In Pursuit of Low-Cost, Multifunctional, and Electrical Small Antennas for Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Communications
In Pursuit of Low-Cost, Multifunctional, and Electrical Small Antennas for Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Communications
Prof. Ashwin K. Iyer
University of Alberta
20 July 2026
SDSU EIS-320 Conference Room
1500 - 1600
Attendance of 11 including speaker.
Dr. Satish Sharma (SDSU, and the organizer of the talk) introduced Dr. Iyer, describing his successful lab and shared connections with warmth and enthusiasm.
Dr. Iyer is fortunate to have the room to broadly explore antenna design topics in miniaturized microwave antennas. It was clearly evident from the presentation that his leadership is making an ongoing and enduring impact.
The talk covered many of the projects under consideration in his research group at the University of Alberta, located in Edmonton, the capital of the province. Located east of the Rockies, Edmonton is the most northern city in Canada with population of more than a million people and it serves as Canada's primary logistical interface to the Arctic and boasts the continent's largest stretch of continuous urban parkland. Research supporting tactical operations in the Arctic was a thread woven throughout the presentation.
The University of Alberta has over 46,000 students distributed among 18 faculties and generates 600 million in sponsored research revenue per year. It has a major open-access nanoFAB, which is free for use by students and open to industry to use as well. The ECE department has 60 faculty and is one of the largest ECE departments in Canada.
After this brief introduction, we had a pop quiz! Dr. Iyer showed two photos of people and asked "Who are they?" They were the bachelor's graduation photos of George Sinclair, and Edward Jordan. George studied slot arrays, radar scattering, scale modeling. Edward researched antennas and radar, but is recognized for significant contributions to antenna education. Both were affected by their PhD advisor being absorbed by the US Signal Corps during WWII.
These two engineering researchers were pioneers in Canada, establishing antenna labs and attracting lots of researchers. Classical antenna science moved forward due to their efforts, and both Dr. Sharma and Dr. Iyer have connections their work.
The primary research theme of the lab is very low profile, weight, power, and cost antennas and microwave devices. "Low SWaPC" The lab focus includes the synthesis and modeling of denied EM environments. Antennas, sensors, meta-material devices for GPA, GPR, wires communications, security defense, and oil and gas are all considered. Defense work is a large part of the lab focus.
This means that the research concerns lots of sensors, antenna platforms, integrated platforms, zero-power biometric sensing, ad-hoc networks, meta-surfaces, signature management, and radar cross section. The lab partners with a variety of companies and organizations that those of us in the San Diego Section would be very familiar with.
The motivation is to innovate and refine electrically small antennas, meta-material-based antennas, and small antennas.
Challenges? There are clear challenges to this type of work. There are fundamental limits on bandwidth, quality factor, and gain. Matching impedances to the components and the environment is one of the most difficult challenges for very small antenna designs.
In order to get power radiated from even a very small antenna, you need a matching network. That matching network might be very bulky compared to the miniaturized antenna. If you do manage to get power into the antenna, the bandwidth ends up being small, because of losses exacerbated in the antenna. Small structures are difficult. Radiation efficiency is strongly reduced.
Dr. Iyer introduced an "Inherently Matched" electrically small folded dipole. Usually a half wavelength is the operating size/length of a dipole antenna. The resonance point was clearly shown on an impedance vs. length graph. Moving the resonance down, so that we get a smaller length, is the goal.
We reviewed inherent matching technique for Frequency Division Duplex Electrically Small Antennas (FDD ESAs). Dr. Iyer explained that the printed folded dipole with lumped L and C loading was used with positive results. This is a miniaturized planar folded dipole.
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- SDSU
- San Diego, California
- United States
- Building: EIS
- Room Number: 320
- Starts 21 July 2026 07:00 AM UTC
- Ends 21 July 2026 03:36 PM UTC
- No Admission Charge