Reconfigurable Radio Front-ends from UHF to Mm-wave for Future Wireless Communications

Supervisor: Dr Akram Alomainy

Research group(s): Antennas and Electromagnetics

Cognitive Radio is one of the potential wireless applications that may place severe demands on RF system designers and particularly antenna designers, when it comes to providing flexible radio front-ends capable of achieving the set objectives of the technology. The aim of this project is to investigate possible roles that different categories of reconfigurable antenna can play in Cognitive and smart Radio. Hence, our research focuses on investigating some novel methods to frequency-reconfigure compact ultra-wideband antennas to work in different bands; this will offer additional filtering to the radio front-end. In the ultra-wideband mode, the antenna senses the spectrum for available bands with less congestion and interference and, hence, decides on the most suitable part to use at that point, initiating the necessary reconfiguration, allowing reliable and efficient communication links between the radio devices. Furthermore, the design of novel pattern and polarisation reconfigurable antennas is to be investigated to assist Cognitive Radio through spatial, rather than frequency, means.​​