conclusions (continued)
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
36
• If the plasma density in the tubes is computer controlled, the
reflected beam can be steered or focused even when the bank of
tubes is flat or conformal.
• In the refractive mode, the refraction of electromagnetic waves
depends upon the density of the plasma.
• In the refractive mode, steering and focusing can be computer
controlled even when the bank of tubes is flat.
• For two dimensional steering and/or focusing, two banks of plasma
tubes are needed.
Conclusions (continued)
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
37
• Feed horns and receivers can be put behind satellite plasma antennas
operating in the refractive mode.
• This eliminates the problem of the blind spot and feed losses caused
by the feed horn and receiver in front of a metal satellite antenna.
• The above phenomena of using a bank of plasma tubes to focus
electromagnetic waves is also known as a convergent plasma lens.
• A convergent plasma lens can focus electromagnetic waves to
decrease beamwidths, increase directivity, and increase antenna
range.
• A divergent plasma lens can also be created. Both convergent and
divergent plasma lenses lead to reconfigurable beamwidths.
Conclusions (continued)
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
38
• Plasma waveguides and co-axial cables can be feeds for plasma
antennas.
• Plasma feeds as well as the plasma antennas have reconfigurable
impedances.
• If the impedance of the plasma antenna is changed, the impedance of the
plasma feeds can be changed to maintain impedance matching.
Conclusions (continued)
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
39
• Plasma antennas have been housed in a synthetic foam called Synfoam.
When this synthetic foam hardens it makes very strong and lightweight
tubes that can be used as plasma tubes to make plasma antennas.
• These rugged tubes can be readily manufactured. Synfoam has been
tested to have an index of refraction close to one and hence very
transparent to electromagnetic waves. Synfoam is very heat resistant.
• The ruggedized smart plasma antenna uses Synfoam to house the
plasma and florescent tubes are not used.
• Gorilla Glass by Corning and Lexan Glass tubes are also options for
housing plasmas.
• Plasma antennas can also be miniaturized and contained in commercially
available cold cathode tubes used for liquid crystal displays.
The Smart Plasma Antenna uses Plasma
Reflector Antennas called Plasma Windows.
• When the plasma window is on, and when the
plasma frequency exceeds the antenna
operating frequency the plasma window is a
plasma reflector antenna to the antenna RF
signals.
• When the plasma window is off or when the
plasma frequency is less than the antenna
operating frequency, the plasma window is
transparent to the antenna RF. signals.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
40
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
41
The Haleakala R&D, Inc.
Commercial Smart Plasma
Antenna Prototype. See the smart plasma antenna on
YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
Hu97bwm-OGU
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
42
External Plasma Blanket Internal Omnidirectional metal or
Plasma Antenna
Low Density Plasma Windows Opened for Transmit or Receive
Tactical Capabilities Plasma Windowing
Concept
A wideband internal antenna
and multiple windows tuned to
different frequencies would
produce a multi-beam, multi-
freq device
HF band
for
example
UHF band for example
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
43
Our Commercial Prototype with Our
Prototype Engineer Jeff Peck
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
44
Features of our Commercial Prototype
• It currently weights about 10 pounds. – Some weight (but not much) will be added when we make
the base rugged and surround the tubes with SynFoam to protect the tubes.
– Future iterations of the prototype can be made smaller.
– But nevertheless it is much smaller and lighter than large phased array antennas, and the performance is in many ways better.
– Even in the prototype stage, our prototype is relatively inexpensive for a steerable smart antenna. Manufacturing would significantly reduce the price.
• It can steer the antenna beam 360 degrees in milliseconds. – Our future prototypes will steer in microseconds using
Fabry-Perot-Etalon Effects.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
45
Features of our Commercial Prototype
• It is intelligent and smart. – It can find and lock on to a transmitter.
– In addition, one plasma window can lock on to a transmitter and a second plasma window can find a second transmitter.
– It can reconfigure from single lobe, to multilobe, to no lobe configurations.
• It can run on a 12 volt car battery.
• It can be mounted on a tank, a humvee, a surface ship, a sub, etc. conveniently. – Other applications: last mile, Wi-Fi, base stations, etc.
• This commercial prototype will be packaged and made rugged by encasing it in SynFoam . – SynFoam is a lightweight, heat resistant, and very strong material.
– SynFoam has an index of refraction of nearly one, making it invisible to RF waves.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
46
Our Commercial Prototype
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
47
Our Commercial Prototype
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
48
Our Commercial Prototype Open plasma window indicator. Orange color represents
magnitude of power transmitted or received through an open
plasma window.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
49
Our Commercial Prototype Open plasma window indicator. Orange color represents
magnitude of power transmitted or received through an open
plasma window.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
50
Ruggedized Smart Plasma
Antenna
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
51
A Meshed High-Speed
Wireless Distribution Network
Using our Smart Plasma Antennas
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
52
Multi-hop meshed wireless distribution
network architecture. Refer to slide 17.
• Smart antennas typically use a multi-element-array antenna, and place the intelligent processing (“smarts”) in the signal processing aspects.
• The antenna hardware itself is a fairly simple structure consisting of omni-directional or directional elements arranged in a particular geometrical configuration.
• Smart plasma antennas may increase the degrees of freedom offered by the antenna hardware itself, so that the signal processing software can leverage it to achieve even more sophisticated capabilities (rejection or leverage of multi-path effects) while lowering overall system cost.
• In particular, consider the multi-hop meshed wireless distribution network architecture in the figure on the previous slide that connects a final-hop smart antenna to a base-station.
• For simplicity a fixed wireless network is depicted in the figure. Lampposts (or equivalent structures) could host a “last-hop” smart plasma antenna and also participate in a relaying function. The “mobile” or “home” user would reach the base-station after traversing several hops in this network.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
53
Multi-hop meshed wireless distribution
network architecture. Refer to slide 17.
• High-speed communication in this model becomes feasible when the home or mobile has a directional antenna and the last-hop has smart antennas with the associated signal processing capabilities.
• This is because of the spectrum reuse, focusing of energy, and multi-path fading rejection that leads to dramatically higher signal-to-noise ratios.
• The additional key is to design such smart antennas at low cost and small form factors.
• Moreover, if the front-end antenna hardware also allows sophisticated and tunable beam-forming capabilities, then it provides new degrees of freedom that can be leveraged by signal-processing systems which control and interface to it.
• In fact, even with current simple multi-element-array antennas at both ends, the Lucent BLAST (Bell Labs Layered Space-Time) system has demonstrated tremendous spectral efficiency of 20 bits/Hz!
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
54
Multi-hop meshed wireless distribution
network architecture. Refer to slide 17.
• In wireless communications which employ smart antennas, the bases use signal processing techniques to virtually direct the antenna array gain lobes towards the direction of the desired signals, as well as directing the gain nulls towards the direction of interfering signals.
• Since wireless signals experience multipath scattering, the most prominent multipath signals can be used by a RAKE receiver to enhance the signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) and thus improve the quality of the link.
• In such a setting, the base would use a training sequence to determine the direction of the desired multipath signals and direct the lobes of the antenna array towards them.
• The number of lobes which can be directed and the number of nulls depends on the number of antenna elements in the array.
• The beamwidth of each lobe depends on the distance between the elements. A higher number of antenna elements provide a higher number of lobes to capture several multipath, and thus improve the SINR (signal to interference and noise ratio).
• However, the increase in antenna elements also implies a higher computational cost, since the dimension of the problem increases with the number of antennas.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
55
Figure on left: Smart Plasma Antenna lobes for peak hour service with
many interfering signals or many reflecting surfaces.
Figure on right: Smart Plasma Antenna lobes for low demand period or
few reflecting surfaces.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
56
Reconfigurable Beamwidth and Lobe Number.
Refer to slide 21.
• The beamwidth of the antenna array lobes is chosen so as to minimize the gain towards interfering signals.
• The narrower the beamwidth, the more isolation is provided for the desired signal.
• However, we have another trade-off, since a narrow beamwidth requires longer training signals to secure the direction of the desired signal.
• An unreliable estimate of the desired signal direction with a narrow beam may result in severe attenuation of the desired signal, which defeats the purpose of the antenna array.
•
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
57
Reconfigurable Beamwidth and Lobe Number.
Refer to slide 21
• A smart plasma antenna can be developed that allows new degrees of freedom, and simulate the gains (distance, bandwidth, efficiency etc) achievable using outdoor fading and propagation models and advanced signal processing capabilities (e.g.: MIMO processing (Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output)).
• The challenge is to choose an array configuration, which provides adequate SINR, levels, while requiring a low computational cost. The utility of this arrangement can be seen in the on slide 21.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
58
Smart Plasma Antenna as a Base
Station Antenna
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
59
Adaptive Directionality of Smart Plasma Antennas.
Refer to slide 24
• The adaptive directionality of the smart plasma antennas provides a plethora of advantages.
• The directivity of each smart plasma antenna beam minimizes the power levels broadcast which might interfere with adjacent users. In this sense, it provides a form of SDMA.
• The directivity of the smart plasma antenna also reduces the power levels that could be detected by unfriendly agents.
• The adaptive nature of the smart plasma antenna allows the beam to follow the user with a minimum of computation required, as well as to alter the beamwidth depending if the user is in an area of high user density or requiring greater stealth, where the beam can be made very narrow, or if the user is relatively isolated moving at a great speed, where the beam can be made wider.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
60
Adaptive Directionality of Smart Plasma Antennas.
Refer to slide 24
• In order to further reduce the transmission power levels, thus conserving battery power and concealing the position of the users and nodes, a low spreading gain code can be applied to each user’s signal.
• The low gain permits us to maintain a high data rate.
• The highly directional property of our smart antenna does not require a high gain for multiple access.
• A low tap Walsh code would be enough to permit very low transmission levels, and good protection for each user.
• In addition, automatic power control can be implemented to decrease the collective power transmission of the entire network.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
61
Adaptive Directionality of Smart Plasma Antennas.
Refer to slide 24
• In a civilian setting, where goals are to provide low cost and flexibility, we can use the directivity of a smart antenna as a form of implementing SDMA. The figure on slide 24 shows an example of this.
• In this case, consider the angle of service for each user can be estimated by a pair of omni-directional antennas placed on the same tower.
• This setup allows the array of smart antennas to provide uninterrupted service to users without having to estimate the direction of service.
• The adaptive beamwidth can be adjusted to accommodate users who are in close proximity, providing protection from interference for each user.
• The variable number of beams from our smart antenna allows the base to service a variable number of users at diverse locations.
• This eliminates the need for a technician to install additional antennas or make changes when new users initiate service or when other users terminate service.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
62
Our Smart Plasma Antennas on
Humvees
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
63
Adaptive Directionality of Smart Plasma
Antennas. Refer to slide 28.
• In a mobile setting, as in where our goals are to provide as much flexibility, mobility, stealth, and protection from jamming as possible, we tailor our design to meet these needs.
• We consider a wireless ad hoc network, where there are several nodes deployed which provide as a network backbone. An example are the humvees in slide 28.
• Each humvee is equipped with an array of plasma antennas, where each of our smart antennas can create a variable number of antenna gain lobes of adaptive beamwidth and direction.
• Each soldier has a low power omni-directional antenna which is served by the humvee which can offer the best signal to noise ratio and has the capacity to serve that user.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
64
Adaptive Directionality of Smart Plasma
Antennas. Refer to slide 28.
• The signal to noise ratio levels and directions of service can be determined by performing a 360° sweep by each of our smart antennas. In order to distinguish between users of a given sector, as well as lower power usage, a user spreading code can be applied to users of each sector.
• This setup provides mobility, since the periodic scanning performed by smart antennas allows all users as well as all ad hoc nodes to move about without loosing the network contact. Each user may be served by any node, which allows for additional flexibility.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
65
GPS aided and GPS free positioning
using plasma antennas.
• Routing methods rely on the position information of nodes of the network.
• In this section we explain how using smart plasma antennas can enhance the GPS aided positioning.
• A method that exploits pattern programmability of smart plasma antennas for GPS free positioning is given.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
66
GPS aided and GPS free positioning
using plasma antennas.
• GPS is a widely used positioning technology that allows few meters accuracy when it is used in the stand alone mode or even millimeter accuracy when it is used in the differential mode.
• To reach such accuracy many sources of position error should be estimated and/or eliminated.
• These sources of error are differential, receiver clock bias, satellite clock bias, ephemeris error, ionospheric delay, tropospheric delay, integer ambiguity (cycles), and multipath error.
• Among all these sources of error multipath is the only source that cannot be estimated and eliminated.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
67
GPS aided and GPS free positioning
using plasma antennas.
• The positioning technique in GPS algorithm is based on triangulation.
• It means that a receiver measures its distance from the four or more satellites and based on these measurement finds its location.
• Any path that is not line of sight does not reflect the true distance between the satellite and GPS receiver.
• To reduce the effect of multipath error, the GPS antennas are designed so that the multipath caused by the sea or ground are attenuated, but these antennas cannot eliminated the multipath caused by other objects such as buildings or hills.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
68
GPS aided and GPS free positioning
using plasma antennas.
• Smart plasma antennas may for the first time provide a practical programmable antenna pattern that can effectively eliminate all unwanted path and therefore, reduce multipath induced error significantly.
• The possibility exists that smart plasma antenna radiation patterns can be programmed so that each satellite in view is assigned a lobe in the pattern.
• To account for mobile receivers and satellite movement, a beam steering algorithm could adaptively point these beams towards the associated satellite.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
69
The figure below shows how smart plasma antennas may be used
to eliminate multipath in GPS aided positioning.
GPS receiver with
omnidirectional
antenna
GPS receiver with
plasma antenna
GPS receiver with
omnidirectional
antenna
GPS receiver with
plasma antenna
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
70
GPS-free positioning
using plasma antennas. • Although the GPS provides acceptable accuracy when four or
more satellites are in view, natural or man-made obstacles can block the satellite signals easily.
• Also the GPS signal is not available for positioning inside buildings.
• Even when a GPS signal is available it is not always possible to use this technology, because the communication unit may not have enough battery life to power up a GPS receiver or simply because it is not economically feasible to have a GPS receiver in the unit.
• For all these reasons GPS-free positioning is an important part of academic research, and an industrial challenge. A GPS-free positioning technique that uses a smart plasma antenna to estimate the Angle of Arrival AoA of the received signal and use that for position estimation.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
71
GPS-free positioning using
plasma antennas. • Since the plasma tube can be activated and deactivated very quickly,
the plasma antenna can be considered as a fast steerable directional antenna. The access point or a mobile node can obtain information about the location of another node by using the following method:
• It first sends a message starting from the first beam. Then it waits for the node in this direction to respond.
• Upon receiving the message, a node responds by sending back an acknowledgement. The first node then stores the beam direction of that node.
• After that or a timeout indicating there is no node residing in this direction, the antenna steers to the next beam, and likewise to cover the whole 360 degree.
• This steering/response method is used to acquire the spatial signature of each user.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
72
GPS-free positioning using
plasma antennas. • The access point or mobile node sequentially steers the beam towards
different directions, so that the entire space is covered. The objective of the localization protocol is to locate all users as fast as possible.
• So far we suppose acknowledgement in each directional beam is contention free.
• We need to consider the situation that there are more than one node in some directions. In this case, some back-off mechanism can be used.
• The same directional beam of first node may have to send the message multiple times to locate all the neighbors.
• The space is successively scanned by a beam until all the direction of neighbors are found and the procedure is repeated for all users equipped with plasma antennas.
• Once the network nodes have the AoA information, they can use it in position estimation. It is assumed that some nodes in the network have their position information before hand.
• These nodes are called anchor nodes. Now using the anchor nodes we explain how the other nodes in the network can locate themselves in the same coordinate system.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
73
GPS-free positioning using
plasma antennas.
In the next figure we assume that node 1 and 2 are the anchor nodes. Using a smart plasma antenna, each node can estimate the angel of arrival alpha for i,j =1,…,6. It is obvious that node 3 can find its position by just measuring the angle of arrival and knowing the position of nodes 1 and 2. Node 4 can use the position of node 3 and 1 and the angle of arrival to estimate its position. This process can be repeated for node 5 and 6 and other nodes if applicable. If nodes are capable of measuring their distance from one another we can use a mean square estimator to incorporate all information with the objective of minimizing the mean square of the error of the position.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
74
GPS-free positioning using
plasma antennas.
2,11
2
1,2
3
3,1
3,2
2,31,3
4
5
6
2,11
2
1,2
33
3,1
3,2
2,31,3
4
5
6
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
75
GPS-free positioning using
plasma antennas.
• One important aspect of the smart plasma antennas is that the antenna pattern is programmable.
• Because we use plasma and not metal the side lobes may be reduced (however more research on sidelobe reduction using plasma antennas is needed),
• and by turning on and off the plasma tubes we can virtually make any complicated pattern on demand.
• This capability in directional antennas is unprecedented.
• In addition to this we can use signal processing algorithms to adaptively change the pattern so that the intended transmitter and the intended receiver can point their corresponding beams at each other to use the highest gain for data transmission.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
76
GPS-free positioning using
plasma antennas. • This adaptive algorithm is specially important when the receiver and
the transmitter are mobile. We call this the Beam/Pattern Tracking Algorithm.
• In the beam/pattern tracking algorithm the signal strength at each active beam is compared with its adjacent (inactive) beams.
• Once the signal strength in the adjacent beam is higher the driver changes the pattern so that the beam with higher signal strength is active.
• Using this algorithm the receiver and the transmitter can point their the antenna beam to multiple receiver/transmitters while tracking their movements.
• This algorithm is specially useful when line-of-sight between the transmitter and the receiver is available and is strong. This is the case for GPS receivers.
• In the GPS receivers we can use smart plasma antennas and the driver for our beam tracking algorithm to remove or significantly attenuate the multipath.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
77
Conclusions on the Commercial
Smart Plasma Antenna Prototype • This is an intelligent, high performance steerable
antenna with: – Compact size
– Light weight
– Stealth and jam resistant
• Rugged packaging has been done
• We have potential manufacturing capability on our commercial prototype with: – Impeccable Instruments, Inc. (CEO, Jeff Peck) in the
Knoxville, TN area.
– Industrial Instruments, Inc. (CEO, Fred Dyer) in the Knoxville, TN area.
• Complete manufacturing can be done in USA.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
78
Our SynFoam Housing for the Plasma Tubes. House the plasma tubes in strong and lightweight synthetic foam called Synfoam which can be
molded into any shape we want. UDC SynFoam is a high performance syntactic foam combining
high strength and low density with very low moisture absorption. SynFoam's syntactic foam
products feature a density of less than 20 pcf and a compressive strength greater than 2000 psi.
The index of diffraction of the Synfoam is nearly one so it is invisible to rf signals. See website:
http://www.udccorp.com/products/synfoamsyntacticfoam.html.
Synfoam Housing for our Plasma Tubes. We have cushioning foam to put
around the tubes in this encapsulation. PLASMA CAN BE HOUSED IN
SYNFOAM WITHOUT TUBES. We can mold Synfoam into any shape we want.
We will make custom made rugged tubes as well.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
79
Future Smart Cell Phone Antenna Application. Directional and Electronically Steerable Plasma Antenna System using a
Cluster of Plasma Antennas in Close Vicinity
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
80
Future Smart Cell Phone Antenna Application. Directional and Electronically Steerable Plasma Antenna System
using a Cluster of Plasma Antennas in Close Vicinity
• A cluster of plasma antennas such that the
diameter of the cluster is much less than a wave
length can fit in a cell phone.
• The steerablity comes from being able to
extinguish the plasma in any given number of
plasma antennas in any time sequence in the
cluster of plasma antennas.
• Once computerized this system becomes a
smart plasma antenna which fits in a cell phone.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
81
Lower Thermal Noise and Higher Data
Rate Plasma Antennas than
Corresponding Metal Antennas
Higher Signal to Noise Ratio and Higher Data Rate
Plasma Antennas over Corresponding Metal
Antennas.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
82
Thermal Noise in A Plasma Antenna Compared To a
Metal Antenna
• The Nyquest Theorem [see reference below] states that the thermal noise generated in a resistor is:
• Equation [1]
K is Boltzmann’s constant, T is the absolute temperature in degrees K
• The misconception is: – Since T is higher in a plasma antenna “obviously” the noise in the plasma
antenna is higher.
• This expression for the Nyquest Theorem is an approximation [ see reference below].
Reference: * Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics, F. Reif, McGraw-Hill, 1965, Section 15. 16, pp 587-589.
kTRRTF
2),(
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
83
Thermal Noise in A Plasma Antenna Compared
To a Metal Antenna
• Rigorous derivation of thermal noise shows that the approximate expression of the Nyquest Theorem becomes:
• Equation [2]
Where is the electron-atom collision frequency and
is the operating antenna frequency
2f
2
2
1
12),,,(
kTRRTH
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
84
Thermal Noise in A Plasma Antenna
Compared To a Metal Antenna
In the limit of very large collision frequency compared to the antenna
operating frequency characteristic of a metal antenna: ,
equation [2] reduces to equation [1] characteristic of thermal noise in a metal:
kTRkTRRTH
2
1
12),,,(
2
2
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
85
Thermal Noise in A Plasma Antenna Compared
To a Metal Antenna
• The thermal noise of a plasma antenna decreases compared to a metal
antenna as the frequency increases because:
– The thermal noise in a metal antenna is higher at higher operating
frequencies because of the thin skin depth and corresponding higher
electrical resistance.
– The thermal noise of the plasma antenna decreases as the operating
frequency increases as seen in the power spectral density of thermal
noise for the plasma antenna:
2
2
1
12),,,(
kTRRTH
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
86
Thermal Noise in A Plasma Antenna
Compared To a Metal Antenna
• Other factors which further lower thermal noise in a plasma antenna:
– Ramsauer -Townsend Effect is an effect in which the cross section of electron –atom scattering is minimal.
– This effect is energy dependent and our plasma antennas operate in the energy region of the Ramsauer-Townsend Effect.
– The Ramsauer – Townsend Effect means that the collision frequency is small and is minimal
– This means even less noise thermal noise in the plasma antenna as equation [2] becomes smaller.
• Operating the plasma antenna in the afterglow state may further reduce thermal noise
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
87
Thermal Noise in A Plasma Antenna
Compared To a Metal Antenna
• With the Ramsauer- Townsend Effect and operation in the afterglow state will broaden the frequency range in which plasma antennas have less thermal noise than metal antennas.
• Thermal noise in a plasma antenna can further be reduced by reducing plasma pressure, plasma temperature, and plasma resistance.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
88
Higher Gain with Plasma Antennas ?
• Lower side lobes in a plasma antenna
– Soft surface effects of plasma
• Lower thermal noise
• Higher data rates for plasma antenna
system pointed in space.
• Plasma lens effects
– Beam focusing with plasma lens
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
89
Physics of Reflection and Transmission
of Electromagnetic Waves through
Plasma
• An electromagnetic wave from an antenna of
frequency is incident on a plasma with a
plasma frequency
• The plasma frequency is proportional to the
square root of the density of unbound electrons
in the plasma or the amount of ionization in the
plasma.
p
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
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90
Physics of Reflection and Transmission
of Electromagnetic Waves through
Plasma
• The plasma frequency is defined as
• ne is the density of unbound electrons, e is the charge on the electron
• me is the mass of an electron
me
ene
p
24
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
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91
Physics of Reflection and Transmission
of Electromagnetic Waves through
Plasma
If the incident antenna frequency on the plasma is much greater than the plasma frequency
Such that
the antenna radiation passes through the plasma un-attenuated
.
p
p
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
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92
Stacked Plasma Antenna Arrays
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93
Stacked Plasma Antenna
Arrays • Metal antenna arrays cannot be stacked
– Metal from one layer blocks radiation of another layer
• Plasma density from higher frequency antenna
arrays is higher than the plasma density from the
lower frequency arrays
• Higher frequency plasma antenna arrays emit
high enough frequencies to propagate through
the lower frequency plasma antenna arrays
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
94
Stacked Plasma Antenna
Arrays • When antenna frequency from the ith plasma
antenna layer exceeds the plasma frequency from the ith +1 layer
• the antenna radiation from the ith layer passes through the ith+1 layer – Antenna radiation from ith+1 plasma antenna array
layer through ith+2 plasma antenna array layer
– Antenna radiation from ith+N-1 plasma antenna array layer passes through ith+N plasma antenna array layer
– This goes on until all the plasma antenna array layers are transmitting independently in free space
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
95
Stacked Plasma Antenna
Arrays • Higher frequency antenna radiation from higher
frequency arrays propagate through lower frequency arrays
• Bandwidths add
• Power adds
• Compactness – Stacked arrays occupy less space than metal arrays
– Stacked arrays have smaller RCS
– Less EMI
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
96
Impedance matching of stacked
plasma antenna arrays
• Each plasma antenna array is tuned to
have a narrow band frequency
– Reduces problem of impedance mismatching
that broad band antennas have
• The bandwidths of each layer of a plasma
antenna array adds
– flexible bandwidth
– reduced impedance mismatching
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
97
Stacked Plasma Antenna
Arrays
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
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98
Advantages of Stacking Plasma
Antenna Arrays
• Plasma antenna arrays stacked produces
greater
– Bandwidths
– Multiband widths
• Turn any number of plasma arrays on or off
– power
• But less
– physical space
• helps reduce antenna farm on surface ships
– RCS
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
99
Nested Plasma Antennas
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100
Nested Plasma Antennas
• Higher frequency nested plasma antennas emit higher frequencies which propagate through lower frequency nested plasma antennas
• Bandwidths add – Large bandwidths Multiband widths
• Turn any number or sequence of nested plasma antennas off or on.
• Power adds
• Nesting antennas means compactness
• Maintains impedance matching – Each nested plasma antenna is narrow band but adds up to wide
band
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
101
Nested Plasma Antennas
• Results
– Antenna that is
• Compact
• Wideband
• Multiband
• High power
• Impedance matched
• Reconfigurable
– Various radiation patterns including isotopic
• Low RCS
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
102
Nested Plasma Antennas Example of Concept: Higher Frequency Dipole Plasma Antenna Nested inside
Lower Frequency Plasma Helical Antenna and Transmission is Simultaneous
with Radiation Patterns, Bandwidths, and Power Adding.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
103
Nested Plasma Antenna: Concept of High Frequency Plasma Antennas
Transmitting And Receiving Through Low Frequency Plasma Antennas
Top View
Side
View
Low frequency
plasma
antenna
Medium frequency
plasma antenna
High frequency
Plasma antenna
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
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104
Nested Plasma Antennas
• Higher frequency plasma antennas are nested
inside lower frequency plasma antennas
• Geometric compatibility
– Higher frequency plasma antennas are smaller
– Lower frequency plasma antennas are larger
– Higher frequency plasma antennas fit inside lower
frequency plasma antennas
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
105
Nested Plasma Antennas with Plasma
Windowing
• Inner antenna is omnidirectional
– Omnidirectional in azimuth direction when mounted on the aircraft
– Use existing broadband COTS antenna such as a COTS biconical
– Higher iterations would use nested plasma antennas
• Surround inner omnidirectional antenna with plasma windows
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
106
External Plasma Blanket Internal Omnidirectional Nested Plasma
Antenna
Low Density Plasma Windows
Opened for Transmit or Receive
Tactical Capabilities Plasma Windowing
Concept with Plasma Antenna Nesting
A wideband internal antenna
and multiple windows tuned to
different frequencies would
produce a multi-beam, multi-
freq device
HF band
for
example
UHF band
For example
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
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107
Target Markets
Smart TV plasma antennas to meet the change over into digital airwaves.
• Dave Wilson, senior director of Consumer Electronics Association, saw our smart plasma antenna prototype work at the Austin antenna conference in September and believes we should have a market in the smart TV antenna market. We have looked at other smart antennas that address this area and we are convinced that ours is superior.
• GE and RCA have put commercial civilian smart antennas on the market recently to address the 2009 changeover to digital airwaves.
• Our smart plasma antenna capabilities are superior in many was to the other smart TV antennas.
• Our smart plasma antenna can steer the antenna beam 360 degrees and the competition cannot. Our smart plasma antenna has a reconfigurable beamwidth . The competition does not. Our smart plasma antenna has higher bandwidth than the bandwidths of the competition.
• We give some information on the smart TV antennas from GE and Audiovox taken from their websites in the competition section below.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
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108
Target Markets
• GE and Audiovox Smart TV Antennas
• See:
http://www.ezdigitaltv.com/GE_Smart_
Digital_Antenna.html
• and
•
http://www.audiovox.com/pressrelease/
AEC/release_AEC_200801075.html
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
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109
Target Markets Smart plasma antennas as RFID readers
• We have determined advantages that the smart plasma antenna can have over other RFID antennas based on smart phased array technology. These advantages that our smart plasma antenna can have over smart phased array antennas for RFID applications are:
• . Our smart plasma antenna has the ability to steer (scan) antenna beams 360 degrees in milliseconds. We are aware of how to do it in microseconds. Competition cannot steer 360 degrees.
• Our smart plasma antenna beam can change direction without scanning in milliseconds. For example: from 0 to 180 degrees in milliseconds
• Reconfigurable beamwidth..
• Broader bandwidth than phased arrays by using broadband omnidirectional antenna in the center such as a biconical antenna. In addition, bandwidth can be reconfigured for use in US , Europe, etc. Competition cannot do this.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
110
Target Markets Smart plasma antennas as RFID readers
• Possible Less costs than phased array RFID antennas. We only need one antenna and we do not need phase shifters. Competition uses phased array RFID readers.
• Our smart plasma antenna is more compact and less cumbersome than phased array RFID antennas.
• Our smart plasma antenna is light weight: weighs about 10 pounds. Competition uses phased array RFID readers which are much heavier and larger.
• Our smart plasma antenna can read vertical horizontal, and circular polarizations by reconfiguration of plasma antennas. Competition cannot do this.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
111
Target Markets
• Superior fixed satellite plasma antenna
• Satellite plasma antennas for RVs and
yachts.
• The current markets for smart antennas for
WIMAX, 4G, Wi-Fi, Blue Tooth.
– West, Kirsten; Principal Analyst, West Technology
Research, “Smart Antenna Technology Review”,
Antenna Systems & Technology, 2008 Resource
Guide, pages 4 and 6.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
112
Target Markets
• Smart plasma antennas to replace omni directional wireless access point antennas in big box stores such as Walmart, CVS, Home Depot, Lowes, Best Buy, etc.
• These stores utilized sometime 6-30 Omni directional wireless access point also known as “AP’s”. The AP’s are extremely inefficient and have a high total cost of ownership with data security standard such as PCI compliance mandating encryption key rotation every 6 months.
• Major tier one retails utilize wireless infrastructure to drive business initiatives such as markdown, inventory, and price lookup. The big box stores such as Walmart, CVS, Home Depot, Lowes, Best Buy etc. utilized sometime 6-30 Omni directional wireless access point also known as “AP’s”. The AP’s are extremely inefficient and have a high total cost of ownership with data security standard such as PCI compliance mandating encryption key rotation every 6 months.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
113
Target Markets
• What if major retailers had another wireless solution besides 6+ Omni directional wireless AP’s? Why wouldn’t they utilize a technology that would drive their TCO lower over time? Why wouldn’t they want to only maintain 1-2 devices at stores?
• The smart plasma antenna could fit the technology needs of this extremely large customer base. By leveraging 1 to 2 plasma antenna’s at larger than 40,000 sq ft buildings plasma antenna technology would reduce cost s for retailers, warehouses, distribution centers, convention centers, arenas, airports, and malls.
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
114
CONCLUSIONS
• Plasma antennas are: – Reconfigurable in:
• Beamwidth
• Bandwidth
• Directivity
– Steerable without phase shifters and/or phased arrays – Resistant to EMI and electronic warfare.
– Lower in side and back lobes
• Soft surface effects of plasma
– Lower in thermal noise than metal antennas
– Stealth
• Plasma antenna arrays can be stacked
• Plasma antennas can be nested
• Plasma antennas have many mobile antenna applications
Haleakala R&D, Inc. Dr. Ted Anderson; 518-409-1010;
www.ionizedgasantennas.com
115
Contact Information
• Website: www.ionizedgasantennas.com
• Address: Haleakala Research and
Development Inc., 7 Martin Road,
Brookfield, MA 01506-1762
• Office phone: 518 409 1010
• Email of CEO, Dr. Ted Anderson:
tedanderson@haleakala-research.com
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