Multi-band Slotted Waveguide Antenna for Additive Manufacturing (SWAAM)

Call for expression of interest description

The Marie S. Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-PF) programme is a highly prestigious renowned EU-funded scheme. It offers talented scientists a unique chance to set up 2-year research and training projects with the support of a supervising team. Besides providing an attractive grant, it represents a major opportunity to boost the career of promising researchers.  

The Laboratory for Information, Communication and Knowledge Sciences and Techniques (Lab-STICC) located in Brest, France is thus looking for excellent postdoctoral researchers with an international profile to write a persuasive proposal to apply for a Marie S. Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship grant in 2024 (deadline of the EU call set on 11 September 2024). The topic and research team presented below have been identified in this regard.

Main Research Field

• Information Science and Engineering (ENG)

Research sub-field(s)

• Physics (PHY)

Keywords

3D printing, Additive Manufacturing, Communicating systems, Dual-band Antenna, Microwave antenna, Multi-band Antenna, Slotted Waveguide Antenna

Research project description

Applications in the field of communicating systems are multiplying, and this phenomenon is increasing with the advent of the Internet of Things and the Internet of Everything. The multiplication of standards for telecommunications systems requires an increase in the number of devices present in the radio front ends at both transmission and reception levels. Device performance, integration, weight and cost are all issues for device designers who must face numerous compromises depending on the different applications. The arrival of 3D printing technology compared to traditional machining of parts offers possibilities for reducing the prototyping time, weight and manufacturing costs by providing flexibility in shape design and therefore better performances but offers also degrees of freedom in the design of monolithic microwave components and the opportunity for designers to completely change the way of designing systems, no longer by assembling parts or components but thinking about global function.

With the rapid evolution of communications technologies, multi-band antennas offer a flexible solution that can be adapted to support new communications standards and protocols. They also give solution to compacity, integration, cost and performances. In this way this project targets to propose new solutions for dual-band or multi-band antennas for microwave communicating systems.

The main objective of the project is to design microwave antennas working in at least two different frequencies based on 3D-printing technology. With the technology limitation, the frequencies choice and the gap difference between the two frequencies will be studied. During this Post-doctoral position, we want to answer at some important questions: How the resonant frequencies can be near from each other or far from each other? What is the frequency limitation? How the polarization and the radiation pattern of the multiband antennas can be controlled and optimized?

To answer these questions, new design procedures, based on computing tools (AI) considering the technology constraints will be developed and validated by the realization of some demonstrators. In a first time, we will focus on antennas working in several frequency bands with the same polarization and the same radiation direction for each radiating frequency and in second time we will interest at the SWA antennas with two different polarizations or two different radiation directions. Demonstrator devices will be fabricated by considering several 3D-printing technologies (SLA or FDM + metallization, DMLS (metal printing), ...).

The Postdoctoral fellow will work on the design of 3D multiband antennas. Slotted waveguide antennas will be studied but other kind of 3D antennas can be envisaged.

1. A. Roy, R. Allanic, E. Fourn, A. -C. Amiaud and H. Legay, "A Dual-Band Single-Feed SWA by Cascading Waveguides for Unidirectional Radiation Patterns," 2023 IEEE Conference on Antenna Measurements and Applications (CAMA), Genoa, Italy, 2023, pp. 578-581, doi: 10.1109/CAMA57522.2023.10352734.
2. C. Stoumpos, T. Le Gouguec, R. Allanic, M. Garcia-Vigueras, S. Abedrabba, E. Fourn, T. Merlet, A.-C. Amiaud, "On the Additive Manufacturing of Conformal Slotted Waveguide Antennas," 2023 12th International Conference on Modern Circuits and Systems Technologies (MOCAST), Athens, Greece, 2023, pp. 1-4, doi: 10.1109/MOCAST57943.2023.10176730.
3. C. Stoumpos, T. L. Gouguec, R. Allanic, M. García-Vigueras and A. -C. Amiaud, "Compact Additively Manufactured Conformal Slotted Waveguide Antenna Array," in IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, 2023, doi: 10.1109/LAWP.2023.3266376.
4. Y. Chairi, S. Abedrrabba, R. Allanic, A.-C. Amiaud, A. El Oualkadi, C. Quendo, T. Merlet, K. Reklaoui, T. Le Gouguec, “ Design of a Slotted Waveguide Antenna Based on TE20 Mode in Ku-Band Suitable for Direct Metal Laser Sintering”. Electronics 2022, 11, 2079. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11132079

Supervisor(s)

The Postdoctoral Fellow will be supervised by Rozenn Allanic and Thierry Le Gouguec.

Rozenn Allanic returned to her studies in 2009 after several years of practical experience with PCB components. She obtained her Master's degree in Electronics in 2012 and her doctorate in electronics in 2015. After 4 years in post-doctoral work, she became a permanent researcher at the “Université de Brest” (UBO) in 2019. She defended her authorization to direct research in 2023. She is an expert in electronics with a specialization in tunable microwave devices on semiconductor substrates as well as in the design of microwave components in 3D printing. She has participated in numerous projects. She is currently co-supervising a doctoral student in microwave devices on energy harvesting applications, she has supervised doctoral students and postdoctoral students on microwave devices designed in 3D printing technology.

Thierry Le Gouguec is a lecturer at the “Université de Brest” (UBO) in the 63rd section. He obtained his HDR (Habilitation to Direct Research) in 2016. He is currently the director of the mechanical engineering department of the UFR sciences and techniques. He carries out his research work within the DH team (microwave devices) of Lab-STICC UMR CNRS 6285. His work generally concerns microwave devices and systems, he has worked in particular on modeling and development of new interconnection solutions for WiNoC (Wireless Interconnect Network on Chip) systems. He also works on the study and development of new technologies for producing microwave and millimeter components and in particular the contribution of high-density multilayer technologies and 3D additive manufacturing.

1. A. Roy, R. Allanic, E. Fourn, A. -C. Amiaud and H. Legay, "A Dual-Band Single-Feed SWA by Cascading Waveguides for Unidirectional Radiation Patterns," 2023 IEEE Conference on Antenna Measurements and Applications (CAMA), Genoa, Italy, 2023, pp. 578-581, doi: 10.1109/CAMA57522.2023.10352734.
2. C. Stoumpos, T. Le Gouguec, R. Allanic, M. Garcia-Vigueras, S. Abedrabba, E. Fourn, T. Merlet, A.-C. Amiaud, "On the Additive Manufacturing of Conformal Slotted Waveguide Antennas," 2023 12th International Conference on Modern Circuits and Systems Technologies (MOCAST), Athens, Greece, 2023, pp. 1-4, doi: 10.1109/MOCAST57943.2023.10176730.
3. C. Stoumpos, T. L. Gouguec, R. Allanic, M. García-Vigueras and A. -C. Amiaud, "Compact Additively Manufactured Conformal Slotted Waveguide Antenna Array," in IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, 2023, doi: 10.1109/LAWP.2023.3266376.
4. Y. Chairi, S. Abedrrabba, R. Allanic, A.-C. Amiaud, A. El Oualkadi, C. Quendo, T. Merlet, K. Reklaoui, T. Le Gouguec, “ Design of a Slotted Waveguide Antenna Based on TE20 Mode in Ku-Band Suitable for Direct Metal Laser Sintering”. Electronics 2022, 11, 2079. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11132079

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hSJiy_UAAAAJ&hl=fr`

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=0u69FxYAAAAJ&hl=fr&oi=ao

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rozenn-Allanic

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thierry-Le-Gouguec

Department/

Research                    

During the fellowship, the researcher will be a full member of the Lab-STICC (a multidisciplinary research laboratory in the field of Information and communication science and technology). In the department MATRF, the research activities of the Microwave Devices team are focused on the design of microwave devices for telecommunication systems, sensor systems and radar imaging.

The main research activities are divided into three areas:

• The design of microwave devices using new technologies:

Important advances in the field of technologies (additive, planar flex, etc.) make it possible to remove certain obstacles to the miniaturization and the co-integration of various microwave functions (antennas, filters, active chip-antenna interconnection). The team already has a great deal of experience and recognition in this area, for example in the field of RF filtering or the co-integration of "RF front-end" modules in the millimeter and sub-millimeter bands. The team is pursuing its research activities in this field by relying, among others, on the research activities of the SMART team, which is developing new printable materials and basic technological building blocks dedicated to microwave applications.

• The design of environmental or medical sensors based on microwave/media interactions:

For several years, research activities carried out within the Lab-STICC in the fields of environmental monitoring (e.g. corrosion sensor) or medical monitoring (e.g. blood sugar level, cancer cell detection) have shown the interest in using microwave devices interacting with a medium to meet needs in terms of non-destructive, non-contact, low-cost monitoring.

• The design of new reconfigurable microwave devices :

Software-defined radio is essential in future telecommunication systems (5G, 6G, etc.) as well as in radar imaging systems. The constraints in terms of bandwidth, beamforming, etc. require the use of agile devices. Based on the SMART team's research activities on materials and on the evolution of technologies developed either internally or by partners, the objective is to propose original advances (materials controllable by various physical principles, functional interfaces (fluidics, materials with agile properties).

The Lab-STICC is involved in several European and National projects. The supervisor members were also involved in several projects (RAPID MATRIOCHKA, MCM-ITP DRAGON, AnDRO, DATERAC and BBC from the laboratory of excellence COMINLABS, ASTRID CHYPS3D, TANGO). They are currently at the head of two collaborative projects: the first one is a KTD project with THALES LAS OME, THALES ALENIA SPACE and the University of Rennes, and the second one is a CW-ITP TURN Project with THALES LAS OME and the University of Cardiff.

In the Lab-STICC laboratory, the TECHYP platform (https://www.univ-brest.fr/plateforme-techyp/) provides 3D printers, all the required simulation software (HFSS^TM, CST Studio Suite^®, Comsol Multiphysics^©, ADS^©, Silvaco^TM, Matlab^®, ...), the measurement equipment (vector network analyzer, oscilloscope, anechoic chambers, probes station...) to achieve the research work on communicating devices.

https://labsticc.fr/en

Location

Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest

Suggestion for interdisciplinary / intersectoral secondments and placements

Skills Requirements 

• Specific Skill Requirements: Antenna design, Microwave devices (Modelization, Simulation), Microwave Measurement (oscilloscope, network analyser, antenna measurement…)

            Software: HFSS^TM or CST Microwave Studio^©, Matlab, Python…

• Required Languages: English
• Publications: At least 1 per year since the PhD in 1^st author

Eligibility criteria

for applicants

Academic qualification: By 11 September 2024, applicants must bein possession of a doctoral degree, defined as a successfully defended doctoral thesis, even if the doctoral degree has yet to be awarded.

Research experience: Applicants must have a maximum of 8 years full-time equivalent experience in research, measured from the date applicants were in possession of a doctoral degree. Years of experience outside research and career breaks (e.g. due to parental leave), will not be taken into account.

Nationality & Mobility rules:Applicants can be of any nationality but must not have resided more than 12 months in France in the 36 months immediately prior to the MSCA-PF call deadline on 11 September 2024.

We encourage all motivated and eligible postdoctoral researchers to send their expressions of interest through the EU Survey application form (link here), before 5^th of May 2024. Your application shall include:

• a CV specifying: (i) the exact dates for each position and its location (country) and (ii) a list of publications;

• a cover letter including a research outline (up to 2 pages) identifying the research synergies with the project supervisor(s) and proposed research topics described above.

Estimated timetable