Luigi Boccia

Università della Calabria | Università della Calabria · Dipartimento di Ingegneria Informatica, Modellistica, Elettronica e Sistemistica

This Roadmap presents the research trends on antenna systems for Satellite Communication terminals. To address the challenges posed by this application in terms of wide fractional bandwidth and large field-of-view, several antenna concepts and architectures are being investigated, which can be grouped in three main technology areas: fully electroni...

The application of radar technology in indoor people monitoring has opened up new avenues, such as localization and tracking, vital signs monitoring, and fall detection. Nevertheless, one of the significant challenges facing radar systems is the issue of indoor multipath propagation, which results in radar ghosts that can diminish the detection acc...

An E-band Cassegrain switched beam high-gain antenna concept for 5G backhauling systems is proposed in this article. The antenna requirements target the compensation of small misalignments (within ±1 degrees in both azimuth and elevation planes) in E-band backhauling links due to adverse weather conditions or thermal deformations. The intended ante...

In this work, a new dual-band dual-polarized transmitarray antenna element based on multilayer frequency selective surfaces is introduced. This novel configuration has been successfully tested for K/Ka SatCom frequency bands and is composed of a single low-profile printed circuit board incorporating 5 metal layers without any vertical transitional...

In this work, an 8×8 waveguide antenna array composed of stepped and slotted radiators for E-band applications is presented. The proposed array architecture, including the feeding network, can be realized through the integration of a single metallic block adhered with an additional top photo-etched sheet. This approach effectively reduces manufactu...

This letter introduces a new design for a 2-D electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR) based on a 3×3 microstrip patch array. The proposed configuration enables conical beam steering by using nine radiating elements, one active U-slot patch antenna and eight parasitic elements. To validate the proposed design, a prototype was manuf...

A low-profile dual-polarized magneto electric (ME) dipole antenna configuration implemented on standard multilayer PCB technology is here reported. The proposed radiator is conceived for dual-polarized 28 GHz 5G phased array applications. Wideband operation is achieved by applying several low-frequency techniques which allow to fulfil the 5G requir...

This letter presents a novel vertical waveguide-to-microstrip self-diplexing transition for dual-band applications. The transition is realized with standard printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing processing, making it suitable for mass production and practical applications. A standard waveguide is screwed on the topside of the stack-up. Dual-ban...

Satellite, fifth generation (5G), and sixth generation (6G) mobile communication systems operating at micro- and millimeter wave frequencies are an essential pillar in advanced network architectures for high-throughput low latency services. The decisive factors for this current development were the significant technological advances accomplished ov...

In this paper, a detailed sensitivity study of Butler matrices is proposed. In particular, a Monte Carlo analysis is carried out on each block constituting the matrix to estimate its impact on the overall performance. The isolation level of the crossover transmission path is hence proved to be a critical part of the Butler matrix design. As it will...

In this article, a novel millimeter wave (mm-wave), fully hermetic and flippable transitioning structure between grounded coplanar waveguides (GCPWs) and rectangular waveguides (RWGs) is introduced. This transition, realized through standard printed circuit board (PCB) technology, can be employed to feed a waveguide (WG) compliant device on any fac...

Abstract A switched‐line substrate integrated waveguide 1‐bit phase shifter is designed and measured at 28 GHz. Reconfigurability is achieved through a set of floating metallized vias whose connection to the waveguide top and bottom layers can be controlled using PIN diodes. The reconfigurable vias are used to dynamically create alternative paths h...

A dual-band reflection-mode wide-bandwidth and wide-angle scanning circular polarizer is designed. The proposed polarizer can convert linearly polarized waves into right- and left-hand circularly polarized (RHCP and LHCP) waves in the two separate nonadjacent receiving and transmitting K/Ka frequency bands. The polarizer is based on dual-layer dipo...

The implementation of backhauling links poses several challenges to the designers which are requested to limit the hardware costs in the framework of complex millimeter wave radio systems. This work presents a monolithically integrated E-band I/Q receiver covering the whole bandwidth from 71 to 86 GHz. The chip was implemented in a 55 nm SiGe BiCMO...

This paper introduces a gain enhancement technique for monolithically integrated antennas. Such devices can suffer from gain dips within their operating bandwidth due to standing waves arising in the die or caused by interactions with other on-chip components. In this work, it is shown how these effects can be significantly mitigated by parasitical...

Phased arrays are one of the most critical blocks in 5G networks. In the case of the point-to-multipoint link, they have to provide beam reconfigurability over a large scanning range while maintaining a low profile and a limited cost. Moreover, operation at millimeter wave frequencies poses several critical challenges especially in terms of integra...

This paper presents the integration and channel characterization of a highly integrated dual-band digital beamforming space-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) receiver. The proposed SAR sensor is a low-cost, lightweight, low-power consumption, and dual-band (X/Ka) dual-polarized module ready for the next-generation space-borne SAR missions. In pr...

This study presents the first monolithically integrated full‐duplex front‐end for K/Ka satellite communication phased arrays. A 0.25 μm SiGe:C BiCMOS process was used to develop the integrated circuit. The receive and transmit channels are united into a common port through a novel duplexer. For each RF channel, the bias currents, the active channel...

A Polarization Rotator based on Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) is proposed in this paper. The rotator is designed as a dual band, single layer, Frequency Selective Surface (FSS) that transmits a wave rotated of 90-degree with respect to the incident one in one of the two bands maintaining unchanged the polarization in the other one. Other tha...

Battery-based energy storage systems are forecasted to have a rapid diffusion in the next future, because they can support the diffusion of renewable energy sources and can offer interesting ancillary services for the distribution grid. Consequently, energy management strategies for batteries and inverters present in storage systems will play a fun...

A 60-GHz innovative quadrature branch-line coupler is proposed in this letter. The device was implemented in a 22-nm CMOS process, from global foundries. The proposed design merges two miniaturization techniques. On the one hand, slow-wave microstrip (SW-MS) lines based on bed of nails are demonstrated in CMOS technology for the first time. On the...

Cylindrical parabolic reflectors have been widely used in those applications requiring high gain antennas. Their design is dictated by the geometric relation of the parabola, which relate the feed location, f, to the radiating aperture, D. In this work, the use of reflectarrays is proposed to increase D without changing the feed location. In the pr...

A novel dual band cylindrical reflector antenna with a hat feed is presented. A horn in a parallel plate waveguide illuminates a parabolic surface to generate a TEM wave used to illuminate a corrugated feed. The feed is designed using a double step corrugation optimized to obtain good radiation patterns and good matching on the two bands of interes...

This work presents the first example of monolithically integrated phase shifter based on a pass‐band filter architecture. The proposed configuration was realized mapping a classical quarter‐wave coupled filter circuit into its lumped element equivalent. Phase control is achieved by controlling the pass‐band through tunable tanks employing varactor...

This paper presents the first experimental assessment of a highly integrated dual-band dual-polarized antenna tile designed for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) digital beamforming (DBF) satellite applications. The demonstrator described in this paper is the first comprehensive experimental validation of an RF module providing the X-band and Ka-band...

This paper presents a new improved gain array configuration well suited for mid-range V-band backhauling applications. The proposed solution is based on a cavity-backed shorted annular patch (SAP) antenna loaded with a parasitic patch element for gain maximization. This solution is proved by designing and measuring a 4 × 4 array which presents a re...

Desde el descubrimiento de la propagación de las ondas electromagnéticas, las antenas de tipo reflector son ampliamente utilizadas en campos como la radioastronomía, la comunicación microondas y la localización satelital. Estas aplicaciones han permitido el desarrollo de técnicas de análisis y cálculos más precisos, consiguiendo de esta forma mayor...

A new configuration of a planar grid array antenna for automotive radar applications operating in the 77-81 GHz frequency band is introduced. The proposed array is based on miniaturized loop elements which are designed to maintain the mutual inter element distance along the azimuthal plane to less than half free-space wavelength thus allowing bette...

The first millimeter-wave system-on-chip for dual-band phased array applications is presented as a proof of concept for K-/Ka-band (20/30 GHz) satellite communication on-the-move applications. Each chip includes four transmit (Tx) and two receive (Rx) channels working at Kaand K-band, respectively. The proposed architecture enables a half-duplex op...

This paper presents a digital beamforming (DBF) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for future spaceborne earth observation systems. The objective of the DBF-SAR system is to achieve a low cost, light weight, low power consumption, dualband (X/Ka) dual-polarized module for next-generation spaceborne SAR system in Europe. The architectures and modules of...

Quaterly Management Report EU Project DIFFERENT Q3-2016

This workshop will present the most recent results of the European consortium project (funded by EU FP7) titled as DIFFERENT ((DIgital beam Forming For low-cost multi-static spacE-boRnE syNthetic aperTure radars). This is an ambitious multi-disciplinary project aiming to develop the next-generation high-performance low-cost digital beamforming spac...

Quaterly Management Report EU Project DIFFERENT Q2-2016

A dual-band, Tx/Rx, self-diplexing phased array is presented. The antenna has been designed to cover Tx/Rx satellite communications at K/Ka band with a frequency ratio 1.5:1. To obtain dual-band operations with a single radiating surface, a novel dual-band radiator is adopted and placed in a configuration in which dual-band and single-band elements...

In this work, the design of a right-/left-handed composite transmission line implementation with passband characteristics is demonstrated on 0.13 µm silicon-germanium bipolar CMOS (SiGe BiCMOS) technology. The proposed structure is formed by a shorted coplanar waveguide transmission line loaded with split ring resonators (SRRs). As it will be shown...

Quaterly Management Report EU Project DIFFERENT Q1-2016

A compact reflector based beam forming network realized in SIW Technology for K-band applications has been investigated. A hat feed, in combination with a parabolic reflector, has been used to generate an appropriate field distribution to feed planar antenna arrays. Two configurations (single layer and double layer) has been investigated, showing b...

A dual band (Q-V) hat fed cylindrical reflector antenna is presented. The proposed antenna is fed with a dual band corrugated hat feed. The hat feed is designed using a dual corrugation optimized to obtain a similar radiation pattern and a good matching on the two bands. The feed is illuminated by a parallel plate waveguide fed with a rectangular h...

CMOS and Si/SiGe BiCMOS technologies are increasingly preferred over GaAs in many micro- and millimeter-wave applications. The question is why ... noise and power performance lags significantly behind GaAs, and cost advantages only materialize for large production volumes, rarely seen in space applications. The true value of advanced Si/SiGe BiCMOS...

Differential transmission lines are a fundamental building block in many modern Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) architectures. One of the crucial functions required in these devices is the ability to divide or combine the signal in the differential mode i.e. without employing Baluns on the input and output ports. This work presents a...

This work reports the design of a compact on-chip transmission line filter implemented by loading a CoPlanar Waveguide (CPW) with a Split Ring Resonator (SRR). In the proposed design, a CPW transmission line is implemented on the top-most metal layer of a standard 0.13 µm SiGe BiCMOS stackup. Loading the CPW with a single-stage SRR results in a pas...

This letter reports the design and measurements of a SiGe BiCMOS duplexer developed for T/R (transmit/receive) Ka-band SatCom on-the-move user terminals. The IC presented in this work is designed for the integration in a hexa-core chip for dual-band phased array applications. Due to the particular configuration of the chip, the duplexer has four po...

A fast frequency analysis of lossy substrate-integrated waveguides based on the asymptotic waveform evaluation (AWE) and Padè approximant technique in conjunction with the dyadic Green's function technique, is presented. The derivatives needed to evaluate moments in the AWE method are computed in a simple way thanks to an efficient method that redu...

This paper presents some results of dual-band digital beamforming (DBF) space-borne Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR). To reduce the cost, size, mass and power consumption of current space-borne SAR systems, a multi-static passive radar concept using DBF, highly integrated analogue and digital circuits and shared-aperture dual-band dual-polarization...

A reduced size planar grid array antenna for automotive radar sensor applications operating in the 77-81 GHz frequency band is introduced. Antennas for this type of application must be low in cost to manufacture and as small as possible. Proposed antenna consists of reduced size loop elements. Planar differential microstrip line is used to feed the...