350 rub
Journal Nanotechnology : the development , application - XXI Century №2 for 2024 г.
Article in number:
Unmanned aerial vehicle location systems. Antenna Arrays
Type of article: overview article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18127/j22250980-202402-01
UDC: 623.746.4–519
Authors:

Yu.V. Koltzov1

1 Nizhegorodskiy Research Institute (Nizhny Novgorod, Russia)
1 koltzovyv@mail.ru

Abstract:

Radars remain the only all–weather location systems, which is especially important in difficult conditions of their use.

Antenna array technologies remain critical for the development of dynamic areas of technology and, first of all, UAVs location systems.

The development of location systems and antenna arrays for UAVs has been going on for a long time. Radars and antenna arrays installed on medium– and large–class UAVs differ little from airplane and helicopter systems.

Among UAVs, the maximum number of UAVs used are UAVs of minimal size, weight and cost. Due to their high maneuverability, minimal visibility and a large number of tasks to be solved. Therefore, radars are subject to minimum size, weight, dimensions and consumption requirements at maximum range.

The widespread use of small UAVs has led to the fact that their radars and antenna arrays are on a par with automotive ones, when the possibilities for their placement are significantly limited, even more so than in cars. For the latter, the problem of miniaturization appeared earlier, but not as severely as in UAVs.

Antenna arrays are subject to requirements for minimizing dimensions, weight and consumption. Nanotechnology provides this.

It's safe to say that the time has come for large–scale solutions to complex problems in antenna systems.

Depending on the type of a UAV, it is possible to use a number of methods for constructing antenna arrays: known and proven – linear and fractal; the most modern – metastructures; widely used – tiled; new: flexible and three–dimensional printed; a combination of several methods.

Currently, the most attractive areas for the development of antenna arrays for UAVs are: scaling – growing a large number of similar structures to create large apertures; spacing antenna arrays across the surface of the carrier for viewing both forward, sideways and backward, as well as down and up.

The development of silicon tiled antenna arrays has led to the realization of very high operating frequencies (90–100 GHz) on the most affordable process technologies (130–180 nm), and the antenna array is fabricated as a chip.

The optimal option for constructing antenna arrays is to ensure the reception, conversion and preprocessing of input signals directly in the antenna system in real time, unloading the radar for solving problems that require powerful processing. Post–processing allows you to obtain a more accurate solution to the problem.

The combination of pre–processing and post–processing, supported by advanced software and powerful artificial intelligence, expands the capabilities and improves the parameters of the location system. It is important that artificial intelligence ensures the autonomous movement of a UAV, although its use requires large consumption and memory resources.

The integrated location system absorbed for the most part the capabilities of a large stationary radar. At the same time, minimum dimensions, weight and consumption are ensured to solve the necessary modern problems.

Several radars with their own antenna arrays can be installed on a UAV, which operate in the internal network, complementing each other.

Pages: 5-22
For citation

Koltzov Yu.V. Unmanned aerial vehicle location systems. Antenna Arrays. Nanotechnology: development and applications – XXI century. 2024. V. 16. № 2. P. 5–22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18127/ j22250980-202402-01 (in Russian)

References
  1. Tang A., Chahat N., Kim Y. et. al. A UAV Based CMOS Ku-Band Metasurface FMCW Radar System for Low-Altitude Snowpack Sensing. IEEE Journal of Microwaves. 2024. January. V. 4. № 1. P. 43–55.
  2. Timohin A. Kak bespilotniki zamenyat glavnuyu udarnuyu silu armii. Novosti VPK. 2024. 17 yanvarya (in Russian).
  3. Vice-prem'er RF: Rossiya za tri goda vydelit 100 mlrd na razvitie i proizvodstvo bespilotnikov. Novosti VPK. 2024. 6 fevralya (in Russian).
  4. V MIFI razrabotali radiolokator dlya BPLA. Vremya elektroniki. 2024. 26 fevralya (in Russian).
  5. Kol'cov Yu.V. Antennye reshetki v epohu 5G. Chast' 1. Razrabotki, stavshie klassicheskimi. Antenny. 2022. № 5. S. 5–29 (in Russian).
  6. Kol'cov Yu.V. Antennye reshetki v epohu 5G. Chast' 2. Perspektivnye razrabotki. Antenny. 2022. № 6. S. 5–34 (in Russian).
  7. Special Issue on Machine Learning in Antenna Design, Modeling and Measurements. IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagation. 2022. V. 70. № 7.
  8. Special Issue on Artifical Intelligence: New Frontiers in Real-Time Inverse Scattering and Electromagnetic Imaging. IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagation. 2022. V. 70. № 8.
  9. Jones B.B., Chow F.Y.M., Seeto A.W. The Synthesis of Shaped Patterns with Series-Fed Microstrip Patch Arrays. IEEE Transactions Antennas Propagation. 1982. November. V. 30. № 6. P. 1206–121.
  10. Yuan T., Yuan N., Li L.-W. A Novel Series-Fed Taper Antenna Array Design. IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters. 2008. V. 7. P. 362–365.
  11. Jeong S.-H., Yu H.-Y., Lee J.-E. et. al. A Multi-Beam and Multi-Rnge Radar with FMCW and Digital Beam Forming for Automotive Applications. Progress In Electromagnetics Research. 2012. V. 124. P. 285–299.
  12. Otto S., Rennings A., Litschke O., Solbach K. A Dual-Frequency Series-Fed Patch Array Antenna. 2009. 3rd European Conference on Antennas and Propagation. 23–27 March 2009. Berlin, Germany.
  13. Chong Y.I., Wenbin D. Microstrip Series Fed Antenna Array for Millimeter Wave Automotive Radar Applications. 2012 IEEE MTT-S Int. Microwave Workshop on Millimeter Wave Wireless Technology and Applications, 18–20 Sept. 2012, Nanjing, China.
  14. Hammerschmidt S. Continental relies on Xilinx SoCs for Next-Gen Radar systems. eeNews Automative. 2020. September 23.
  15. Werner D.H., Gangul S. An Overview of Fractal Antenna Engineering Research. IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine. 2003. February. V. 45. № 1. R. 38–57.
  16. Karmakar A. Fractal antennas and arrays: A review and recent developments. International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies. 2020. July 24. V. 13. № 2. P. 1–25.
  17. Cohen N. Fractal Antennas Part 1. Communications Quarterly. 1995. Summer. V. 5. № 3. P. 7–22.
  18. Cohen N. Fractal Antennas Part 2. Communications Quarterly. 1996. Summer. V. 6. № 3. P. 53–66.
  19. Cohen N. Practical Introduction to Fractals: Antennas and Beyond Part 1. Proceedings of the Radio Club of America. 2014. Spring. P. 12–18.
  20. Anguera J., Andujar A., Puente C. Antenna-Less Wireless: A Marriage Between Antenna and Microwave Engineering. Microwave Journal. 2017. October 12. V. 60. № 10.
  21. Hindle P. Antenna Technologies for the Future. Microwave Journal. 2018. January. V. 61. № 1. P. 24–40.
  22. 5G and cellular IoT multiband antenna the size of a rice-grain. eeNews Europe. 2020. March 3.
  23. Flaherty N. AI-powered antenna integration platform. eeNews Europe. 2024. April 10.
  24. Xin L., Cao K., Yang X. Two-Layer Stacked Microstrip Cylindrical Conformal Antenna Array With Cross Snowflake Fractal Patches. Microwave Journal. 2018. March 14.
  25. Deb P.K., Moyra T. Miniaturization of Microstrip Patch Antenna using Fractal Antenna Design. International Journal of Computation Intelligence & IoT. 2018. V.1. № 1. 4 p.
  26. Rahman M.M., Islam M.R., Faisal T.M. A Compact Design And Analysies Of A Fractal Microstrip Antenna For Ultra Wideband Applications. American Journal of Engineering Research. 2019. V. 8. №10. P. 45–49.
  27. Sahoo R., Vakula D. A Cylindrical Wideband Conformal Fractal Antenna for GPS Application. Advanced Electromagnetics. 2017. October. V. 6. № 3.
  28. El-Khamy S.E., Eltrass A.S., El-Sayed H.F. Design of thinned fractal antenna arrays for adaptive beam forming and side lobe reduction. IET Microwaves Antennas and Propagation. 2018. № 12. P. 435–444.
  29. Spence T.G., Werner D.H. Genetically optimized fractile microstrip patch antennas. IEEE Antennas Propagation Society Symposium. 20–25 June 2004. Monterey. CA. USA.
  30. Werner D.H., Gingrich M.A., Werner P.L. A Generalized Fractal Radiation Pattern Synthesis Technique for the Design of Multiband Arrays. 37PP. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qXxve5ZvDH9TnuU8T6qn-vVWEd-sMBet/view
  31. Kol'cov Yu.V. Metamaterial'nye tekhnologii antennyh reshetok. Uspekhi sovremennoj radioelektroniki. 2017. № 4. S. 30–47 (in Russian).
  32. Echodyne Releases Breakthrough Ultra-Low C-SWAP Electronically Scanning Radar. URL: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/echodyne-releases-breakthrough-ultra-low-c-swap-electronically-scanning-radar-300259636.html
  33. Walz E. Automotive Supplier DENSO Leads Series A Investment in Radar Startup Metawave. Future Car. 2019. December 12.
  34. Hoghes M. Meet Warlord: Metawave Aims to Bring Millimeter-Wave RADAR Sensors to the Automotive Industry. All About Circuits. 2018. August 29.
  35. Radar, EO/IR, C-UAS, Night vision and surveillance update. Battle Space. 2023. January 6.
  36. Willams M. Greenerwave And Plastic Omnium Create 4D Imaging Radars. MVPro Media. 2023. January 6.
  37. Greenerwave Unveils the Future Brick of 5G Network Through its Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces. Microwave Journal. 2023. February 28.
  38. Primenenie metamaterialov v antennoj tekhnike. Antenny. 2024. № 1 (in Russian).
  39. Gu X., Valdes-Garcia A., Natarajan A. et. al. W-band scalable phased arrays for imaging and communications. IEEE Communications Magazine. 2015. April. V. 53. № 4. P. 196–204.
  40. Sadhu P., Gu X., Valdes-Garsia A. The More (Antennas), the Merrier. IEEE Microwave Magazine. 2019. V.20. № 12. P. 32–50.
  41. Gu X., Liu D., Baks C., Tageman O. Development, implementation, and characterization of a 64-element dual-polarized phased-array antenna module for 28-GHz high-speed data communications. IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Techniques. 2019. July. V.67. № 7. Pt.2. P. 2975–2984.
  42. Herd J.S., Conway M.D. The Evolution to Modern Phased Array Architectures. Proceedings of the IEEE. 2016. March. V. 104.
  43. № 3. R. 519–529.
  44. Stailey J.E., Hondl K.D. Multifunction Phased Array Radar for Aircraft and Weather Surveillance. Proceedings of the IEEE. 2016. March. V. 104. № 3. P. 649–659.
  45. Carlson D. Tile Arrays Accelerate the Evolution to Next-Generation Radar. Microwave Journal. 2017. January. V. 60. № 1. P. 22–30.
  46. Lee W., Plouchart J.-O., Ozdag C. et. al. Fully integrated 94-GHz dual-polarized Tx and Rx phased array chipset in SiGe BiCMOS operating up to 105 °C. IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits. 2018. September. V. 53. №9. P. 2512–2531.
  47. Sowlati T., Sarkar S., Perumana B.G. et. al. A 60-GHz 144-element phased-array transceiver for backhaul application. IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits. 2018. December. V. 53. № 12. P. 3640–3659.
  48. Shahramian S., Baeyens Y., Kaneda N., Chen Y.-K. Transmitter and Receiver Phased Array Chipset Demonstrating 10 Gb/s Wireless Link. IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. 2013. May. V. 48. № 5. P. 1113–1125.
  49. Dunworth J., Ku B.-H., Ou Y.-C. et. al. 28 GHz phased array transceiver in 28 nm bulk CMOS for 5G prototype user equipment and base stations. Proc. 2018 IEEE/MTT-S Int. Microwave Symp. PP.1330–1333.
  50. Pellerano S., Callender S., Shin W. et. al. A scalable 71-to-76 GHz 64-element phased-array transceiver module with 2×2 direct-conversion IC in 22 nm FinFET CMOS technology. Proc. 2019 IEEE Int. Solid- State Circuits Conf. (ISSCC). P. 174–176.
  51. Zihir S., Gurbuz O.D., Karroy A. et. al. A 60 GHz single-chip 256-element wafer-scale phased array with EIRP of 45 dBm using sub-reticle stitching. Proc. 2015 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symp., P. 23–26.
  52. Joosting J.-P. pSemi expands 5G mmWave RF front-end portfolio. MWee RF – Microwave. 2022. February 8.
  53. Kappes M. All-Digital Antennas for mmWave Systems. Microwave Journal. 2019. June 13. V.62. № 6. P.84.
  54. Siafarikas D., Volakis J.L. Toward Direct RF Sampling for Digital Communications. IEEE Microwave Magazine. 2020. September. V. 21. № 9. P.43–52.
  55. Hindle P. Comprehensive Survey of Commercial mmWave Phased Array Companies. Focused on SATCOM and 5G applications. Microwave Journal. 2020. January 15.
  56. Mercury Awarded Subcontract for the U.S. Army’s Next-Generation LTAMDS Radar System. Microwave Journal. 2024. February 2.
  57. Elevate the performance of your Automotive Application by integrating the IP cores of a 14-bit wideband Time-Interleaved Pipeline Data Converters. Design & Reuse. 2024. March 11.
  58. We are ushering in a new era of Digital Data Conversion URL: https://www.iqanalog.com/technology
  59. Annino B. Selecting the Best ADC for Radar Phased Array Applications: Part 1. Microwave Journal. 2024. January 12.
  60. Shadrin D. Versal: novoe pokolenie adaptivnyh sistem Xilinx. Makro Grupp. RF. 32 c.
  61. Designer’s Journey: Navigating the Transition to Versal® ACAP. Mercury Systems Inc. White Paper. 2022. 9 p.
  62. Mercury introduces new RFS1140 system-in-package (SiP). Powered by GlobalSpec. Engineering360 News Desk. 2022. May 06.
  63. «Almaz-Antej» pokazhet na NAIS 2024 minikomp'yuter dlya dronov na rossijskoj EKB i OS. Vremya elektroniki. 2024. 5 fevralya.
  64. Mraz S.J. Antennas for 5G Networks Could be Built From 3D-Printed Tiles. Machine Desing. 2022. April 8.
  65. Hashemi   M.R.M., Fikes A.C., Gal-Katziri M. et. al. A flexible phased array system with low areal mass density. Nature Electronics. 2019. May. V.2. P. 195–205.
  66. OAK zapatentovala sposob snizheniya radiolokacionnoj zametnosti samoletov dlya PVO. Novosti VPK. 2024. 29 yanvarya.
  67. Kol'cov Yu.V., Dobychina E.M. Avionika istrebitelya pyatogo pokoleniya Su-57. Uspekhi sovremennoj radioelektroniki. 2019. T.73. № 8. S. 29–43 (in Russian).
  68. Zhang B., Zhan Z., Cao Y. et. al. Metallic 3-D printed antennas for millimeter- and submillimeter wave applications. IEEE Trans. THz Sci. Technol. 2016. July. V. 6. № 4. P. 592–600.
  69. Alkaraki S., Gao Y. mm-Wave Low Cost 3D Printed MIMO Antennas with Beam Switching Capabilities for 5G Communication Systems. IEEE Access. 2020. February. V.8. P. 32531–32541.
  70. Elwi T., Hassain Z.A.A., Tawfeeq O.A. Hilbert metamaterial printed antenna based on organic substrates for energy harvesting. IET. 2019. 15 July.
Date of receipt: 24.01.2024
Approved after review: 07.02.2024
Accepted for publication: 04.03.2024