IEEE NCS/AP-S/MTT-S Chapter

Time: Thursday Oct. 6th, 2022 at 11:00 am MDT

Location: University of Alberta – DICE 7-395 (Pizza served)

Join via this link: here

Dr. Reyhan Baktur is an associate professor at the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), Utah State University (USU). Her research interests include antennas and microwave engineering with a focus on antenna design for CubeSats; optically transparent antennas; multifunctional integrated antennas, sensors, and microwave circuits. She is affiliated with the Center for Space Engineering at USU, the Space Dynamics Laboratory (the university affiliated research center), and collaborates with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Dr. Baktur is an AdCom member of IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society, and is active in US National Committee of the International
Committee of the International Union of Radio Science, serving as the vice chair for commission B, and the inaugural chair for the Women in Radio Science. She is passionate and committed to electromagnetic education and student recruiting by introducing CubeSat projects in undergraduate classrooms. She is the recipient of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society’s (APS) the Donald G. Dudley Jr. Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2013 and has been actively serving IEEE APS student paper competition and student design contest.

Abstract

Optically transparent antennas have been gaining steady interests- from integration with glass panels to contact lens, from aesthetic purpose to security reasons, from vehicular safety monitoring to space communication, just to name a few examples. Naturally, two main questions one may ask are: (1) how do we achieve optical transparency? and (2) how do we design the most optimal antenna for the application of interest?
The current answer for the first question is to transparent conductors, or conductive mesh, like chicken wire or the screens on the window of a microwave oven. It is obvious that the second option is not transparent to human vision. But it has the advantage of being simple and not heavily replying on material processing. Transparent conductors include transparent oxide, graphene, silver nanowire, and carbon nanotube-based conductors. The material design and processing for the transparent conductors can be delicate and challenging, but the advantage of these conductive thin films is that they can be near-invisible to sight.
This lecture presents the fundamentals of major types of transparent antennas, trade-off between the transparency and antenna efficiency, application notes, and near-future approaches.

Reminder for all in-person attendees

• Please only attend the event in-person if you are feeling well; anyone feeling sick must stay home and may attend via the Zoom link
• Hand sanitizer will be made available, and masks are recommended
• All attendees must be seated while consuming food