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PhD Position in Multiple Beam Hybrid Array Antenna for Satcom and for 5G and Beyond (HybridBeams)

Opening for: PhD student

Status details

Status:Closed
Announced:13 Sep 2021

The next generation of wireless communication systems for civilian satellite and cellular applications demands highly directive and low-cost antennas generating multiple simultaneous co-frequency beams. The multibeam capability in antennas for Internet user terminals and base stations/phones is essential for smooth satellite/base station handover, throughput increase, and improvement of link reliability. Due to its relatively lower implementation and processing complexity as compared to the fully-analog / fully-digital multibeam architectures, Hybrid Beam Forming (HBF) is currently seen as a promising alternative towards realizing this aim. However, the ambition for the future is to have several beams with permanent beam agility over a wide field-of-view and frequency range, which is not achievable with the currently proposed HBF schemes. Besides, the requirements on beam reconfigurability in a wide angular range and large bandwidth bring additional design challenges. Therefore, new fundamental approaches and further studies in HBF are required to address the current problems and prove its potential for future investments. 

In this Ph.D. project (HybridBeams), the objectives are to identify capabilities/limitations of a new HBF architecture based on reconfigurable multiport sub-arrays, and to propose novel synthesis and design solutions (both in hardware and signal processing) to address the limitations. The scientific challenges expected to be solved within the project include (i) reducing the complexity and losses in reconfigurable analog multibeam antenna feed circuits, (ii) increasing the number of beams with reasonable complexity, (iii) maintaining radiation properties (beam directions, gains, sidelobe levels) over a wide field-of-view and bandwidth under practical design factors, (iv) obtaining low-cost use-case specific designs with modularity. 

The candidate will join the MS3 group at TU Delft, which has built its expertise on years of research and development in the area of active phased array antennas with various sub-array based and sparsity-based multiple beam generation concepts, in strong collaboration with NXP Semiconductors and European Space Agency in the Netherlands.

Requirements

The applicant should have a MSc degree with a strong background in electrical engineering or physics and preferably with prior knowledge of and interest in antenna systems, microwave circuit design and signal processing. Programming experience in MATLAB is expected; experience in working with EM simulation tools (e.g. CST Studio Suite) will be an advantage. Strong communication skills for interaction with the other members of the team are expected. The researcher should have an open personality and good English language skills in order to closely cooperate with colleagues and students as well as to write project documents. European (EU) nationality is an advantage.

Contact

dr. Yanki Aslan

Assistant Professor

Microwave Sensing, Signals and Systems Group

Department of Microelectronics

Additional information

In The Netherlands, almost all PhD positions are linked to funded research projects. This has several implications:
  • PhD students are employed: they receive a salary rather than a grant. Most projects have a duration of 4 years.
  • Positions become available once a project is funded. This can happen at any time during the year.
  • It typically takes 6 to 9 months for a project proposal to receive funding. In this period, a position may be anticipated but the outcome remains insecure. Once a project is funded, the open position needs to be filled as soon as possible.

If you are interested in our research, it merits to inquire whether openings will be available. We collect resumes of prospective PhD students throughout the year, for each of our research tracks.

General requirements

We make our selection based on the following general requirements:
  • Formal requirements regarding prior education: you should have earned an MSc degree at a recognized institute for higher education.
  • Background: you should have a background that fits the requirements of the project
  • Excellence: your Grade-Point-Average should be above 8 (10). Also your MSc thesis should have received a grade above 8 (10).
  • English: you should be able to communicate well in english (written and oral). Provide TOEFL/IELTS scores if available.
  • Originality: your MSc thesis or later work (publications) should reflect some original ideas. Critical and independent thinking is very important.
  • Team player: you should be able to work well in a team of other project members.
Your resume should contain contact information of prior advisors/supervisors who can provide feedback.