Design and performance evaluation of multi-element antenna systems for mobile handheld devices

Antennas are the corner stone of wireless communications as they are Antennas are the corner stone of wireless communications as they are responsible for transmitting and receiving the electromagnetic wave that carries the information message. Although a very classical topic with more than 100 years of history since the first wireless transmission, the design of efficient antennas remains a timely issue. Particularly, for future mobile handheld devices, such as mobile phones and tablets, a compact design should be integrated and operate according to optimized performance criteria, such as maximum data rate and minimum power consumption. Starting from a very thorough literature review, the student will have to understand very well the radiation mechanisms of antennas and become familiar with the Maxwellian basis of the electromagnetic solutions for the radiation pattern, antenna gain, efficiency, polarization, etc. Accordingly, the student will advance his/her knowledge to existing antennas comprised of many elements, the so-called multi-element antennas and show deep understanding of the key performance indicators of such antennas including the diversity antenna gain and channel capacity. The goal is to design as many as such compact multi-element antennas using software tools (e.g., CST, HFSS) and then fabricate some of them. After the design stage, a performance analysis of the antennas will take place considering relevant key performance indicators such as the diversity antenna gain and channel capacity. The aforementioned step of studying, designing and fabricating existing state-of-the art multi-element antennas will enable the student to gain significant experience on this field necessary to progress to the next level. The next level and ultimate goal of this project is the student to come up with novel brand new multi-element antenna designs (at least three) that will show better communication performance (e.g., diversity antenna gain and channel capacity) against existing ones.
This project is suitable for applicants with interests and good background in electromagnetics and electromagnetics design and particularly in electromagnetic wave propagation, antennas and antenna arrays for communication systems. Indicatively, applicants should have good performance in the following subjects: Electromagnetic Theory and Fields, Microwave and mm-Wave Transmission Systems and Devices, Communication Principles/Theory, Engineering Mathematics.

Application is made by using the online system at the following link:
(https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/engineering/phdopportunities/)
Please note that this application is to gain admission to our PGR programme. Candidates applying for this project will most likely have an interview/discussion with the supervisor before any decision is made.