Most electronic devices we use today that are a vital part of our modern lives—including smartphones, laptops, tablets, televisions, radios and radars—rely on spectrum frequencies to carry information. Wireless signals are transmitted via these spectrum frequencies by mobile phones and Wi-Fi, to car radars for automatic braking, cloud and rain monitoring radars, garage door openers and TV remote controls.
The antennas found in some current communication systems are not energy efficient and can also cause radio frequency pollution to wireless systems that share the same frequency bands or channels. Flat (planar) high-gain conformal antennas overcome these disadvantages. They also overcome issues of poor durability to the outdoors, being manually controlled and having a lack of a visual appeal.
With support from the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund, Professor Karu Esselle from Macquarie University led an Australian research team in partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in developing a novel, versatile class of low-profile (thin) high-gain antennas with steerable antenna beams, for current and emerging wireless communication systems.