PLASMA ANTENNA

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

PONDICHERRY UNIVERSITY
SUBMITEED BY:
RIGVENDRA KUMAR
VARDHAN
M.TECH ECE 1ST YEAR
REG. NO: 14304022

OUTLINE
What is Plasma.
What is Antenna.
Plasma Antenna
Technology.

Features of Plasma Antenna

Characteristics of Plasma
Antenna

Plasma antenna Vs
traditional antenna

Types of Plasma Antenna

How Plasma Antenna Works.

Why we use Plasma Antenna.
Working Principle
Advantages
Applications
Disadvantages
Conclusion

CHANGE OF MATTER

Plasma

has properties quite unlike those of solids,

liquids, or gases and is considered be a distinct state of
matter.

COMPARISION OF STATE OF MATTERS PRESENT IN OUR UNIVERSE

WHAT IS PLASMA?
Sir William Crookes, identified a matter, called plasma, in 1879.
According to Marklands technology, plasmas are conductive

assemblies of
charged and neutral particles and fields that exhibit collective effects.

By supplying energy the states of matter changes: from solid to liquid and from
liquid to gas. If further energy is added to a gas it becomes ionized and passes
over into the Plasma state a fourth state of matter.

Plasma is

a state of matter similar to gas in which a certain portion of the

particles are ionized. Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms, thus
turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and
negative electrons. Ionization can be induced by other means, such as strong
electromagnetic field applied with a laser or microwave generator, and is
accompanied by the dissociation of molecular bonds, if present.

Plasmas carry electrical currents and generate magnetic fields.

CLASSIFICATION OF PLASMA
PLASMA

LOW TEMPERATURE PLASMA

COLD PLASMA
(at room temperature)

HIGH TEMPERATURE
PLASMA(at temperature of
10^8-10^9 K)

HOT PLASMA
(at temperature of 20020000k)

PLASMA FREQUENCY

the electron plasma frequency

the ion plasma frequency

the plasma frequency

as the electrons are so much lighter than ions

ANTENNA
Antenna

is defined as an electrical conductor of specific length that

radiate radio waves generated by a transmitter and collects that waves at
receiver

Antenna

is a device used as transmitter and receiver in signal

transmission and receiving.

Both transmitting and receiving antenna must have equal impedance.

PRINCIPLE:

When voltage is applied to an antenna, electric field is produced.

It causes current to flow in antenna.
Due to current flow, magnetic field is produced.
These two fields are emitted from an antenna and propagate through
space over very long distance.

PLASMA ANTENNAS
Plasma Antennas is a type of radio antenna currently under development.
Plasma is used instead of metal for conduction i.e. plasma discharge
tubes are used as the antenna element.

Plasma antenna are Radio frequency antenna

that employ plasma as a

guiding medium for electromagnetic radiation.

It uses ionized gas instead of metal conducting element of conventional

antenna to transmit and receive signals, decreasing interference and
boosting the functionality.

When

the gas of plasma tube is electrically charged or ionized ,it

becomes conductive and allowing radio frequency signals to be
transmitted or received.

When gas is not ionized, the antenna element ceases to exit.

PLASMA ANTENNAS
Ionized

gas is an efficient conducting element with a number of

important advantages. Since the gas is ionized only for the time of
transmission or reception," ringing" and associated effects of solid wire
antenna design are eliminated.
The design allows for extremely short pulses, important to many forms
of digital communication and radars.

It

is compact and dynamically reconfigured for frequency, direction,

bandwidth, gain and beam width.

This

technology enable to design antenna that are efficient, low in

weight and smaller in size .

WHY WE USE PLASMA ANTENNA?

Plasma devices are fully steerable.
Are a low cost replacement for both mechanically steered antennas.
No antenna ringing provides an improved signal to noise ratio
comparison to traditional antennas.

A airborne Plasma antenna provides stealth technology to it.

Plasma Antennas leads the world in developing low cost

plas76

antennas across the band 1 GHz to 300 GHz.

A circular scan can be performed electronically with no moving parts

at a higher speed than traditional mechanical antenna structures.

KEY FEATURES
High

directional gain: concentrates RF power to increase link

budget, dramatically enhancing network coverage and capacity.

Low side lobes reduce interference, enabling improved frequency reuse and substantially higher utilization.

Wide bandwidth supports simultaneous multi-band or UWB operation

from a single compact antenna.

High speed beam switching enables spatial time division multiplexing

to boost spectral efficiency and throughput.

Compact

and lightweight form factor reduces site and mast costs,

simplifies installation and minimizes environmental impact.

Maintenance

free - auto-aligning with no moving parts and requires

no calibration, minimizing total cost.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A PLASMA
ANTENNA
Plasma antenna can operate up to 90 GHz.
Plasma antenna can transmit and receive

from the same aperture

provided the frequencies are widely separated.

A single dynamic antenna structure can use time multiplexing so that

many RF subsystems can share one antenna resource.

Changes

in the ion density can result in instantaneous changes in

bandwidth over wide dynamic ranges.

In Plasma Antenna ,Gas ionizing process can manipulate resistance and

when deionised, the gas has infinite resistance and doesnt interact with
RF radiation.

Reduces computer signal processing requirements.

Ability to focus a single beam.

WORKING PRINCIPLE
A Plasma antenna technology employs ionized gas enclosed in a tube
as a conducting element of an antenna.

When

supply is given to the tube, the gas inside it gets ionized to

plasma. When plasma is highly energized, it behaves as a conductor
that allowing radio frequency (RF) signals to be transmitted or
received.

A plasma antenna generates localized concentrations of plasma to form

a plasma mirror which deflects an RF beam launched from a central
feed located at the focus of the mirror.

The

plasma can be freely moved to the desired geometry of the

reflector by plasma diodes which enables the beam to be steered
quickly without the need for mechanical motion.

WORKING PRINCIPLE
An

ionized region, or solid state plasma, can be generated in silicon

using electronically controlled devices (plasma diodes) that are
positioned between closely spaced metalized surfaces which constrain
the beam.

When

the gas is not ionized or a plasma antenna is turned off - it is

transparent and allowing other adjacent antennas to transmit or receive
without interference.

In some realizations, the silicon disc (i.e. Si wafer) act as a cylindrical

lens, to form a lens/reflector system that enables the RF energy to be
collimated.

In

order for plasma to have significant effect on an electromagnetic

wave, the electronic density must be increased by several orders of
magnitude.

WORKING PRINCIPLE
The resulting pattern forms a rosette of overlapping reflectors only one
of which is active at any time.

When

plasma jet enters into the spiral field, signals are emitted. The
spiral is localized concentration of plasma. These spirals behave as
plasma mirrors which help in transmission of RF signals.

TYPES OF PLASMA ANTENNAS

Laser Induced Antenna

Plasma Antennas Using Tube Structures
Explosively Formed Plasma Dielectric
Antennas

LASER INDUCED ANTENNA

The transmission was realized along a plasma channel that was created
by the atmosphere breakdown.

The atmosphere breakdown was created by the focused laser emission.

The laser is used to designate the path of the antenna while an
electrical discharge is employed to create and sustain the plasma.

PLASMA ANTENNAS USING TUBE

STRUCTURES
Using tube structures, we can achieve low base-band noise for HF and
VHF transmission.

When the plasma creating voltage is turned off, the antenna effectively
disappears.

PLASMA DIELECTRIC ANTENNAS

A simple

explosive charge design, called a plasma cartridge, can be

used to generate a column of ionized gas.

In this design. 1-3 grams of seeded explosive charge, which contained

Fe, Pb, C, N, K, Cl, and O was used to create plasma.

Due

to high temperatures generated by the explosive material, the

surrounding gases became ionized, forming a plasma column.

The maximum attainable temperature that can be achieved is dependent

upon the available oxygen for the fuel recombination.

It has been proven that a plasma jet antenna is feasible.

SOME TYPE OF PLASMA ANTENNA

Plasma
Reflector

Parabolic

SOME TYPE OF PLASMA ANTENNA

IONIZED GAS PLASMA ANTENNA

PLASMA TUBE ANTENNA

SOME TYPE OF PLASMA ANTENNA

MULTIPLE TUBE PLASMA ANTENNA

SELECTABLE MULTIBEAM
ANTENNA

PLASMA ANTENNA VS TRADITIONAL

ANTENNA
PLASMA ANTENNA

TRADITIONAL ANTENNA

Electronic movement is made

even more easily inside the
plasma antenna, because of
electrons are in a free state
inside the hot gas.

Plasma antenna greatly reduces

the effects of interference.

Solid metal antenna can function because electrons can move

freely in the metal conductor .

Conventional metal antennas can pick up various noises or

Interference that bounce of the surrounding metal objects

PLASMA ANTENNA VS TRADITIONAL

ANTENNA
Unlike simple directional antennas, Plasma Antennas selectable multibeam antennas are electronically steered, avoiding the need for manual
or mechanical alignment and realignment of fixed point-to-point
communication links. Plasma Antennas selectable multi-beam antennas
provide similar advantages to phased array antennas but at a fraction of
the cost, together with much wider bandwidth of operation.

VS

ADVANTAGES
Higher Power
Enhanced bandwidth
Higher efficiency

High gain
Affordable
Low interference

Lower noise
Perfect reflector

Compact and lightweight

Wide bandwidth
Maintenance free

Low in weight
Smaller in size
Improved reliability

Modular

DISADVANTAGES
Ionizer adds weight and volume .
Ionizer increases power consumption .
Stable and repeatable plasma volumes: Not all of the gas is ionized to
become plasma, some parts remain unionized. Thus the volume of the
plasma formed during each time should be same to generate stable
electromagnetic waves. This can be achieved by keeping the current
flowing through it constant, which will excite the same amount of
particles

APPLICATION
MILLITARY APPLICATIONS
Shipboard/submarine antenna
replacements.

Unmanned air vehicle sensor

antennas.

land-based vehicle antennas.

Stealth aircraft antenna
replacements.
Defense, Space and Homeland
Security.

Military applications for its

stealth, weight and easily
reconfiguration.

Detection and tracking of ballistic

missiles.

COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS
Telemetry & broad-band
communications.

Ground penetrating radar.

Navigation.
Weather radar and wind shear
detection.

Collision avoidance .
Network Equipment Providers and
Systems Integrators

High-speed data communication.

In radio antenna.
Used for transmission and modulation
techniques(PM,AM,FM).

CONCLUSION
Plasma

antenna is a wide band width and capable of any

communication systems

The light weight of antenna system provide easy usage.

Multidirectional antenna in microwave communication
It is more advantageous than other antenna due to ionized gas.
Its action has many general with the dielectric antenna action.
It helps in pulse operation.

REFERENCES
www.wikipedia.org
www.seminaron.in
www.seminarelectronicstopic.com
www.techalone.com
www.authorstream.com

THANK YOU

QUERIES