Microwave Lens Antennas

#Antenna #Scotland #Glasgow

Microwave Lens Antennas

Zhi Ning Chen
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

National University of Singapore

Meeting ID: 930 6613 8318  Date: Tuesday, 15th  June, 2021  

Passcode: 516480  Time: 01:00 PM to 02:00 PM (London)

Abstract:  The rapid development of wireless technology has greatly increased the applications of multibeam antenna technology. Usually antenna arrays or reflector antennas are the good candidates for multibeam design with complicated RF or digital systems. On the other hand, the classic lens can be used to generate multiple beams naturally by locating the feeds at different positions behind the lens to form a multibeam lens antenna. Compared with reflector antennas, the usage of lens antenna avoids the blockage by feeds. Furthermore the all high-gain beams generated by a lens antenna share the same aperture while the multibeam antenna arrays occupy much large aperture with lossy feeding structures. Conventional lenses are fully constructed by bulky dielectric. The flat, lightweight and PCB-based metasurface lenses have been developed for multibeam antennas. This talk will introduce the concepts of metasurfaces and then the technology of metasurface-based lenses at microwave bands. After that, the recent progress in the research and development of microwave metasurface lens antennas is updated with designs examples. Last, some of the multibeam lens antennas developed published and applied in 5G wireless network by our group from National University of Singapore will be introduced.

Zhi Ning Chen received his BEng, MEng, and PhD degrees all in Electrical Engineering from the Institute of Communications Engineering (ICE), China and his second PhD degree from the University of Tsukuba, Japan, respectively.

During 1988-1995, he worked as a Lecturer and later a Professor at ICE as well as a Postdoctoral Fellow and later an Associate Professor at Southeast University, China. During 1995-1997, he joined the City University of Hong Kong as a Research Assistant and later a Research Fellow. During 1997-1999, he conducted his research at the University of Tsukuba, Japan with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowship Award. In 2001 and 2004, he visited the University of Tsukuba twice under the JSPS Fellowship Program as Senior Fellows. In 2004, he worked as an Academic Visitor at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, USA. In 2013, he visited “Laboratoire des SignauxetSystèmes”, UMR8506 CNRS-Supelec-University Paris Sud in Gif-sur-Yvette, France as a Senior DIGITEO Guest Scientist. In 2015, he visited Center for Northeast Asian Studies of Tohoku University, Japan as a Senior Visiting Professor. During 1999-2016, he worked with the Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R) as Principal Scientist, Head/Manager for RF & Optical Department, and Technical Advisor. In 2012, he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore as a tenured Full Professor and now Program Director (Industry). He was appointed as Deputy Director of Advanced Research and Technology Innovation Center of FoE. He is holding/held the concurrent guest professorships at Southeast University (Changjiang Chair Professor), Nanjing University, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Tongji University, University of Science and Technology of China, Fudan University, Dalian Maritime University, Chiba University, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, South China University of Technology, Shanghai University, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Yunnan University, Beijing Institute of Technology,  and City University of Hong Kong. He is currently serving as the members of the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter-waves at Southeast University and the State Key Laboratory of Tera-Hertz & Millimeter-waves at City University of Hong Kong. Also he has served as the reviewers of local and overseas governmental/provide research foundations/organizations including Canada, Finland, Sweden, Chile, China, HK SAR, and UK. 

Dr Chen has provided eleven local and overseas ICT MNCs and SMEs with the technical consultancy service with appointments of Technical Advisor, Guest Professor, and Chief Scientist.

Dr Chen is the founding General Chairs of International Workshop on Antenna Technology (iWAT in 2005), International Symposium on InfoComm & Mechatronics Technology in Bio-Medical & Healthcare Application (IS 3Tin3A in 2010), International Microwave Forum (IMWF in 2010), and Asia-Pacific Conference on Antennas and Propagation (APCAP in 2012). He has been also involved many international events as General Chairs, Chairs and members for technical program committees and international advisory committees. He has been invited to deliver 90+ keynote/plenary/invited speeches at international academic and industry events.

Dr Chen has published 680+ academic papers and six books entitled Substrate-Integrated Millimeter-Wave Antennas for Next-Generation Communication and Radar Systems (IEEE Press Series on Electromagnetic Wave Theory, May 2021), Broadband Planar Antennas (Wiley 2005), UWB Wireless Communication (Wiley 2006), Antennas for Portable Devices (Wiley 2007), Antennas for Base Stations in Wireless Communications (McGraw-Hill 2009), and Handbook of Antenna Technologies with 76 chapters (by Springer References in 2016 as an Editor-in-Chief). He has also contributed the chapters to the books entitled Developments in Antenna Analysis and Design (IET 2018), UWB Antennas and Propagation for Communications, Radar, and Imaging (Wiley 2006), Antenna Engineering Handbook (McGraw-Hill 2007), Microstrip and Printed Antennas (Wiley 2010), and Electromagnetics of Body Area Networks (Wiley 2016).

Dr Chen is holding 33 granted/filed patents and completed 38+ technology licensed deals with industry. He is pioneering in developing small and wideband/ultra-wideband antennas, wearable/implanted medical antennas, package antennas, near-field antennas/coils, three-dimensional integrated LTCC arrays, microwave lens antennas, microwave metamaterial-metasurface antennas for communications, sensing, and imaging systems. Currently, Dr Chen is more interested in the translational research of metasurfaces into antenna engineering.

Dr Chen is the recipients of International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation Best Paper Award in 2010, the CST University Publication Awards in 2008 and 2015, ASEAN Outstanding Engineering Achievement Award in 2013, Institution of Engineers Singapore Prestigious Engineering Achievement Awards in 2006, 2013 (two awards), and 2014, I2R Quarterly Best Paper Award in 2004, IEEE iWAT Best Poster Award in 2005, several technology achievement awards from China during 1990-1997 as well as more than 21 academic awards by the students under his supervision.

Dr Chen was elevated the Fellow of Academy of Engineering, Singapore in 2019 and a Fellow of the IEEE for the contribution to small and broadband antennas for wireless applications in 2007. He has served IEEE Council on RFID as a Vice President and a Distinguished Lecturer since 2015. He severed IEEE Transaction on Antennas and Propagation as an Associate Editor and IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society as a Distinguished Lecturer.

 (www.ece.nus.edu.sg/staff/bio/czn.html)