Title:  Optically Transparent Antennas: Enabling Shared Apertures For Radio-Frequency/Electro-Optical/Infrared Sensing And Communications

Committee: 

Dr. Valenta, Advisor      

Dr. Durgin, Co-Advisor 

Dr. Gaylord, Chair

Dr. Peterson

Abstract: The objective of the proposed research is to develop an optimized design methodology for optically transparent antennas, applying the physics at the radio-frequency/electro-optical/infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. An emphasis of the research will be on how design parameters affect the entire system at both operating regions. The research will present an application agnostic description of the underlying physis of transparent antennas embedded into optical apertures. As shown in the literature survey, limited sources discuss the optical impacts of an optically transparent antenna array over a functional optical aperture and how the antenna array geometry can be optimized for maximum operation in both operating regions. The proposed research will present physical and fundamental limitations to performance and ideal bands of operation given current state-of-the-art manufacturing techniques. For optical characterization and limitations, a detailed approach will be presented on how to characterize the aperture point spread function and associated optical transfer function given an antenna array geometry. Additionally, the most ideal physical antenna layout to minimize optical degradation will be presented through optimization. Methods of multi-objective optimization to be explored are: Particle Swarm Optimization, Genetic Algorithm, Digital Contrast Optimization, among others.