This talk begins by providing an overview of the research background pertaining to 5G millimeter-wave (mmWave) base station antennas. It delves into the current state of research globally, offering a comprehensive analysis of the advancements and trends in the realm of 5G mmWave base station antennas. The key techniques that play a pivotal role in the development and optimization of these antennas within the context of 5G networks are thereafter discussed. Our specific work and contributions in the domain of 5G mmWave base station antennas are elaborated upon, shedding light on the methodologies, innovations, and outcomes of our research endeavors. Finally, the anticipated challenges that researchers and practitioners may encounter in the future 5G mmWave base station antennas development are outlined..

 

Communication skills are critical between authors and reviewers in drafting manuscripts and reviewing the submissions for paper publication. ‘Putting yourself in their shoes’ is the key. In this talk, a paper review process will be overviewed, using the IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (TGRS) as an example. How to understand and respect each other will be mainly discussed with some suggestions on providing constructive reviews as a reviewer and responding effectively to reviewers’ comments as an author.

 

Simulation-driven design changed product development forever, enabling engineers to reduce design, iterations, and prototype testing. Increasing scientific computing power expanded the opportunity to apply analysis, making large design studies possible within the timing constraints of a program. Now engineering adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) is transforming product development again. The combination of physics-based simulation-driven design with machine learning, leveraging the latest in high-performance cloud computing, enables the industry to explore more and identify high-potential designs - while rejecting low-potential concepts – even earlier in development cycles.

With the increase in connected devices and platforms (such as 5G, 6G, C-V2X, ADAS, etc.), advanced computational electromagnetic (CEM) tools have become part of the product design cycle. Now numerical simulations can be performed to evaluate the effects of antenna design, placement, radiation hazard, EMC/EMI, etc. for wide-ranging industry applications. Interfacing with propagation tools, system-level design can be accomplished that includes the operating environment of the devices for device connectivity and throughput. The advent of cloud computing and AI/ML, and convergence with CEM simulations made connected, smart device design faster with reduced time from concept to the market propelling productivity and innovation.

This talk will focus on advanced CEM simulation tools that incorporate numerical methods, such as Method of Moments (MoM), Multilevel Fast Multipole Method (MLFMM), Finite Element Method (FEM), Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD), Physical Optics (PO), Ray Lunching Geometrical Optics (RL-GO), and Uniform Theory of Diffraction (UTD). As the complexity of connected devices increases each day, designers are taking advantage of AI/ML to generate trained models for their physical antenna designs and perform fast and intelligent optimization on these trained models. Using the trained models, different optimization algorithms and goals can be run quickly, in seconds, that can be utilized for comparison studies, stochastic analysis for tolerance studies, etc. Use of cloud computing combined with AI/ML, many design iterations can be performed in a short period reducing the time to market. This talk will also focus on future trends in cloud computing for physics-based simulations..

 

The pursuit of excellence in antenna research by the speaker in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore over the last 25 years will be reviewed. First and foremost, the genesis of fundamental knowledge that has deepened our understanding of antennas will be presented. Special emphasis will be given to the impedance relations between differential antennas and their single-ended counterparts. It will be shown that there exist (1) simple quantitative relations, which may be used to determine one impedance from the other whose solution is already known; (2) the antenna structures in which the Babinet's principle does not hold but their product of impedances is always constant and independent of frequency. Second, the story behind the development of antenna-in-package (AiP) technology from academic curiosity to industrial mainstream will be unravelled. Third, the invention of microbump antennas and arrays for terahertz (THz) wireless system-on-chip will be disclosed. An analogy between antennas and transistors will be described to highlight the importance of microbump antennas. It is envisioned that the development of antenna-on-chip (AoC) technology based on microbump antennas will pave the antenna way for future THz wireless communication and sensing. Finally, some conclusions will be drawn.

 

In the first seminar, some basic knowledge about electromagnetic gaming will be introduced. In particular, intentional electromagnetic interference (IEMI) effects during electromagnetic gaming and some reduction techniques will be discussed.

In the second seminar, both computational quantum and classical multiphysics methods will be introduced. Among these, special attention will be focused on multiphysics modeling and simulation of gate-all-around nanosheet transistors (GAAN FET), resistive random access memory (RRAM) as well as high power LDMOSFET and IGBT, etc. The Nonequilibrium Dyadic Green’s Function, Control Volume Finite Element (CVFEM), Finite Element Time Domain (FETD), and Hybridizable Discontinuous Galerkin’s (HDG) Methods will be employed for solving Quantum Mechanics Equation, Poisson Equation, and Heat Conduction Equation, respectively. All these will be directly used for the inverse design of nanodevices and RF modules with high performance as well as reliability.

 

Firstly, research background of 5G mmWave base station antennas is introduced. Secondly, current research status at home and abroad of 5G mmWave base station antenna is analyzed. Thirdly, key techniques of 5G mmWave base station antenna is proposed. Then, our works were described. Finally, future challenges of 5G mmWave base station antenna are given.

 

Microwave imaging holds significant relevance across a spectrum of application domains, encompassing radar imaging, non-destructive evaluation, autonomous driving, and biomedical imaging. This presentation initially categorizes the commonly used microwave imaging methodologies based on the electrical length of the object. Subsequently, the presentation introduces the fundamental inverse scattering approach, accompanied by an exploration of the advantage and disadvantage of machine learning techniques for resolving inverse scattering problems. The discourse then proceeds to address three distinct problems: the imaging of objects within inhomogeneous backgrounds, the resolution of mixed boundary problems, and the anisotropic scatterer imaging. In each of these scenarios, the effectiveness of the machine learning approach in resolving these problems is demonstrated. Lastly, a biomedical imaging system will be introduced, where machine learning approach is used in both the data processing and imaging. Some simulation and experimental result will be given to show the effectiveness of the machine learning approach.

 

Photonic platforms with multiplexing capabilities are of profound importance for high-dimensional information processing. In this talk, I will present our recent effort on advancing scalable nanoprinting methods compatible with nanophotonic computing platforms. In the first part, I will discuss an efficient and cost-effective grayscale stencil lithography method to achieve material deposition with spatial thickness variation, for spatially resolved amplitude and phase modulation suitable for flat optics and metasurfaces. In the second part, we show that selective ion doping of oxide electrolytes with electronegative metals shows promise for reproducible resistive switching that is critical for reliable hardware neuromorphic circuits.

 

Structured electromagnetic wave is an exploding topic, giving rise to new applications from classical to quantum. The structuring can be done with single photons and entangled states for tailored photonic quantum landscapes, offering access to the infinite alphabet of patterns of light for high-dimension quantum information processing. In this talk I will review the recent progress in quantum entanglement in their spatial degree of freedom. I will explain how to create high-dimensional quantum states in the laboratory, how to measure them, and what the present state of the art is in terms of applications. I will outline the progress in using such entangled states as a means to encode information for secure quantum communication and will consider the preservation of entanglement through noisy channels by tailored quantum wavefunctions.

 

Owing to favorable characteristics such as compact size, high gain, and low cost, the microstrip comb-line antennas are widely used in wireless communication systems and radar systems, e.g., in base stations for wireless communications and automotive radars. Currently, research on pattern manipulation of a single comb-line antenna is limited to the suppression of side-lobe level (SLL). Although some researchers have attempted to realize a shaped pattern using a comb-line antenna, the results are not satisfactory---the discrepancies between the actual pattern and the desired one are substantial. The reasons why it is challenging to precisely tailor the pattern of a comb-line antenna are investigated in depth in this talk. And a prototype is simulated and measured to validate the proposed methodology to realize a precisely tailored pattern using a comb-line antenna.

 

As the only method for all-weather and long-distance target detection and recognition, radar has been intensively studied since it was proposed, and is considered as an essential sensor for future intelligent society. In the past few decades, great efforts were devoted to improve radar's functionality, precision, and response time, of which the key is to generate, control and process a wideband signal with a high speed. Thanks to the high frequency, large bandwidth, low loss transmission and electromagnetic immunity provided by modern photonics, implementation of the radars in the optical domain can provide better performance in terms of resolution, coverage and speed which may not be achievable using traditional, even state-of-the-art electronics. In this talk, I'll give an overview of the photonic technologies that are currently known to be attractive for radars. System architectures and their performance that may interest the radar society are emphasized. Emerging technologies in this area and possible future research directions are discussed.

 

With the advantages of excellent penetration, broad bandwidth and good security, millimeter-wave (mm-wave) and Terahertz (THz) has been drawn much attention in USA, Europe, China and worldwide. mm-wave band is already assigned for future 5G applications and THz technique has been recognized as the one of ten techniques which can change the future world. With down-scaling of the commercial silicon technique, which has been verified as one of excellent candidates for commercial 5G/6G mm-wave and THz applications in terms of the low cost, compact size and high integrity etc. This talk will present the progress silicon based circuits and systems of mm-wave and THz. The progress of our group will also be introduced. The challenge and future trend of the silicon-based mm-wave and THz will also be presented.

 

This seminar aims to introduce the research activities of the Radio and Sensor engineering group within the Centre for Wireless and Intelligent Systems Engineering (WISE) at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. The group has been active in the research and development of radio frequency (RF) structures for a wide range of applications, with a focus on antennas and metasurfaces operating from microwave to THz frequencies. The seminar presents an overview of selected works in this area, including RF structures for sensing objects, human, and environment; for enhancing wireless communications; as well as for RF energy transfer and harvesting.

 

Partially reflecting surface (PRS) resonant antennas have attracted significant attention in the antenna field for the past two decades. However, how to improv e their peak gains are still a challenge This paper proposes a non-resonant PRS antenna, which gets rid of the traditional resonant condition with PRS resonant antennas while can be designed more flexibly and achieve better gain performance. It consists of a PRS, a ground, a small and a transparent phase correcting surface (PCS) placed above the PRS to perform the phase compensation. The ray tracing analysis, which was applied to the conventional PRS antenna s to derive the typical resonant condition, is extended to the proposed non resonant PRS antenna, demonstrating that the resonant condition for the design of traditional PRS resonant antennas is no longer required. A novel dispersion analysis i s further carried out to illustrate the non-resonant operating mechanism of the PRS antennas and a new design principle with PRS antennas is proposed Theoretical and numerical results are conducted to successfully verify the proposed design principle. Three prototypes were finally fabricated and tested to verify and validate the theoretical predictions. Measured results show that the prototype can achieve better peak gains than the traditional PRS antennas that require the resonant condition.

 

Subsurface imaging and characterization are typically nonlinear ill-posed inverse problems facing many challenges such as scarcity of data, high uncertainties, and nonuniqueness of solution. In recent years, there has been a surge of research efforts leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence to overcome those challenges. In this talk, I will share our group's recent work on physics guided deep learning for solving inverse problems and its applications in subsurface characterization for oilfield exploration and underground carbon storage. Examples will include electromagnetic well logging data processing, seismic full waveform inversion, and multi-physics joint inversion.

 

Subsurface imaging and characterization are typically nonlinear ill-posed inverse problems facing many challenges such as scarcity of data, high uncertainties, and nonuniqueness of solution. In recent years, there has been a surge of research efforts leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence to overcome those challenges. In this talk, I will share our group's recent work on physics guided deep learning for solving inverse problems and its applications in subsurface characterization for oilfield exploration and underground carbon storage. Examples will include electromagnetic well logging data processing, seismic full waveform inversion, and multi-physics joint inversion.

 

The pulse-width modulation (PWM) method is widely used in power converters. As a typical application, grid-connected inverters benefit from the elimination of lower-order current harmonics and high efficiency with the PWM technique. However, it also increases the level of electromagnetic interference (EMI), especially in higher switching frequency applications. In recent years, the issue has been particularly prominent with the prevalence of wide-bandgap (WBG) materials, such as SiC and gallium nitride (GaN). In this talk, we first present a systematic method to integrate single- and multi-stage PEFs with EE-type and EIE-type cores, respectively, it provides volume reduction with enhanced EMI attenuation ability compared with the traditional discrete passive EMI filter. Secondly, we propose a fully integrated EMI filter with the specially designed FMLFs based on the UU-type ferrite core. All the EMI filtering components are integrated into the same magnetic core unit. With the reasonable connection of electrical layers between the designed two winding parts on the side legs of the UU-type core, the required filtering inductance and capacitance for CM and DM noise can be effectively obtained. Compared with the existing non-fully integrated EMI filter, this fully integrated EMI filter has better EMI suppression performance. Next, we also present the fully integrated EMI filter with the planar magnetic core, the volume and weight could be reduced compared with other integration methods. Finally, we discuss future works and conclude this talk.

 

This talk will begin by addressing the history of the laptop computer, follow by introducing the laptop antenna designs in the early 2000s. Here, various design techniques implemented for integrating the laptop antenna to the laptop cover, as well as introducing the reduce ground effects will be explained. Furthermore, the use of metal casing or metal back cover for laptop computer, and how to integrate the laptop antenna into the full metal housing is explicitly discussed. Finally, some of the latest academic works that have been developed, such as the hinge laptop antenna, 2-antenna MIMO for laptop, as well as the recent laptop antenna works for Wi-Fi 6E band will be introduced.

 

The poor photo-to-product efficiencies of photocatalysts are a major hindrance to their adoption in large scale industry. The contradiction between achieving high photon-to-yield efficiencies for maximizing solar coverage and high product yield for maximizing the product yield per catalyst mass or area, requires light to a catalyst management approach that that distribute the incoming light flux to maximal photochemical effects.

Metamaterials are an emerging photonics platform with engineered properties based on the structure and geometry, whereas conventional material properties are based on their composition. We showed that a metamaterial made of catalytic materials can achieve near-unity photo absorption across the entire visible spectrum. A convergence of wideband non-plasmonic and narrowband plasmonic response resulting in wideband high-field intensity has not been previously availed in photocatalytic systems.

We also show that a simple glass rod acting as a rudimentary waveguide can be coated with photocatalysts to maximize the photo-to-chemical effect. By matching the distributed photo intensity that is absorbed by the coating with the concentration of surface groups, higher product rates can be achieved with higher incident photo intensities. These studies show that significant gains can be made by modifying the photo distribution to be absorbed by the smallest amount of catalysts.

At present, quantum computing and AI are the key technologies in the digital era. The progress and transfer of quantum resources for use in practical applications is in constant acceleration. Quantum computing, quantum annealing, quantum circuits, or simulators for quantum computing are currently easily accessible. The exploitation of quantum physics effects such as superposition and entanglement opens new, still unexplored perspectives. Yet, with very limited capacities, hundreds of qubits, they draw the attention stimulating the new area of quantum machine learning. In this context the presentation will focus on relevant aspects of quantum technologies for earth observation (EO). With the goal to identify if a quantum algorithm may bring any advantage compared with classical methods, will be firstly analysed the data complexity (i.e. data as prediction advantage). Secondly, it will be presented the classes of complexity of the algorithms. Thirdly, it will be identify major challenges in EO which could not yet be solved by classical methods, as for instance the causality analysis.

Data embedding is of key importance. Non-quantum data are many times "artificially" encoded at the input of quantum computers, thus quantum algorithms may not be efficient. For instance the polarimetric SAR data are represented on the Poincare sphere which maps in a natural way to the qubit Bloch sphere. Thus, PolSAR data will not be any more processed as "signal" but directly as a physical signature. Further will be discussed the advantages of quantum annealing (D-Wave) for solving local optimization for non-convex problems. Also, the potential and advantage of the recent TensorFlow Quantum and the implementation of parametrized quantum circuits (PQC). The presentation will address the entire EO data cycle encompassing the particular features from data acquisition, understanding and modelling of the EO sensor, followed by information extraction. The quantum ML techniques are practically implemented using the open access to various quantum computers, as D-Wave, IBM, or Google. Hybrid methods will be discussed for EO, i.e. managing the I/O of the data and maximally use the resources of quantum computers and quantum algorithms.

Dielectric Resonator Antennas (DRAs) have attracted numerous research interests due to their advantages of small in size, large power handling capacity, low dissipation loss, and high efficiency compatible to any 3-D shape. Composed of dielectric configuration that can generate EM modes in the stereoscopic structure, DRAs show their potentials of flexible mode control for diversity or reconfiguration abilities, e.g., polarization-diversity antenna, pattern-reconfigurable antenna. Moreover, by elaborately designing DRA and its passive arrays, multiple EM functionalities can also be enabled such as wideband, multi-polarization, wide-angle beam steering, and high-efficient shaped beam synthesis, which naturally hold the advantages of low cost, low loss, and easy integration.

In this talk, our recent research on designing DRA for passive shaped beam synthesis are reported. This includes a phase-controlled pattern-reconfigurable DRA for phase-only shaped beam Synthesis, and a wideband circular-polarized beam steering DRA using gravitational ball lens. In addition, the showcase of how to utilize the multi-mode operation of the dielectric antenna to realize wideband high-gain millimeter-wave antenna array is demonstrated. The proposed antenna concepts may largely enhance the information capacity of the base station antenna, bringing new degrees of freedom in achieving versatile functionalities and offering untapped potentials for antenna developments.

There has been significant research devoted to the development of distributed microwave wireless systems in recent years. The progression from large, single-platform wireless systems to collections of smaller, coordinated systems on separate platforms enables significant benefits for radar, remote sensing, communications, and other applications. The ultimate level of coordination between platforms is at the wavelength level, where separate platforms operate as a coherent distributed system. Wireless coherent distributed systems operate in essence as distributed phased arrays, and the signal gains that can be achieved scale proportionally to the number of transmitters squared multiplied by the number of receivers, providing potentially dramatic increases in wireless system capabilities. Distributed array coordination requires accurate control of the relative electrical states of the nodes. Generally, such control entails wireless frequency synchronization, phase calibration, and time alignment, but for remote sensing operations, phase control also requires high-accuracy knowledge of the relative positions of the nodes in the array to support beamforming.

This lecture presents an overview of the challenges involved in distributed phased array coordination, and describes recent progress on microwave technologies that address these challenges. Requirements for achieving distributed phase coherence at microwave frequencies are discussed, including the impact of component non-idealities such as oscillator drift on beamforming performance. Architectures for enabling distributed beamforming are reviewed, along with the relative challenges between transmit and receive beamforming. Microwave and millimeter-wave technologies enabling wireless phase-coherent synchronization are discussed, focusing on technologies for high-accuracy internode ranging, wireless frequency transfer, and high-accuracy time alignment. The lecture concludes with a discussion of open challenges in distributed phased arrays, and where microwave technologies may play a role.

A tremendous increase in the achievable data rates will be expected from the fifth generation (5G) wireless standard. This increase (almost x1000) will be spread between the antenna systems, network architecture, radio front ends, and signal structure. Multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) technology has been utilized heavily in 4G terminals and will continue to serve as a key technology in 5G ones as it provides data rate increase without power or bandwidth increase. In addition, backward compatibility with 4G dictates the use of MIMO in 5G enabled terminals. The use of millimeter-wave (mm-wave) bands is essential to provide high data throughputs due to the excess bandwidth they offer and has already been approved for 5G use. In this talk, technology trends and the features of 5G wireless standards will be presented. Then some of the major enabling technologies for 5G such as massive MIMO (MaMi) and mm-wave will be highlighted along with their features and applications. Challenges in the design of antenna systems for these enabling technologies will be discussed in terms of complexity, size, etc. Specifications and design guidelines will follow. Several metallic based mm-wave MIMO antennas, dielectric-resonator antennas (DRAs), active integrated and reconfigurable MIMO Antennas will be discussed. In addition, MaMi arrays with beam-steering capabilities will be presented. The concept and modeling of multi-functional antenna systems and integrated 4G/5G handset antenna solutions will be shown with real examples.

In this invited guest lecture Dr. Bhyrav Mutnury will talk about the challenges associated with high-speed signal integrity (SI) as it becomes exponentially complex with the doubling of signal speeds every generation. In this presentation, high-speed server design is used as an example to demonstrate the next generation SI challenges and potential opportunities to overcome these challenges. The presentation also discusses impact of loss, reflections and crosstalk on high-speed designs and ways to mitigate these parasitic effects.

With the introduction of 5G NR in the recent years, the operating frequencies of wireless communications moves up from Sub-GHz to a few GHz or even tens of GHz (millimeters frequencies). According to 3GPP Technical Report (TR38.810) and CTIA Test plan for Millimeter-Wave Wireless Device Over-the-Air (OTA) Performance, the OTA methods in millimeter frequency based on test range become more diversified, which include but are not limited to far field, indirect far field, near field and Mid-field measurement systems. Unlike the dominating far field method in 4G OTA test, indirect far field methods such as compact antenna test range (CATR) and plan wave convertor (PWC), and near field methods, become more popular or even indispensable for certain mmWave DUTs. On the other hand, the popular sponge (PU) pyramid absorbers inside anechoic chambers were mainly designed for far field systems, proposed in 1960s and commercialized for more than half century. The drawbacks of PU absorbers include weak strength of the matrix, high moisture absorption rate and low power handling capability etc. Owing to their simple process technology as well as low cost, PU absorbers are still universally used in many chambers and test systems. However, wave absorbers with better absorption at high frequency, cleaner ingredient and higher power handling capability are expected by mmWave test chamber designer. In this talk, 3GPP recommended OTA methods will be introduced firstly, then miniatured mmWave CATR chambers and quiet zone (QZ) evaluation and measurement method will be discussed, some key issues to reduce diffraction from the edge of serrated reflector and improve the quality of QZ with novel wave absorber (hard foam EPP, honeycomb and resistive film) will be discussed at last.

With the advent of wearable sensors and internet of things (IoT), there is a new focus on electronics which can be bent so that they can be worn or mounted on non-planar objects. Due to large volume (billions of devices), there is a requirement that the cost is extremely low, to the extent that they become disposable. The flexible and low-cost aspects can be addressed through additive manufacturing technologies such as inkjet and screen printing. This talk introduces additive manufacturing as an emerging technique to realize low cost, flexible and wearable wireless communication and sensing systems. The ability to print electronics on unconventional mediums such as plastics, papers, and textiles has opened up a plethora of new applications. In this talk, various innovative antenna and sensor designs will be shown which have been realized through additive manufacturing. A multilayer process will be presented where dielectrics are also printed in addition to the metallic parts, thus demonstrating fully printed components. Many new functional inks and their use in tunable and reconfigurable components will be shown. In the end, many system level examples of wireless sensing applications will be shown. The promising results of these designs indicate that the day when electronics can be printed like newspapers and magazines through roll-to-roll printing is not far away.

There is a great demand for the high data throughput innovative antenna solutions for wireless and satellite communication applications such as the feed and reflector antenna system, feedhorn, polarizers, and 5G silicon RFICs based flat panel phased array antennas. Some representative examples of these antennas designed and developed in the Antenna and Microwave Lab (AML) will be discussed during the talk. The laboratory includes a far-field anechoic chamber (800 MHz to 40 GHz) and a millimeter wave mini-compact antenna test range (26.5 GHz to 110 GHz) in addition to other research resources. Challenges and roles of the emerging technologies such as silicon RFICs, and 3D metal printing in modern antenna design will be discussed.

With the rapid development of Internet of Things, a vast number of small, low-cost, and low-power mobile electronic devices, such as radio frequency identification tags and wireless sensors, will become integral parts of our society in the near future. Supplying electrical power to these devices wirelessly would eliminate/relieve their battery life limitation, and therefore is envisioned to be one of the enabling technologies for the next-generation Internet of Things. Since wireless power delivery must be dedicated to the designated receivers in space, it is inevitable to employ one narrow electromagnetic beam as the carrier of wireless power toward each mobile device. The retro-reflective beamforming technique has excellent potential to accomplish efficient wireless power transmission in the context of Internet of Things, as it is capable of keeping track of multiple mobile devices and then generating wireless power beams to the devices accordingly. The primary merit of retro-reflective beamforming technique is that wireless power transmission is augmented by radar tracking. Specifically, wireless power transmission is initiated by pilot signals broadcasted from wireless power receiver(s); and in response to the pilot signals, a wireless power transmitter delivers directional microwave power beams to the receiver(s). This presentation reviews our past, ongoing, and future research efforts on wireless power transmission based on retro-reflective beamforming. This talk starts with the fundamental principles and a brief history of retro-reflective beamforming technique. Next, the pros and cons of retro-reflective beamforming are analyzed via comparison with other wireless power transmission techniques. Plentiful theoretical and experimental results collected in our research demonstrate that the retro-reflective beamforming scheme enables microwave power beams to follow the location of mobile wireless power receiver(s) dynamically as long as the receiver(s) broadcast pilot signals periodically. The last part of the presentation discusses the challenges pertinent to the practical application of retro-reflective beamforming technique.

Beamforming antennas/antenna arrays are the state of art technology these days and are making their stature as a most promising candidate for various applications such as phased array antennas, mobile 5G/6G, satellite communications, industrial applications like health monitoring/treatment, automotive radars, direction of arrival estimation, weather monitoring, stealth detection, etc. Earlier the technology was probed for specific defense applications during world war II and later was shared with the rest of the world. The technology initially was quite expensive and complicated due to the unavailability of high power and efficient semiconductor technology, computer resources, and other engineering aspects. Later with the advent of low cost highly efficient semiconductor technology and high end computational resources, the popularity of these systems increased and they even found their applications for non-defence applications like weather radars, local surveillance, mobile communication, automotive radars, industrial applications, etc.

This talk will take the audience through the journey and will discuss the basic beamforming architectures, the associated sub-systems and their applications. An overview of the involved trends and the futuristic vison on the subject will be shared. Few specific case studies based on the author's experience will be discussed.

With the rapid development of modern wireless communications, radars, and other radio systems, antennas and arrays are becoming more complex, therein having, e.g., more degrees of design freedom, integration and fabrication constraints, and design objectives. While full-wave electromagnetic simulation can be very accurate and therefore essential to the design process, it is also very time consuming, which leads to many challenges for antenna design, optimization, and sensitivity analysis. In this talk, we first elaborate on the concept of AI-powered antenna design and related research background. Secondly, we present the machine-learning-assisted optimization for accelerating the design process of antennas and arrays. Next, five design cases of antennas and arrays are also introduced to help understand the algorithms. We proposed the multi-stage collaborative machine learning, which can be used to further accelerate antenna optimization. And we also proposed the multilayer machine-learning-assisted optimization to cope with the extreme-high computational complexity of sensitivity analysis and robust design. Finally, we discuss future works and conclude this talk.