Public defence in Radio Engineering, M.Sc.(Tech.) Henri Kähkönen

M.Sc.(Tech.) Henri Kähkönen will defend the thesis "Advances in Wide-Band  Phased Antenna Array  Design and Manufacturing at Millimeter-Waves" on 9 September 2022 at 12 (EET) in Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering, Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering, in lecture hall AS1, Maarintie 8, Espoo, and online in Zoom.

Opponent: Prof. A. Bart Smolders, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Supervisor: Prof. Ville Viikari, Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering, Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering

The public defence will be organized via remote technology. Follow defence: https://aalto.zoom.us/j/68287987690
Zoom Quick Guide: https://www.aalto.fi/en/services/zoom-quick-guide

Thesis available for public display at: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/doc_public/eonly/riiputus/
Doctoral theses in the School of Electrical Engineering: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/53

Public defence announcement:

Millimeter waves (mmWaves) (30-300 GHz) are an interesting frequency band from the perspective of telecommunication and sensors (i.e., radars). MmWaves are at a significantly higher frequency band than the currently used telecommunication band. This will multiply the usable frequency spectrum while simultaneously decreasing the antenna size in base stations. Smaller antenna size enables the use of hundreds or thousands of antenna elements within the same volume which in turn enables electronically steerable arrays. On the other hand, designing and manufacturing these will become challenging.

This dissertation discusses how mmWave antenna arrays could be designed and manufactured using new and emerging manufacturing methods such as additive manufacturing (AM). Furthermore, integration of beamforming electronics with the antennas has been discussed. Additionally, the thesis includes discussion how the mmWave antennas could be co-designed with antennas required for LTE networks in handsets without affecting the performance of either frequency band significantly.

The results in the dissertation show that AM is feasible in manufacturing mmWave antenna arrays. Additionally, AM enables manufacturing of antenna geometries that have been previously impossible or very challenging to manufacture. AM could also decrease the costs of manufacturing these antenna arrays without affecting the performance. Integrating the beamforming electronics within close proximity of each antenna elements, and within the same footprint as the mmWave antenna array has also been realized during the thesis work due to the advances in integrated electronics. Integrating the electronics in this manner increases the efficiency of the antenna arrays due to decreased loss in the structure.

The results of this dissertation support the transition of telecommunications to mmWave frequencies, and contribute to the research required to design and manufacture mmWave frequency devices.

Contact information of doctoral candidate: