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

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

Sidebar: Terms and Explanations

Beamforming is a signal processing technique that uses interference to change the directionality of an array.

Domain decomposition methods solve a boundary value mathematical problem by splitting it into smaller independent boundary value problems on subdomains and iterating to coordinate the solution between the subdomains—making the problem amenable to solution by parallel computing.

In primal methods, the continuity of the solution across a subdomain interface is enforced by representing the value of the solution on all neighboring subdomains by the same unknown. FETI (a dual method) enforces this continuity using Lagrange multipliers. The FETI-DP method is hybrid between a dual and a primal method.

Finite element analysis, a computer simulation technique, represents an object or system using linked, simplified representations of discrete regions on an unstructured grid. The accuracy of the method can be improved by refining the mesh in the model using more elements and nodes.

A phased array is a group of antennas in which the relative phases of the respective signals feeding the antennas are varied in such a way that the effective radiation pattern of the array is reinforced in a desired direction and suppressed in undesired directions.

A Rotman lens is a pair of parallel plates that functions like a lens to focus microwave or millimeter wave energy. Elelctromagnetic energy enters a focal port and emerges from the antenna elements to produce a beam in a specific direction.

Source: AHPCRC Bulletin, Vol. 1, Issue 2 (2008)