Project 3-4: Antenna Front-End and Receiver Technology for Multi-Function Radio Frequency Architectures

Principal Investigators: Gregory Wilkins, Lawrence Walker (Morgan State University, 2007-2009)

2010 Project Focus: Robust Wireless Communications in Complex Environments
Principal Investigator: Richard Dean (Morgan State University)

The computations necessary to design and build complex systems of antennas, which can contain millions of components, require an equally complex system of algorithms. The behavior of the electromagnetic field within each component must be analyzed while taking into account the effects from materials that support and connect the components to one another, among other factors.

Antenna arrays transmit information to mobile users from sensor networks incorporated into homes, cars, stores, roads, or cities. High performance computing is ideally suited to address such needs as rapid, frequent information updates; reducing cross-interference caused by the concurrent operation of multiple networks (cellular, WiFi, WiMax); and providing adequate security and privacy. By developing the tools and methods to assess such situations, AHPCRC researchers are identifying and optimizing the factors necessary to construct and maintain these complex networks in a variety of environments.

High performance computing also assists in integrated circuit design. Especially in the high-frequency regime of microwave and millimeter wave integrated circuits, the sheer number of components and the mesh resolution required for analysis makes HPC an essential tool for solving design problems and identifying and addressing factors that can limit the performance of these networks.

AHPCRC researchers are analyzing and simulating the behavior of electromagnetic fields in the vicinity of an antenna, and this work will be extended to arrays of antennas and receive-only broadband antenna systems. Individual electromagnetic properties are being examined separately and in combination. This research addresses a variety of factors that can limit the performance of very large-scale integrated antenna networks.

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