Progress in Active Integrated Antennas

Active integrated antennas, now a major research topic, offer highly compact radio front ends which will find application in a range of systems. The paper commences with a brief review of the technology and likely applications. Then some of the work at The University of Birmingham is summarised. Advances in the reduction of unwanted harmonic radiation through the use of improved antenna configurations is described. Stability and phase noise have been improved by the use of phase lock loops and resonant cavities. Finally issues relating to realisation on gallium arsenide monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) are discussed and examples at 5.8 and 30 GHz are shown.