Upcoming AP-S Boston Talks December-March

Hi Everyone,

Here is a list of the lineup of talks we have for you from December to March. We are looking forward to this winter season of learning new things about electromagnetics and more fascinating discussions with authors. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Greg, Chair AP-S Boston Chapter.

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December 6, 2010, 6pm at MIT/LL main cafe.
A special AP-S, AES, GRSS holiday meeting with the world famous John
Volakis, Director of the legendary OSU Electro Science Laboratory.
John will present a lecture to us about: Metamaterials for
Miniaturization of Narrowband and Ultra-Wideband Antennas. For more
information:
http://www.ieeeboston.org/org/subgroups/antennas_propagation.html

January 26, 2011, 6pm at the MIT/LL main cafe.
Paul G. Elliot and Kiersten C. Kerby from the MITRE Corporation will
present their fascinating work on a MULTIPLE-BEAM PLANAR LENS ANTENNA
PROTOTYPE.
ABSTRACT — A new low-height X/Ku-band (8.2-12.2 GHz) antenna was
designed, built and tested which provides full 360 degree coverage
around azimuth using multiple beams, covering the low elevation angles
with peak gain of 12 dBi at 10 GHz. Computer modeling showed that
about 18 dBi gain can also be achieved using this type of lens. The
antenna shape is circular and flat with feed ports in a circle near
the periphery. Switching between beams is accomplished by switching
between beam ports. The prototype antenna built was 13.3 cm diameter
by 1.56 cm high, which is approximately 41⁄2 wavelengths wide by 1⁄2
wavelengths thick at 10 GHz. The weight was 259g. Each feed port
drives a small monocone to feed the lens, which radiates a beam close
to endfire on the opposite side from the driven feed port. This flat
lens antenna is extremely wideband and radiates a leaky wave from the
surface of the beamforming lens, so it combines the functions of
beamformer and planar radiating aperture into one structure, thereby
achieving lower height and weight and simpler construction than other
antenna types with 360° coverage.

Feb 23, 2011, 6pm at MIT/LL main cafe.
The world famous Eli Brookner will present his 2010 IEEE Intl.
Symposium on Phased Array Sys. & Tech Plenary Session talk, Never
Ending Saga of Phased Array Breakthroughs. This is a must-see for
those of you who want a briefing on the state of the art phased array
technology as of this fall.
Abstract
• 3, 4, 6 face “Aegis” systems developed by China, Japan, Australia,
Netherlands, USA • Israel and Australia “Aegis” AESAs have an A/D at
every element, a major breakthrough.
• GaN advancing rapidly. Will be helped by use for PCs, notebooks,
cell phones, servers. • Extreme MMIC: 4 X-band T/Rs on 1 SiGe chip for
DARPA ISIS program; goal <$10/TR.
• Raytheon funding development of low cost flat panel X- band array
using COTS type PCB. • MA-COM/Lincoln-Lab. development of low cost S-
band flat panel array using PCB, overlapped subarrays and a T/R switch
instead of a circulator.
• Purdue Un. developing S-band low cost Digital Array Radar; GaN PA
and A/D at every element. • Revolutionary 3-D Micromachining:
integrated circuitry for microwave components, like 16 element Ka-band
array with Butler beamformer on 13X2 cm2 chip.
• Ultra low cost 77 GHz radar on 72mm2 chip together with >8 bits 1 GS/
s A/D and 16 element array. • Valeo-Raytheon 24 GHz phased array now
available for blind spot detection in cars for just $100’s.
• Lincoln Lab using 2 W chip increases spurious free dynamic range of
receiver plus A/D by 20 dB • JPL’s SweepSAR provides wide swath SAR
from space with 1/6 th power required by ScanSAR.
• Metamaterials: 1. Can now focus 6X beyond diffraction limit at 0.38
μm – Moore’s Law marches on. 2. Used in cell phones to obtain antennas
5X smaller and have 700 MHz-2.7 GHz bandwidth. 3. Provide isolation
between closely spaced antennas and antenna elements.

March 22, 2011, 6pm at MIT/LL main cafe.
A AP-S & AES joint meeting with Duane J. Matthiesen from Technia
Consulting, who will present to us his thoughts on, Efficient Beam
Scanning, Energy Allocation, and Time Allocation for Search and
Detection.
Abstract — Recently-developed unique and innovative concepts for
efficient radar search and detection are reviewed. These results
provide answers to the two fundamental search questions: (1) Where
should the radar beam point during the next increment of search effort
(energy and time)? (2) How much radar effort should be expended
during the next increment of search effort? These results provide the
most efficient allocation of radar search effort in both space and
time which maximizes target detection performance and minimizes radar
search energy and time. Typical savings of several dB of radar
power-aperture product and/or expected (average) detection time are
obtained. These new techniques are practical and can be used in the
next generation of radars with agile beams and variable-energy search
waveforms. Furthermore, the problem formulation and solution are
very general, so these search and detection techniques developed for
radar can also be applied to other both active (transmitting and
receiving) and passive (receive only) electronic sensors: optical,
IR, UV, sonar, seismic, passive RF, astronomy, etc.