Antennas

The Antenna Work Group deals with research, development and measurement of antenna structures for various application areas. These applications include communication and radar systems operating at different frequencies.

With the establishment of the CRC 912 "HAEC - Highly Adaptive Energy-Efficient Computing", the fundament for the development of on-chip antennas for high data rate, short range communication systems operating at 300 GHz was build. Antenna concepts dealing with the close proximity to bulk silicon will be developed, allowing energy efficient transmission, yet supporting very high data rates between two computer boards within a server. The main advantage of wireless transmission is the high flexibility and adaptivity of single links, which can be established and released as required.

Within the Ciagas project, antenna concepts within chip packages are researched. Possible applications include mobile wireless communication at 60 GHz, e.g. the communication between a video player and a display. Furthermore radar, measurement and sensor applications in the same or similar frequency band are imaginable.

In the area of mainstream communication applications, antennas for broadcast systems have been developed. A new project focuses on the research of broad band antennas for mobile DAB reception. In another completed project, a circular polarized DVB-T transmit antenna was developed. This allows for a cellular setup of the DVB-T network, comparable to the mobile phone network. Advantages include an increased efficiency and coverage.

Within the Wisdom project, broadband antennas are developed to be deployed on a Mars rover. Its mission is the investigation of close surface layers on Mars. Besides the broadband nature, the space qualification of the antenna adds to its tough requirements. Within other space missions, the influence of the body on the characteristics on the antenna and its radiation pattern has been investigated.

For different industry related projects, the best placement of antennas in a mobile devices was investigated. Main focus was put on highest efficiency, being achieved through the application of MIMO algorithms. In another project, the direct connection of a microstrip line to a slot antenna was investigated under the constraint of optimized radiation characteristics.