Our pioneering work in this area has led to the significant contributions to the UK Ofcom Spectrum Framework Review and the developments of new products and business opportunities, new technologies for assessing the Electromagnetic emission on the mobile handset and for smart meter deployment, and wearable antennas deployed in the battlefield to reduce the load and provide smart communications for dismounted soldiers.
The underpinning research has generated several impacts on public services, the environment and the economy.
With the integration of multiple functions on mobile phone handsets, the EM emission from different components has caused interference to the radio channels, which burdens wireless networks, causing excess power consumption. Sony-Ericsson, have funded the group to develop wideband test equipment for detecting EM interference on mobile terminals since 2007. This work has led to a patent application (EU Patent Application No: 08100712.2,). In 2008, Innovation China-UK funded the group to commercialise the developed technology in collaboration with Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China. Two specialist test units were built and sold (one to Sony-Ericsson and the other to Wavetown Communications Ltd, China). The developed products enable the mobile handset manufacturers to assess their mobile phones and make sure the products are in ‘green’ operation.
A significant competitive advantage over existing systems is that our system is wireless, will be more robust and does not need the “studio” environment that optical systems require. Activities through the platform grant and Alomainy’s EPSRC first grant has initiated collaboration with Shadow Robot Company, an SME based in London, on providing accurate localisation systems using UWB technologies for limbs and joints mimicking in the robotic industry. The research team at QMUL and Shadow Robot were successful in securing a TSB grant for 12 months (Aug. 2013) to further investigate the research challenges behind UWB localisation of human hands and translate it into potential commercial applications.
Traditional UWB antennas are bulky in size, which limits their applications. Built on the Antenna group’s extensive expertise and experience in antenna engineering, Professor Xiaodong Chen and his team proposed a printed version of the UWB monopole for the first time, in which the ground plane is printed on the substrate offering a compact flat solution. Furthermore, the QMUL group identified the operating mechanism of planar UWB antennas as the combination of overlapping multiple resonances and travelling waves and this technical breakthrough has resulted in an explosion of research work on the printed version of UWB antennas worldwide [R1]. A variety of compact UWB antennas were developed in the group for various applications funded by the UK government and industry.
Lead by Prof. Yang Hao the group was the first to apply UWB technology for body area networks in collaboration with University of Birmingham, which led to a seminal book on the topic of body-centric communications [R2] and three EPSRC research grants (> £2M) both jointly held with Birmingham covering the period 2003-2013.
The work [R3] was the first in the area of UWB for body-centric networks and is considered to be one of the most cited papers on UWB antennas effects on the human body propagation channel. The research has attracted early-stage researchers attending three EU supported doctoral schools held at Queen Mary (http://www.antennasvce.org/Community/Education/Courses/Locations, European School of Antennas).
The subsequent research activities in this field led to the design and evaluation of UWB antennas coupled with tunable electronic circuitry to be used in smart and cooperative personal and body area networks (EPSRC First Grant- Alomainy) The group has recently secured a TSB grant with the Shadow Robot Company for 12 months to further investigate the research challenges behind UWB localisation of human hands and translate it into potential commercial applications.