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The European School of Antennas (ESoA), is a new model of
geographically distributed post graduate school created thanks to the European Union support through the ACE NoE - Antenna Center of Excellence (2004-2007) and the
Marie Curie Actions. The school is constituted by a highly qualified
integrated set of advanced one-week courses, distributed in the most
accredited European antenna research centers. 100 among the best
European teachers present lectures in antennas and propagation. The
courses are repeated every two years updating the content.
The general objectives of the School are:
- strengthening the European excellence on antennas
- completing
the individual PhD curricula of students in Electrical and Information
Engineering by offering interaction with the best trainers in Europe
- increasing the link between European Universities and Industries in antenna research and development
- facilitating
the interchange of ideas among early stage researchers and teachers,
thus increasing the future mobility and synergy.
The school is furnished with a centralized WEB support and it is
coordinated so that the courses have the same format and apply common
basic rules for exams and credits.
Further information and data on ESoA is available here
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» All Courses
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All Courses
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Items in this section:
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Automotive Antennas
06/09/2010 - 10/09/2010
The main focus of the course are the relevant fundamentals on antennas and the mobile propagation channel and their practical application in automotive technology. The specific mobile to base station and mobile to mobile radio channel characteristics are presented. The relevant characteristics of vehicle antennas are evaluated, taking into account their functionalities and design aspects. Combining antennas and the radio channel, the inherent system aspects will be elaborated for Diversity, SIMO and MIMO. DSRC spectrum allocations and standards, e.g. IEEE 802.11p will be discussed. One of the goals of the course is to present processes for the optimization of car integrated antenna systems prior to their hardware development and vehicle integration by „Virtual Drive“. The topics will be complemented by a short introduction to automotive radar in collaboration with the EU project MOSARIM (MOre SAfety for all by Radar Interference Mitigation).
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Antenna Human Body Interaction
13/09/2010 - 17/09/2010
The course covers several issues related to the interaction of electromagnetic waves with human bodies.
How body tissues might alter antenna characteristics and how antennas might alter body tissues.........
The course begins with a reminder of electromagnetics fundamentals required to understand the physical basics of the interactions (Electromagnetic properties of matter, body tissue characteristics, propagation and absorption parameters)
Then, Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) issues will be covered with emphasis on experimental procedures and phantom designs as well as related topics like SAR sensors.
Simulation aspects will also be treated from the FEM and FDTD points of view. 3D numerical phantoms will be compared. Benefits resulting from the combined use of different numerical methods will also be stressed.
Standardization and regulation issues are developped, essentially in the context of wireless communications. The analysis of interactions will not only focus on UHF of microwaves but will also deal with millimeter waves including in-vivo and in-vitro studies.
On-body antennas for BAN, mobile or RFID applications will be detailed. The detuning and efficiency degradation due to the presence of the human body as well as On-body propagation aspects (Creeping-wave theory and path loss modelling) will be emphasized in this part.
An attempt to define ideal antennas insensitive to the body will be done.
Finally, the issues related to losses in body tissues will be described in the context of in-body antennas (Antennas in pacemakers, defibrillators, bio-electromagnetic compatibility).
It is planned to visit the Orange labs facilities for SAR measurements.
Demonstration on CST and HFSS are also included (evaluation of power density or attenuation in biological tissues)
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Advanced Computational EM for Antenna Analysis
04/10/2010 - 08/10/2010
Held in the EPFL campus, this course addresses frequency-domain, integral-equation based computational techniques for the analysis of challenging antenna problems. The challenges come from the need to apply computational electromagnetics to real-life antenna and antenna platform design. The course will give a working knowledge of a number of topics that allow to solve complex antenna problems, including multilayered geometries. In addition, Prof. Wilton from University of Houston, USA, will discuss the important topic of higher order basis functions. While addressing advanced topics, it is structured so as to give attendees a practical understanding of problems, the techniques to solve them, and of how to implement them when "back at home". Attendees willing to participate actively in practical sessions are asked to come equipped with a laptop and a Wi-Fi connection.
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Time Domain Technique for Antenna Analysis
11/10/2010 - 15/10/2010
This course is a unique opportunity to get an overview of the famous time domain techniques used for solving actual and future challenging electromagnetic problems. Basic knowledge’s and state of the art given during the course will be helpful for PhD students or scientists implementing their own time domain simulation tools. For customers of commercial software’s, it will provide additional theoretical guidelines allowing an optimal use of the vendor simulation tools. Furthermore, a large amount of time will be devoted to practice, fully supported by CST. The course will be divided into 20h of academic lectures and 20h of practice.
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| COMPLETED Courses: |
COMPLETED : Antennas and Propagation for Body-Centric Wireless Communication
20/04/2009 - 24/04/2009
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COMPLETED : Industrial Antenna Design
04/05/2009 - 04/05/2009
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COMPLETED : Antenna Measurements for Millimeter ans Sub-Millimeter Wavelengths
11/05/2009 - 15/05/2009
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COMPLETED : Antenna Project Management
18/05/2009 - 22/05/2009
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COMPLETED : Terahertz Technology
25/05/2009 - 29/05/2009
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COMPLETED : Antenna Synthesis
08/06/2009 - 12/06/2009
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COMPLETED : Advanced Spherical Wave Near-Field Antenna Measurements Techniques
29/06/2009 - 03/07/2009
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COMPLETED : Compact Antennas
06/07/2009 - 10/07/2009
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COMPLETED : ARTIC Industrial Training (AIT): Antenna Research and Technology for the Intelligent Car
07/09/2009 - 11/09/2009
The prime intention of the ARTIC Industrial Training (AIT) is the dissemination of knowledge on vehicular communication systems and antenna technology (AM/FM-Radio, TV, DVB-T, GSM/UMTS, GPS, C2C, V2V, .....)
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COMPLETED : Cooperative Communications and Distributed Antennas
28/09/2009 - 02/10/2009
Cooperative communications systems improve the capacity of wireless communications by allowing cooperation between nodes at the physical layer level. It is possible to use cooperation to implement distributed antenna arrays, which allow the utilization of multiple antenna techniques that can provide the benefits of multiple antennas to single antenna terminals. The objective of this course is to provide the fundamental tools to understand, analyze, and design cooperative communications systems in general, and distributed array configurations in particular. The students will understand some of the fundamental tradeoffs involved in wireless communication system design and how collaborative transmission can be used as a tool to improve performance. Students will get insight into basic relaying techniques such as decode-and-forward and amplify-and-forward and also more sophisticated methods. The philosophy of the course is to provide a combination of understanding of fundamental principles and learning of state-of-the-art techniques. Lectures will be given in an interactive style, exploiting the interdisciplinary nature of the topic and a diverse composition of the audience.
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COMPLETED : Frequency Domain Techniques for Antennas Analysis
05/10/2009 - 09/10/2009
The course aims to give the student an appreciation of the uses and limitations of frequency domain computational techniques applied to scattering and antenna problems. The module gives the student a thorough background in the methodology of these techniques from a fundamental standpoint, while giving a grasp of the practical applications. Emphasis will be given to the practical problems encountered in the implementation of these techniques, and more particularly on the integral techniques (convergence, singularities, etc.). Differential techniques will be introduced as a mean of comparison, but will be not be treated in depth. Simple problems are considered to give an understanding of how the choices made in designing the algorithms translate into the real strengths and limitations of the software.
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COMPLETED : Artificial EBG Surfaces and Metamaterial for Antennas
26/10/2009 - 30/10/2009
bandgaps, cloaking, gap waveguides, packaging, miniaturization, gain enhancement, sidelobe reduction:
In recent years there has been significant research on synthesizing new materials that can enable new and better antennas. These metamaterials are designed by making use of periodic structures, and often it is the surface characteristics of them that are of interest, in particular in antenna design. Special attention has been given to designing surfaces with high surface impedance in order to obtain an artificial magnetic conductor. These surfaces turn out to have frequency bands (bandgaps) inside which no surface waves can propagate along the surface, and they are therefore also referred to as electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) surfaces. This “stop” characteristic of the EBG surface makes it similar to the transversely corrugated surface that already in 1987 was the basis for introducing a concept of soft and hard surfaces, based on a terminology used in acoustics and diffraction theory. The EBG surface is equivalent to a soft surface. During 2006 metamaterials were used to design RF cloaks for making objects invisible to EM waves. The invention got attention in media due to the pictorial resemblance with Harry Potter’s cloak. Similar cloaks were realized already in 1996 by making use of the “go” characteristics of the hard surface.
During this course the background and theory of ideal magnetic conductors and soft and hard surfaces will be explained, as well as how to implement these theoretical models in existing software based on numerical methods such as GO, UTD, FDTD, FEM and moment method. The course covers also how magnetic conductors and soft and hard surfaces can be designed and practically realized, and how to analyze them without having to model each detail of the periodic structure. The limitations of the different analysis models as well as of the surface realizations themselves will be discussed with particular attention to diffraction effects, dispersion, surface waves, leaky waves, local quasi-TEM gap waves, and bandgap properties.
The work will be presented in relation to specific applications such as: ground planes, low-profile antennas, miniaturization, reduction of coupling, removal of parallel-plate noise in multilayer circuit boards, gap waveguides for millimetre waves, waveguide slot arrays, packaging of microstrip circuits, reduction of far out sidelobes, directivity enhancement, high-efficiency hard horns, quasi-TEM waveguides, compact horn antennas, reduction of blockage from cylindrical objects, grid amplifiers, and infinite array simulators.
See detailed program in pdf file below.
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COMPLETED : Antennas for Space Application
08/03/2010 - 12/03/2010
The aim of the course is to give an overview of design approaches, constraints and technical solutions for Space Antennas addressing both theoretical and technological issues. The course will focus on main space applications such as telecommunication, earth observation and science, but will also address other uses of antennas for space, such as navigation, data transmission antennas. The lectures will cover radiofrequency, mechanical and thermal design, material technology and test aspects, ending with a visit to ESTEC satellite and antenna test facilities.
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COMPLETED : Ultra-Wideband Antennas
19/04/2010 - 23/04/2010
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COMPLETED : Advanced Mathematics for Antenna Analysis
10/05/2010 - 18/05/2010
The objective of this course is to explain the mathematical methods used in computational antenna analysis and to provide students with mathematical background necessary for advanced antenna engineering and electromagnetic software development. This course can also serve as a mathematical introduction to other ESoA courses. The course will cover different approaches to solving wave equations, various wave representations, and mathematical theorems used to simplify the original electromagnetic problem.
This course has been EXTENDED and now lasts EIGHT FULL DAYS , comprising a total of 60 HOURS of lectures and exercises.
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COMPLETED : Millimeter Wave Antennas
31/05/2010 - 04/06/2010
The course provides the attendees with a large overview on planar antenna applications, physical principles and technology. Non planar structures are also addressed for mm-wave antennas. Emphasis is put on technological aspects (microstrip, microtechnologies, MEMS, metrology…) and specific field of applications (satellite antennas, mobile phones, base stations, car ACC radar…). The structures and parametric studies presented in the course are validated by CAD softwares (HFSS, Ansoft Designer, etc.).
The first part of the course provides the required details to design microstrip antenna and highlights the most pressing issues in telecommunication area, including broadbanding, circular polarization, and active microstrip antennas in particular.
The second part is dedicated to millimeter wave antennas and describes the main features and specificities of millimeter wave frequency range such as: technological and realization difficulties, antenna measurements, need to characterize the dielectric materials, etc.
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COMPLETED : Terahertz Technologies, Antennas and Applications
07/06/2010 - 11/06/2010
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COMPLETED : Antenna Measurements
14/06/2010 - 18/06/2010
The course is an intensive 5 day study on state-of-the-art near and far field antenna measurement techniques. It combines theoretical sessions with hands-on exercises. This allows participants to put newly acquired theory to practice and gives insight into all aspects of practical antenna measurements. The course also gives the fundamentals of recognizing and troubleshooting erroneous measurements due to testing variables and possible complications. The course is divided in four main parts covering all aspects of practical antenna measurements:
1. Antenna Measurement Theory
2. Antenna Measurement Preparation
3. Actual Measurement Execution
4. Trouble Shooting and Interpretation of Measurement Results
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COMPLETED : Antennas for Mobile Communication
21/06/2010 - 25/06/2010
see http://esoa.elmag.org/
Course topics:
Antennas for user terminals: Small antennas
Theory of characteristic modes, its applications to antenna design, measurement
Higher order modes for the design of planar antennas with specific properties
Propagation in build-up areas
Base stations and smart antennas
Antennas for mobile communication devices, design and measurement
Small antennas – applicators for medical applications
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COMPLETED : RF-Mems Based Antennas
28/06/2010 - 02/07/2010
The objective of this course is to provide a basic overview of antennas designed and fabricated by RF-MEMS technology. The course will cover following topics: brief overview of MEMS technology, its advantages, limitations; basic principles and techniques for the design of RF-MEMS based antennas; MEMS switch as a basic element for RF-MEMS antennas and arrays; applications such as micromachined antennas, reconfigurable antennas (frequency tunable, multiband, polarization and pattern reconfigurable antennas), phased arrays, reflectarrays; biasing techniques, brief discussion of reliability, power handling and packaging issues. This course includes modeling, fabrication techniques and measurements of RF-MEMS antennas. In addition to lectures, design-simulation studies and some measurements of RF-MEMS antennas can be performed. The important fabrication steps will be demonstrated.
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