Title:  Mm-Wave Reconfigurable Antenna Systems for 5G Applications

Committee: 

Dr. Tentzeris, Advisor

Dr. Sharawi, Co-Advisor

Dr. Peterson, Chair

Dr. Durgin

Abstract: The objective of the proposed research is to develop and build a mm-wave reconfigurable antenna system for the fifth-generation wireless technology that would offer more reliable and diverse communication channels than current commercial ones. That would be achieved through designing an antenna with three polarization modes that would be suitable to be used in a massive MIMO configuration. To achieve that, the antenna would be built from inexpensive components and should possess a simple geometry with a simple biasing circuit. The objective will be accomplished through designing and building reconfigurable antennas that could change their polarizations and radiation patterns. The overall system consists of two major parts. The first one is an antenna array consisting of C-slotted circular patches controlled by pin diodes to alter the polarizations between LHCP, RHCP and linear polarization. The second integral part is the beam-forming network that would feed the signal into the MIMO antenna elements with phases needed to direct the beams into the desired point within the three-dimensional space. Both parts are designed to operate at 28 GHz for the purpose of 5G but can be scaled and rebuilt for other applications such as local positioning systems and RFID tags.