Two Days Hands on Workshop on Antenna Design for Satellite Band Applications

A REPORT ON STSE LECTURE SERIES “TWO DAYS HANDS-ON WORKSHOP ON ANTENNA DESIGN FOR SATELLITE BAND APPLICATIONS USING ANSYS HFSS TOOL”

STSE Coordinator: Dr. M.Devanathan, Asst. Prof., School of ECE
STSE Team: Prof. Aryalekshmi.B.N, Prof.Subhash B.K.
Online Platform: MS TEAM. (Team Name: RU_ECE_COE_STSE R&D Team)
Total Number of Participants: 40

School of Electronics and Communication Engineering & COE Satellite Technology and Space Exploration team had organized “Two Days Hands-On Workshop on Antenna design for Satellite Band Applications” on 29.07.2020 and 30.07.2020 
Objective:  The objective of this session is to enlighten the basic idea for designing the satellite antenna, its simulation perspectives using HFSS tool and the process of establishing our satellite ground station. This session was keenly focused on the technical aspects of various satellite antenna paradigms, wireless communication standards, RF spectrum, analysis of different simulation tools used to design the antenna, its fabrication and testing mechanisms. The detailed Session report is given below:

SESSION REPORT:
Speaker: Prof.Subhash B. K., Asst. Prof, School of ECE, REVA University                                                    
Speaker Bio: Prof. Subhash B K has completed B.E in Telecommunication Engineering from VTU, M.Tech in Digital Communication and Networking from REVA University and has also worked as a researcher in the field of antenna design at National Institute of Technology, Goa. He has 24 research paper publications in international journals and his research areas include design of microstrip patch antennas for 5G, satellite band, WiFi, WLAN, WiMax and X-band applications.  

Date: 29/07/2020
Topics Covered: What is an antenna and what all do you know about an antenna, why antenna is important is wireless communication system, RF Spectrum & its frequency ranges and applications. Different antennas used in RF spectrum like microstrip patch antenna, parabolic dish, QFH antenna, Yagi-Uda antenna etc. 
Isotropic antenna and the basic parameters of an antenna: 1)Reflection Co-efficient, 2)VSWR, 3)Gain, 4)Radiation pattern, 5)Efficiency and 6)Impedance. Importance of reflection co-efficient, VSWR and Impedance in maximum power transfer of an antenna, how gain and efficiency plays major role in designing an antenna and importance of radiation pattern for analyzing the performance of an antenna. 
Introduction to microstrip patch antenna and its design procedure, applications, advantages and disadvantages. Discussion on some of the antenna designing and simulation tools like ZELAND IE3D, Ansoft HFSS, CST Microwave Studio, FEKO and Antenna Magus.

Date: 30/07/2020 
Topics Covered: A brief recap on the points discussed on Day-1, frequency of operation of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) satellites ,online design calculator for microstrip patch antenna (https://www.pasternack.com/t-calculator-microstrip-ant.aspx) and design procedure for microstrip patch antenna for 137.7MHz with the equations, different types of substrate and selection of substrate for designing the microstrip patch antenna.

Introduction to the HFSS 13.0 tool, its features and working. Step by step detailed procedure for designing the 137.7MHz microstrip patch antenna in HFSS 13.0 tool. Simulation of the designed antenna to verify the parameters such as frequency of operation, gain, VSWR, impedance, radiation pattern and steps to fine tune the antenna to achieve the desired specifications.

Real time examples of some microstrip patch antennas designed and fabricated by Prof. Subhash B.K., related equipment used for testing the antennas and a brief introduction to Anechoic Chamber, advantages of learning and designing microstrip patch antennas and an insight on the research publication works.
Outcome: The 2-Day workshop on “Antenna Design for Satellite Band Applications” has helped the students to learn about satellite antennas and its importance in the field of wireless communications. The hands-on session has motivated the students to design and test their own microstrip patch antennas using various simulation tools and publish their works in journals and conferences. 

Acknowledgement: 
On behalf of STSE team Dr.M.Devanathan, Prof.Aryalekshmi and Prof.Subash : We thank our Director, School of ECE, Dr. R C. Biradar sir for his guidance to organize such workshop and also his motivational talk delivered to the students on the welcome address. We thank our Assistant Director Dr.K.M. Sudharshan sir for providing support in all aspects to conduct the event and also we thank all our ECE faculty and Staff members for the encouragement towards STSE activities.