Advanced electromagnetic surfaces for next-generation communications systems

无线通信系统继续以惊人的速度发展，提供无处不在的连接、前所未有的数据速率和不断增长的用户容量。然而，这些系统的持续增长与无线电频谱的可用性不可避免地联系在一起。可以通过增加频率重复使用、利用更宽的带宽设备进行通信以及提高系统意识和对频谱利用的适应来促进无线容量的扩展。该拨款建议使用先进的电磁表面（AESs）来设计新的通信设备，从根本上增强下一代星载和地面通信系统的能力。这些表面由金属散射体的周期性排列组成，允许对无线电波进行复杂的操作，以实现广泛的偏振选择性，频率选择性和可重构表面，用于空间和地面应用。这些表面将在一个多方面的研究联盟中进行探索和开发，该研究联盟由多伦多大学、École Polytechnique de montr<s:1>、三名行业成员和一个联邦政府研究实验室组成。在太空中，与MDA相结合，将设计源自AESs的先进多频段、双极化、多波束和可重构卫星天线，以增加链路容量。在地面应用中，多频带和可重构AESs具有作为“智能建筑”建筑材料的巨大潜力，它允许在建筑物内高度定制无线信号传播，以增加容量并适应无线交通条件。这些AESs将与Siradel和加拿大通信研究中心一起进行探索。最后，AESs的计算机分析和设计提出了许多挑战，这些挑战将通过与IDS北美联合开发加速计算机工具来解决。总的来说，这些研究将训练HQP，并为每年为加拿大GDP贡献近1000亿美元的行业贡献知识产权。

Wireless communication systems continue to develop at a remarkable pace, providing ubiquitous connectivity, unprecedented data rates, and ever-growing user capacity. Nevertheless, the continued growth of these systems is irrevocably tied to the availability of radio spectrum. Expansion of wireless capacity can be facilitated through increased frequency re-use, exploiting broader bandwidth devices for communications, and increased system awareness and adaptation to spectrum utilization. The use of advanced electromagnetic surfaces (AESs) is proposed in this grant to devise new communication devices that will radically enhance the capacity of next-generation spaceborne and terrestrial communications systems. These surfaces, which are composed of periodic arrangements of metallic scatterers, permit the sophisticated manipulation of radio waves to realize a wide range of polarization-selective, frequency-selective, and reconfigurable surfaces for both space and terrestrial applications. These surfaces will be explored and developed in a multi-faceted research consortium consisting of the University of Toronto, École Polytechnique de Montréal, three industry members, and a federal government research lab. In space, and in conjunction with MDA, advanced multi-band, dual-polarization, multi-beam, and reconfigurable satellite antennas derived from AESs will be devised for increasing link capacity. In terrestrial applications, multi-band and reconfigurable AESs have major potential for use as building materials for "smart buildings" that allow wireless signal propagation within building to be highly tailored for increasing capacity and adapting to wireless traffic conditions. These AESs will be explored with Siradel and the Communications Research Centre Canada. Finally, the computer analysis and design of AESs poses many challenges that will be addressed in this grant through the development of accelerated computer tools in conjunction with IDS North America. Collectively, the research will train HQP and contribute IP to industries that collective contribute nearly $100 billion to Canada's GDP each year.