Glass Antenna for First-Class Research
April 3, 2017 | City University of Hong KongEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
It might be the most beautiful antenna in the world: a glass swan that would not look out of place as a decoration in someone’s home. But this elegantly shaped ornament is actually a powerful antenna that can be used for wireless communications.
Not only that, this project has helped one of the leading scientists at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) to receive the highly prestigious First Class Award (Natural Science) in the 2016 Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (Science and Technology) of the Ministry of Education, China.
Professor Ben Leung Kwok-wa, Chair Professor in the Department of Electronic Engineering and a member of the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, is internationally acknowledged for his work in dielectric resonator antenna (DRA). He was the first researcher to carry out a full-wave analysis of DRA and the first to show that DRAs can be fabricated with glass (Pyrex).
“DRA has received a lot of attention over the past two decades because it is small, light and easy to excite,” said Professor Leung, who has been the first winner of the First Class Award for the microwave category in this particular set of awards since 2013.
No one has quite reached the standard required of late but Professor Leung’s work has impressed the organisers, especially his pioneering work using Pyrex as an antenna.
“The swan works like any other antenna, radiating electromagnetic fields for wireless transmission of, for example, a DVD signal,” Professor Leung explained. “Previously a metal patch would have been placed on the glass to serve as the antenna. But our innovation is to use just the glass as the antenna, an idea few people believed in when I first started researching it.”
The glass swan was bought cheaply over the internet, and Professor Leung has experimented with different shapes and chose the swan simply for aesthetics.
“It’s beautiful to look at and would look great in someone’s living room,” he said.
In addition, Professor Leung and his collaborator, Professor Pan Yongmei of South China University of Technology and a former post-doc working under Professor Leung, developed dual function DRA that can be used as lamps as well as antennas. This idea combines the lighting and antenna systems into one.
The next challenge is to find even lighter transparent material and work on establishing antennas with multi-bands to widen the range of applications.
These endeavours will be particularly useful for devices to be used for global positioning systems and personal communications systems for mobile technologies, Professor Leung said.
Since glass is commonly found in our daily life, there are many potential applications. “We are limited only by our imaginations,” he said.
Professor Leung was editor-in-chief of IEEE Transactions of Antennas and Propagation from 2013 to 2016. He was the first ethnically Chinese person to hold the position since the journal was founded in 1952, and also the first who was appointed from Asia.
Professor Leung received his BSc in electronics and PhD in electronic engineering from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong in 1990 and 1993, respectively. He joined CityU’s Department of Electronic Engineering in 1994.
He said that he was very grateful to Professor Chan Chi-hou and Professor Luk Kwai-man of EE for all their support over the years, and to his colleagues, students, and CityU for enabling him to conduct his research projects.
Suggested Items
D Coupon Testing and Data Insights With GreenSource Fabrication
04/17/2024 | Marcy LaRont, PCB007 MagazineMarcy LaRont spoke with Steve Karas of GreenSource Fabrication at the SMTA UHDI conference in March. He presented a case study that GreenSource undertook with a customer on critical via reliability with advanced materials and used the experience to highlight the importance and effectiveness of D coupon testing. He also discussed GreenSource’s approach to data aggregation and a new system they developed to use collected data effectively.
IPC Publishes Comprehensive Strategy to Address Electronics Industry’s Global Workforce Challenge
04/10/2024 | IPCOne of the most difficult and urgent challenges facing the electronics industry is a chronic shortage of adequately skilled workers. Today, IPC unveiled an expansion of its strategy to address the workforce challenges of the U.S. electronics manufacturing industry and called on its more than 3,000 member companies to join in the effort.
UHDI Fundamentals: ASC Sponsors Ultra High Density Interconnect Symposium
03/21/2024 | Anaya Vardya, American Standard CircuitsAmerican Standard Circuits (ASC) is a major sponsor of an upcoming symposium on one of the most talked about new technologies that has come along in quite a while: ultra high density interconnect (UHDI).
onsemi Aligns Business Groups to Expand Product Portfolio and Accelerate Growth
03/13/2024 | onsemionsemi announced the formation of the Analog and Mixed-Signal Group (AMG) which will be led by newly appointed group president, Sudhir Gopalswamy.
Indium Corporation Experts to Present at SEMI THERM
03/07/2024 | Indium CorporationIndium Corporation Global Account Manager and Senior Thermal Technologist Tim Jensen and Product Development Specialist for Thermal Interface Materials Miloš Lazić will present on thermal interface material (TIM) technology at SEMI-THERM, taking place March 25–28 in San Jose, California, U.S.