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This manuscript presents the use of three novel technologies for the implementation of wireless green battery-less sensors that can be used in agriculture. The three technologies, namely, additive manufacturing, energy harvesting, and wireless power transfer from airborne transmitters carried from UAVs, are considered for smart agriculture applications, and their combined use is demonstrated in a case study experiment. Additive manufacturing is exploited for the implementation of both RFID-based sensors and passive sensors based on humidity-sensitive materials. A number of energy-harvesting systems at UHF and ISM frequencies are presented, which are in the position to power platforms of wireless sensors, including humidity and temperature IC sensors used as agriculture sensors. Finally, in order to provide wireless energy to the soil-based sensors with energy harvesting features, wireless power transfer (WPT) from UAV carried transmitters is utilized. The use of these technologies can facilitate the extensive use and exploitation of battery-less wireless sensors, which are environmentally friendly and, thus, "green". Additionally, it can potentially drive precision agriculture in the next era through the implementation of a vast network of wireless green sensors which can collect and communicate data to airborne readers so as to support, the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning-based decision-making with data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid growth of wireless spectrum access through cellular and IoT devices, for example, requires antennas with more capabilities such as being conformal and self-adapting beamforming. In this paper, the adaptive beamforming patterns of microstrip patch antenna arrays on changing flexible (or conformal) curved surfaces are developed by deriving array coefficients based on the projection method that includes the mutual coupling between elements. A linear four-element microstrip patch antenna array is then embedded on two deformed conformal surfaces to investigate the projection method for desired beamforming patterns. The generated beamforming radiation patterns using the computed weighting coefficients are validated with theoretical equations evaluated in MATLAB, full-wave simulations in HFSS and measurement results. The measured results of the fabricated system agree with the simulated results. Furthermore, new guidelines are provided on the effects of mutual coupling and changing conformal surfaces for various beam-forming patterns. Such demonstrations pave the way to an efficient and robust conformal phased-array antenna with multiple beam forming and adaptive nulling capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of the need for communication with distributed sensors/items, this paper presents the design of a single-port antenna with dual-mode operation, representing the front-end of a future generation tag acting as a position sensor, with identification and energy harvesting capabilities. An Archimedean spiral covers the lower European Ultra-Wideband (UWB) frequency range for communication/localization purposes, whereas a non-standard dipole operates in the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band to wirelessly receive the energy. The versatility of the antenna is guaranteed by the inclusion of a High Impedance Surface (HIS) back layer, which is responsible for the low-profile stack-up and the insensitivity to the background material. A conformal design, supported by 3D-printing technology, is pursued to check the versatility of the proposed architecture in view of any application involving its deformation and tracking/powering operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a modified ground structure capable of reducing mutual coupling to provide isolation between adjacent antenna elements is presented. The proposed modified ground structure is a combination of a strategically located ground slot, asymmetric partial ground and a substrate-integrated pin wall. The use of the modified ground structure causes a more than 28 dB (measured value) mutual coupling reduction. The modified ground structure has been optimized and validated with a finite spaced planar 2 × 1 antenna array operating at 4.16 GHz, intended for unmanned aerial vehicle radar altimeter applications. The patch antennas built with the MGS exhibit high gain (greater than 6 dBi throughout the operational band), along with inter-element coupling as low as −65 dB. Mutual coupling reduction at lower contours is beneficial for altimeter applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, two implementations of reconfigurable bandwidth bandpass filters (BPFs) are demonstrated both operating at a fixed center frequency of 2.4 GHz. The proposed reconfigurable bandwidth filters are based on a square ring resonator loaded with λg/4 open-ended stubs that are permanently connected to the ring and converted to either 3λg/4 open-ended stubs or λg/2 short-ended stubs by means of positive-intrinsic-negative(PIN) diodes to implement two reconfigurable bandwidth states for each case. Due to the symmetrical nature of the design, even- and odd-mode analysis is used to derive the closed-form to describe the reconfigurable filters' behavior. The switching between narrowband and wideband is achieved using PIN diodes. In the first implementation (λg/4 open-ended stubs to 3λg/4 open-ended stubs), a reconfigurable bandwidth bandpass filter is proposed where additional out-of-band transmission zeros are generated by integrating a λg/2 open-ended stub at the input port. In the second implementation (λg/4 open-ended stubs to λg/2 short-ended stubs), further improvement in the upper stopband is achieved by utilizing a pair of parallel coupled lines (PCLs) as feeding lines and a pair of λg/4 high impedance short-ended stubs implemented at the input and output ports. To verify the validity of the simulated results, the prototypes of the proposed reconfigurable filters were fabricated. For the first case, measured insertion loss is less than 1.8 dB with a switchable 3-dB fractional bandwidth (FBW) range from 28% to 54%. The measured results for the second case exhibit a low insertion loss of less than 1 dB and a 3-dB fractional bandwidth that can be switched from 34% to 75%, while the center frequency is kept constant at 2.4 GHz in both cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]