Service

Design

The Antenna Group designs a variety of antennas including microstrip, wire antennas, and reflector antennas. The group has several design aids, including both commercial software packages and in-house custom codes. Computing resources include several high-end PCs, and Sun, HP, and SGI workstations administered by the department and college. A few of the design codes the group uses are:

• Printed antennas: FEKO, IE3D, Fidelity, Sonnet, Patch, HFSS, ESP4, MPAC (In-house code)
• Wire antennas: NEC 4, WIRE
• Reflector antennas: GRASP 7, NECREF, PRAC
• Planar arrays: ASIA
• System Analysis: ADS, System View
• Propagation Model: VMPS (in-house Code)

Several codes are available for educational use only (no sponsored use), including CST Microwave Studio, XFDTD, and ADS.

Measurements

The Antenna Group designs and measures a variety of antennas and antenna systems. The Antenna Laboratory has the following measurement capabilities:

• 200 MHz - 40 GHz outdoor antenna range with time domain windowing capability
• 30'x11'x11' anechoic chamber
  • Far-field measurements in taper
  • Near-field - spherical
  • Near-field - cylindrical
  • Near-field - planar
• Network analysis from 100 kHz to 40 GHz
• Spectrum analysis through 40 GHz

Fabrication

Printed antennas are fabricated and tested on site. This includes simple patch antennas to complex wideband elements and antenna arrays. Other types of antennas, such as wire antennas, are also constructed.

Studies

We are especially interested in performing full research studies. Sponsor requirements are used to guide tradeoff studies that lead to proof-of- concept demonstration followed by refinement phases. Many computer codes are available for design studies and new codes are developed as needed. The university System-X is available for large specialized codes.

Sponsorship Opportunities

• Research contract/grants
  A statement of work is developed with the sponsor including deliverables, schedule, and cost.
• Affiliate
  The sponsor supports the Wireless @ VT with benefits from the research done within the organization.
• Gifts: Cash and equipment provide the opportunity to support research in areas of interest. There are no deliverables for such work, but the research results would be made available to the sponsor.
• Measurement Services
  The antenna ranges are used by VTAG personnel to perform sponsor requested measurements.