plasma antenna and beam steering

1. Plasma antenna
PRESENTED BY
LINTO VASU
1
Roll no:12

2. introduction
• What is plasma?
• Plasma antenna
• Classification of plasma antenna
• Gas Plasma antenna working
• Nested plasma antenna
• Excitation problem
• Silicon plasma antenna
• beam forming
• Advantages
• Limitations
• Application
• Development progress
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3. WHAT IS PLASMA?
 Fourth state of matter.
 Identified by Sir William Crookes, an English
physicist in 1879.
 It is a gas in which atoms have been broken up
into free-floating negative electrons and positive
ions.
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4. 4 States of Matter
Solid
Liquid
Gas
Plasma (which may make up 99.99 % of the
entire
universe Universe)

5. Plasmas carry electrical currents and generate magnetic
fields
Plasma can be generated by electron impact ionization,
photo-ionization, or simply heating the gas, the first
method being the most energy efficient one.
Since it act as good conductor, its application involved in
antenna designs like ionosphere propagation take place
in air.
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6. Plasma Antenna
• These are antennas operating in the radio frequency that
use plasma as the guiding medium for electromagnetic
radiation.
• Plasma antennas provide similar advantages as
conventional antennas but at a fraction of the cost,
together with much wider bandwidth of operation.
• A plasma antenna is a type of radio antenna currently in
development in which plasma is used instead of the metal
elements of a traditional antenna
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7. CLASSIFICATION OF PLASMA
ANTENNAS
PLASMA ANTENNA
GAS PLASMA
ANTENNA
SOLID STATE PLASMA
ANTENNA
[ REFERRED TO
AS PLASMA ANTENNAS ] [ ALSO CALLED AS PSiAn ]
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8. How Does gas Plasma
Antenna Works?
 Plasma antenna technology employs
ionized gas enclosed in a tube as a
conducting element of an antenna.
When the Gas is ionized to a plasma
state -then it becomes conductive,
allowing radio frequency (RF) signals to
be transmitted or received.
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9. Continues….
In order for plasma to have
significant effect on an
electromagnetic wave, the electronic
density must be increased by several
orders of magnitude.
When the gas is not ionized or a
plasma antenna is turned off - it is
transparent and allowing other
adjacent antennas to transmit or
receive without interference.
Plasma Parabolic Reflector
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10. continues
A plasma antenna
generates localized
concentrations of plasma
to form a plasma mirror
Plasma mirror deflects an
RF beam.
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11. When plasma is not energized ,it does not
make any interference to other antenna
system..
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12. After pulsed on the plasma antenna which is
visible to other antenna system and
interfere.
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13. Reflection and Transmission of Waves
through Plasma
 The plasma frequency is defined as
 is the density of unbound electrons, e is the
charge on the electron
 m is the mass of an electron
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14. If the incident antenna frequency on the
plasma is much greater than the plasma
frequency
Such that
the antenna radiation passes through the
plasma un-attenuated
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15. Nested Plasma Antennas
Higher frequency nested plasma antennas emit higher
frequencies which propagate through lower frequency nested
plasma antennas
 Bandwidths add
Large bandwidths Multiband widths
Nesting antennas means compactness
 Maintains impedance matching
 Each nested plasma antenna is narrow band but adds up to
wide band
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16. 16

17. Continues..
Effects of nested plasma antenna
 Compact
 Wideband
 Multiband
 High power
 Impedance matched
 Reconfigurable
 Low RCS
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18. The major problem that plasma antenna uses 500 MHz
100W RF power to generate a plasma column, which is
limited in energy efficiency and bandwidth.
the length of the plasma column is proportional to the
square root of the pump power.
Such design has the advantage of total zero RCS when
the limited to the pumping RF frequency. The cost of
pumping RF generator is also high. The overall energy
efficiency is low.
Excitation problem in plasma antenna
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19. new concept of pre-ionized DC plasma to serve as
plasma antenna.
The plasma is generated by a DC high voltage, and
plasma density of this design is roughly uniform
throughout of the antenna, also the bandwidth is not
restricted by the pumping RF frequency.
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20. PLASMASILICONANTENNA
TECHNOLOGY
Launched in 2010.
Developed by physicists at Plasma Antennas laboratory
of Winchester, UK.
The main purpose of using PSiAn is because of its ability
to operate at higher frequencies, for example greater than
1 GHZ.
This works with plasma of electrons instead of ionized
gas.
It relies on beam-forming technology.
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21. WORKING
A plasma for solid state antenna can be created in 2
ways
1.Solid state plasma antenna can
be made from a silicon wafer by first
thermally oxidizing the surfaces and
subjecting the wafer to a high
temperature stabilization process.
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22. 2. Alternatively an array of PIN diodes may be formed on
the surface and may be forward biased to create the
desired plasma.
 At a high enough electron density,
each cloud of electrons generated
by diodes reflects high-frequency
radio waves like a mirror.
 By selectively activating diodes, the
shape of the reflecting area can be
changed to focus and steer a beam
of radio waves.
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23. A Controllable Plasma
Reflector(beamforming)
ONE FIXED BEAM PER
ANTENNA
N CONTROLLABLE BEAMS
PER ANTENNA
• Mechanically Fixed Beam
• Mechanically Fixed Beam width
• Mechanically Fixed Nulls
• Electronically Steerable Beam
• Electronically Controllable Beam
width
• Electronically Selectable Nulls
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24. A Controllable Plasma Reflector
ONE FIXED BEAM PER
ANTENNA
N CONTROLLABLE BEAMS
PER ANTENNA
• Mechanically Fixed Beam
• Mechanically Fixed Beam width
• Mechanically Fixed Nulls
• Electronically Steerable Beam
• Electronically Controllable Beam
width
• Electronically Selectable Nulls
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25. A Controllable Plasma Reflector
ONE FIXED BEAM PER
ANTENNA
N CONTROLLABLE BEAMS
PER ANTENNA
• Mechanically Fixed Beam
• Mechanically Fixed Beam width
• Mechanically Fixed Nulls
• Electronically Steerable Beam
• Electronically Controllable Beam
width
• Electronically Selectable Nulls
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26. A Controllable Plasma Reflector
ONE FIXED BEAM PER
ANTENNA
N CONTROLLABLE BEAMS
PER ANTENNA
• Mechanically Fixed Beam
• Mechanically Fixed Beam width
• Mechanically Fixed Nulls
• Electronically Steerable Beam
• Electronically Controllable Beam
width
• Electronically Selectable Nulls
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27. Planar and Cylindrical Plasma Antenna
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28. Continues..
CYLINDRICAL 360°PLANAR ±60°
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29. Continues..
PLANAR ±60° CYLINDRICAL 360°
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30. Continues…
All the beam on, reflector off
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31. Block diagram of plasma antenna
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32. The Latest Form of Plasma Device
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 1.The device forms and steers an
antenna beam by reflecting an
electromagnetic (EM) wave off a
computer controllable plasma
reflector.
 It is compatible with conventional
PCB manufacturing processes
 This "beam-forming" capability
makes the antennas crucial to
ultrafast wireless applications

33. GAS ANTENNA vs PLASMA SILICON ANTENNA
Nature of plasma
A gas is ionized to create
a plasma
Plasma is formed due to
cloud of electrons
Frequency range only upto 90GHz 1-300GHz
Size Large Compact
CRITERIA
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34. TRADITIONALANTENNA VS PLASMA
ANTENNA
-Unlike simple directional antennas, Plasma Antennas’ select a-beam
avoiding the need for manual or mechanical alignment and
realignment of fixed point-to-point communication links.
-Plasma Antennas’ selectable-beam antennas provide similar
advantages to phased array antennas but at a fraction of the cost,
together with much wider bandwidth of operation.
VS
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35. ADVANTAGES
 It is an important advantage that plasma antennas are
much lighter than conventional antennas.
Plasma antennas are free from mechanical parts, thus
making them maintenance-free.
They are ideally suited for a wide range of wireless
communications and sensing applications.
Plasma antennas have a number of potential
reconfigurable advantages for antenna design.
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36. Continues..
When a plasma element is not energized it is difficult to
detect it by radar..
Plasma elements can be energized and de-energized in
seconds. This prevents signal degradation and results in
good quality transmission.
High frequency radio waves that would ideally dissipate
quickly if beamed by conventional arrays, can be focused
by plasma antennas.
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37.  Plasma antennas boost wireless speeds. Such antennas
could facilitate next-generation Wi-Fi that allows super-
fast wireless data transfers.
Solid-state plasma antennas deliver gigabit-bandwidth,
and high frequency plasma antenna could hold the key for
economically viable superfast wireless networking
The advantage of the plasma is that it can be created on
demand and one plasma antenna can be reconfigured in
time or space to a variety of beam widths, bandwidths,
directivities, and radiation patterns.
CONTINUES..
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38. LIMITATIONS
 The current hardware uses a wider range of frequencies
so it is impractically massive to be used for mobile
environments.
 Plasma antennas are expensive and hard to
manufacture.
 High-frequency signals mean that antennas operating at
higher frequencies couldn't penetrate walls like standard
Wi-Fi, so signals ought to be reflected throughout the
buildings.
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39. Application of Plasma
Antenna.
MILITARY APPLICATIONS:
Shipboard/submarine antenna
replacements.
Unmanned air vehicle sensor
antennas.
Stealth aircraft antenna
replacements.
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40. Telemetry & broad-band
communications.
 Ground penetrating radar.
 Navigation.
 Weather radar and wind shear
detection.
Collision avoidance .
High-speed data communication.
COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS:
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41. DEVELOPMENT PROGRESS
• Primary investigations were associated with the feasibility
of plasma antennas as low-radar cross-section radiating
elements and thus further development and future
commercialization of this technology.
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42. Small Cell Wireless Backhaul
• Plasma Antennas has developed a range of smart
selectable multi-beam antennas that can be automatically
aligned, enabling wireless backhaul networks to self-
organize whenever new cells are deployed, traffic patterns
alter or operating conditions change.
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43. Tactical Wireless Broadband
.
• Unlike traditional fixed directional antennas, Plasma
Antennas’ selectable multi-beam antennas can be
automatically aligned in order to rapidly establish high
data rate point-to-point microwave links for fast "on-the-
halt" operations.
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44. Oil & Gas Networks
Oil and gas companies worldwide increasingly rely on
broadband wireless systems to provide affordable high
data rate communications to locations that are prohibitive
costly or impractical to reach with optical fiber or leased
lines.
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45. Wi Gig
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 WI Gig is the new brand established by the Wi-Fi
alliance for the 802.11ad standard.
 It operates in the unlicensed 60GHz frequency range
and promises data transmission rates up to 7Gbps.

46. Conclusion…..
Depending on the function of antenna system, a plasma
antenna of any desired shape, size and operational
frequency band would be excited at the optimal location
on the platform.
 When the system is not in use the antenna simply
disappears, until next required by the system.
Its ability to beam-form high-frequency radio waves into
one stream would help deliver wireless content in a snap.
Plasma antennas can be made smaller than traditional
antennas. The Plasma Silicon Antenna should come to
market in a few years. Let’s hope so, for the sake of time.
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47. References
[1.] M. Moisan and Z. J. Zakrzewski, “Plasma sources based
on the propagation of electromagnetic surface waves,”J Phys
D, Appl. Phys., vol. 24, pp. 1025–1048, 1991.
[2.] W. M. Manheimer, “Plasma reflectors for electron beam
steering in radar systems,”IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci., vol. 19, pp.
1228–1234, Dec.1991.
[3] Theodore Anderson, 2011. Plasma Antennas. Artech House
Papers from Conference Proceedings
[4]. Alexe®, I., T. Anderson, S. Parameswaran, E. P. Pradeep,
J. Hulloli, and P. Hulloli, Experimental and theoretical results
with plasma antennas," IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science,
Vol. 34, No. 2, 2006.
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48. [4]. Manheimer W.M., “Plasma Reflectors for Electronic
Beam Steering in Radar Systems”, IEEE Transactions on
Plasma Science, Vol. 19, No. 6, pp.1228-1234, December
1991
[5]. Robson A.E., Morgan R.L., Meger R.A.,
“Demonstration of a Plasma Mirror for Microwaves”, IEEE
Transactions on Plasma Science, Vol. 20, No. 6, pp.1036-
1040, December 1992 3.
[6]Plasma Lenses - P. Linardakis, Borg., G. and Martin, N.
Electron. Lett. 42, 444 (2006).
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49. THANK YOU
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50. QUESTIONS ?
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