CAREER: Wideband Slot-like Antennas and Enhancement of Applied Electromagnetics Education at UPRM

0093650Rodriguez拟议的职业发展计划旨在为Rafael A.Rodriguez Solis博士在波多黎各大学马亚圭兹分校(UPRM)微波天线领域的专业发展建立一个平衡的研究和教学计划。拟议的研究活动经过精心设计，以提高用于无线通信应用的平面、宽带、微波天线的性能，利用美国国家科学基金会核磁共振赠款ECS-9977178资助UPRM辐射实验室。拟议的研究和教育工作将取决于来自宾夕法尼亚州立大学、科罗拉多大学博尔德分校、马萨诸塞州大学、阿雷西博天文台和UPM的几位教员的合作。无线通信网络中对交互式多媒体应用的日益增长的需求需要为此类服务提供更大的带宽；同时，为了保持移动终端的小尺寸，无线应用中需要更小的天线。在未来，移动终端将利用在不同频段提供的各种无线服务，并且只有一个天线覆盖不同频段将是有意义的。这将有助于减少不同天线结构之间的耦合和干扰，并减少天线所需的空间。本次资助研究的缝隙类天线和缝隙阵列是一种平面、共形、紧凑的结构，可以提供大的阻抗和方向图带宽，研究的重点是如何提高缝隙、折叠缝隙和缝隙环形天线及其阵元的阻抗带宽。此外，还将研究上述元素的对数周期阵列。天线元件将在使用实验设计技术和统计建模之后进行表征。所开发的天线模型将用于制定阵列设计程序和制定对数周期结构阵列的方向图综合程序。由于智能天线在新一代无线系统中的重要性，将研究这些天线的数字波束形成技术。建议的教育活动集中在修订工程电磁学两门课程序列，将这些课程合并为一个4学分的课程，并建立一个综合实验室。拟议研究活动的结果将有助于在天线理论与设计本科课程和微波天线工程研究生课程中介绍缝隙天线。指导研究生和本科生及其参与研究项目，以及为参加UPRM工程预科暑期方案的高中生开设应用电磁学讲习班，也是拟议的教育活动的一部分。这一教育计划旨在加强罗德里格斯·索利斯博士的教学和评估技巧，并将他的研究活动融入课堂。

0093650RodriguezThe proposed Career Development plan seeks to establish a balanced research and teaching program for the professional development of Dr. Rafael A. Rodriguez Solis, in the area of microwave antennas at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez (UPRM). The research activities proposed have been carefully structured to advance the performance of planar, broadband, microwave antennas for wireless communications applications, taking advantage of the NSF MRI grant ECS-9977178 funding the UPRM Radiation Laboratory. The proposed research and education efforts will count with the collaboration of several faculty from The Pennsylvania State University, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Massachusetts, the Arecibo Observatory and UPRM.The increasing demand for interactive multimedia applications in wireless communication networks requires larger bandwidths made available for such services; at the same time, smaller antennas are desired in wireless applications in order to keep the size of the mobile terminals small. In the future, mobile terminals will tap to a variety of wireless services provided at different frequency bands, and it will be of interest to have only one antenna to cover the different bands. This will help to reduce the coupling and interference between different antenna structures and to reduce the space required by the antennas. The slot-like antennas and arrays to be studied through this grant are planar, conformal, compact, structures that can provide large impedance and pattern bandwidths.The research plan is focused in studying ways of improving the impedance bandwidth of slot, folded slot and slot ring antennas and arrays of such elements. Also, log-periodic arrays of the aforementioned elements will be studied. The antenna elements will be characterized following using Design of Experiments techniques and statistical modeling. The antenna models developed will be used in the development of a procedure for the array design and in the development of pattern synthesis procedures for arrays of log-periodic structures. Because of the importance of smart antennas in the new generation of wireless systems, digital beam-forming techniques for these antennas will be studied.The proposed educational activities are centered in the revision of the engineering electromagnetics two-course sequence to combine these courses into a 4 credit-hour course with an integrated laboratory. The results of the proposed research activities will help in the introduction of slot antennas in the Antenna Theory and Design undergraduate course and in the Microwave Antenna Engineering graduate course. The mentoring of graduate and undergraduate students and their engagement in research projects and the development of an Applied Electromagnetics Workshop to be offered to high-school students participating at the pre-engineering summer program at UPRM are also part of the educational activities proposed. This educational plan seeks to enhance the teaching and evaluation techniques of Dr. Rodriguez Solis and to integrate his research activities into the classroom.