A critical part of the development of LyceanEM in support of the development of Space-based Solar Power is the development of a robust and accurate model for microwave propagation. The critical issue for space-based solar power is an accurate prediction of the losses from propagation through the different layers of the atmosphere for extremely large scale microwave beams, over 1km in radius. This level of electromagnetics modelling is beyond the capability of current commercial software, and requires the development of new open-source tools to support the development of the technology.
I’m excited to announce “The Power of the Sun : Workshop on Space Based Solar Power”, funded by the University of Bristol, and supported by the Satellite Applications Catapult and Virtus Solis. Beyond the academic interest in the problems of modelling such large antenna arrays in orbit, I am very excited about the possibility of transforming what was a staple of science fiction, into a very real contributor to the energy mix.
When considering antennas and antenna arrays, one of the more useful and consistent abstractions are that of the plane wave, and the related concept of the farfield. These concepts are simplifications of the expanding spherical wavefronts in the limit of large distances. The approximation states that when considering a specific direction or set of directions the spherical wavefront can be approximated as a plane wave propagating in the direction of interest.
The emergence of Space-based Solar Power (SBSP) offers the potential of green, reliable, deliverable power from space to Earth. This technology is under development around the globe, with notable advances in the United Kingdom, Japan, China, and the United States. The UK has a strong position with the Space Energy Initiative which has been formed by stakeholders in government, academia and industry to develop SBSP. Advances in the UK have been funded by the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, and various government agencies. However, beyond the primary application in civil energy production, the dynamic nature of wireless power beaming means that there is an attractive opportunity for military applications, including power beaming to forward operating bases, and the potential use of strong orbital signals to be used to support navigation and sensing systems. In particular, the well-defined positions and frequency standard of SBSP systems could allow their use as navigation beacons, and suitably designed passive radar receivers could use the satellites as convenient and durable illuminators of opportunity. A deployable power system which could produce over 1MW using a 10GHz narrow band power transmission from low earth orbit is considered, and the effects of transmitter size on efficiency and passive radar range is considered, while requiring less than 20% of the equivalent mass of a conventional deployable power generation system, without fuel requirements.
Comparing the performance of different antenna array designs and beamforming methods can be challenging, especially when conformal antenna arrays are also considered in the design arena. The boresight gain and half power beamwidth are often used to compare antenna arrays and antenna designs, and the ideal figures are easy to calculate for a planar aperture at a given frequency. However, this tells us little about the performance of the antenna array away from boresight, and is of limited use for conformal antenna arrays. Quite a number of years ago I came across a very useful concept called steering efficiency, and the steering efficiency product, which can be used to compare different antenna array architectures and beamforming methods, accounting for different frequencies and array sizes.
[2]: J. G. Marin and J. Hesselbarth, “Figure of Merit for Beam-Steering Antennas,” 2019 12th German Microwave Conference (GeMiC), Stuttgart, Germany, 2019, pp. 44-47, doi: 10.23919/GEMIC.2019.8698122
I’m excited to announce “The Power of the Sun : Workshop on Space Based Solar Power”, funded by the University of Bristol, and supported by the Satellite Applications Catapult and Virtus Solis. Beyond the academic interest in the problems of modelling such large antenna arrays in orbit, I am very excited about the possibility of transforming what was a staple of science fiction, into a very real contributor to the energy mix.
When considering antennas and antenna arrays, one of the more useful and consistent abstractions are that of the plane wave, and the related concept of the farfield. These concepts are simplifications of the expanding spherical wavefronts in the limit of large distances. The approximation states that when considering a specific direction or set of directions the spherical wavefront can be approximated as a plane wave propagating in the direction of interest.
The emergence of Space-based Solar Power (SBSP) offers the potential of green, reliable, deliverable power from space to Earth. This technology is under development around the globe, with notable advances in the United Kingdom, Japan, China, and the United States. The UK has a strong position with the Space Energy Initiative which has been formed by stakeholders in government, academia and industry to develop SBSP. Advances in the UK have been funded by the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, and various government agencies. However, beyond the primary application in civil energy production, the dynamic nature of wireless power beaming means that there is an attractive opportunity for military applications, including power beaming to forward operating bases, and the potential use of strong orbital signals to be used to support navigation and sensing systems. In particular, the well-defined positions and frequency standard of SBSP systems could allow their use as navigation beacons, and suitably designed passive radar receivers could use the satellites as convenient and durable illuminators of opportunity. A deployable power system which could produce over 1MW using a 10GHz narrow band power transmission from low earth orbit is considered, and the effects of transmitter size on efficiency and passive radar range is considered, while requiring less than 20% of the equivalent mass of a conventional deployable power generation system, without fuel requirements.
Comparing the performance of different antenna array designs and beamforming methods can be challenging, especially when conformal antenna arrays are also considered in the design arena. The boresight gain and half power beamwidth are often used to compare antenna arrays and antenna designs, and the ideal figures are easy to calculate for a planar aperture at a given frequency. However, this tells us little about the performance of the antenna array away from boresight, and is of limited use for conformal antenna arrays. Quite a number of years ago I came across a very useful concept called steering efficiency, and the steering efficiency product, which can be used to compare different antenna array architectures and beamforming methods, accounting for different frequencies and array sizes.
[2]: J. G. Marin and J. Hesselbarth, “Figure of Merit for Beam-Steering Antennas,” 2019 12th German Microwave Conference (GeMiC), Stuttgart, Germany, 2019, pp. 44-47, doi: 10.23919/GEMIC.2019.8698122
A welcome invite from Reset Connect resulted in Professor Mark Beach and I taking the train up to Westminster with posters and a Communication Systems and Networks Laboratory banner up to Parliament. Presenting the results of my work on scalable electromagnetics for Space-based Solar Power. We were able to engage with Members of Parliament from the North of England, and discuss the potential for different technologies to address the Net Zero Climate Challenge.
I’m delighted to announce the version 0.1.0 release of LyceanEM. The support of the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio has allowed us to complete the first major release of our development roadmap. This includes :
A welcome invite from Reset Connect resulted in Professor Mark Beach and I taking the train up to Westminster with posters and a Communication Systems and Networks Laboratory banner up to Parliament. Presenting the results of my work on scalable electromagnetics for Space-based Solar Power. We were able to engage with Members of Parliament from the North of England, and discuss the potential for different technologies to address the Net Zero Climate Challenge.
A critical part of the development of LyceanEM in support of the development of Space-based Solar Power is the development of a robust and accurate model for microwave propagation. The critical issue for space-based solar power is an accurate prediction of the losses from propagation through the different layers of the atmosphere for extremely large scale microwave beams, over 1km in radius. This level of electromagnetics modelling is beyond the capability of current commercial software, and requires the development of new open-source tools to support the development of the technology.
I’m excited to announce “The Power of the Sun : Workshop on Space Based Solar Power”, funded by the University of Bristol, and supported by the Satellite Applications Catapult and Virtus Solis. Beyond the academic interest in the problems of modelling such large antenna arrays in orbit, I am very excited about the possibility of transforming what was a staple of science fiction, into a very real contributor to the energy mix.
When considering antennas and antenna arrays, one of the more useful and consistent abstractions are that of the plane wave, and the related concept of the farfield. These concepts are simplifications of the expanding spherical wavefronts in the limit of large distances. The approximation states that when considering a specific direction or set of directions the spherical wavefront can be approximated as a plane wave propagating in the direction of interest.
The emergence of Space-based Solar Power (SBSP) offers the potential of green, reliable, deliverable power from space to Earth. This technology is under development around the globe, with notable advances in the United Kingdom, Japan, China, and the United States. The UK has a strong position with the Space Energy Initiative which has been formed by stakeholders in government, academia and industry to develop SBSP. Advances in the UK have been funded by the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, and various government agencies. However, beyond the primary application in civil energy production, the dynamic nature of wireless power beaming means that there is an attractive opportunity for military applications, including power beaming to forward operating bases, and the potential use of strong orbital signals to be used to support navigation and sensing systems. In particular, the well-defined positions and frequency standard of SBSP systems could allow their use as navigation beacons, and suitably designed passive radar receivers could use the satellites as convenient and durable illuminators of opportunity. A deployable power system which could produce over 1MW using a 10GHz narrow band power transmission from low earth orbit is considered, and the effects of transmitter size on efficiency and passive radar range is considered, while requiring less than 20% of the equivalent mass of a conventional deployable power generation system, without fuel requirements.
Comparing the performance of different antenna array designs and beamforming methods can be challenging, especially when conformal antenna arrays are also considered in the design arena. The boresight gain and half power beamwidth are often used to compare antenna arrays and antenna designs, and the ideal figures are easy to calculate for a planar aperture at a given frequency. However, this tells us little about the performance of the antenna array away from boresight, and is of limited use for conformal antenna arrays. Quite a number of years ago I came across a very useful concept called steering efficiency, and the steering efficiency product, which can be used to compare different antenna array architectures and beamforming methods, accounting for different frequencies and array sizes.
[2]: J. G. Marin and J. Hesselbarth, “Figure of Merit for Beam-Steering Antennas,” 2019 12th German Microwave Conference (GeMiC), Stuttgart, Germany, 2019, pp. 44-47, doi: 10.23919/GEMIC.2019.8698122
I’m delighted to announce the version 0.1.0 release of LyceanEM. The support of the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio has allowed us to complete the first major release of our development roadmap. This includes :
A welcome invite from Reset Connect resulted in Professor Mark Beach and I taking the train up to Westminster with posters and a Communication Systems and Networks Laboratory banner up to Parliament. Presenting the results of my work on scalable electromagnetics for Space-based Solar Power. We were able to engage with Members of Parliament from the North of England, and discuss the potential for different technologies to address the Net Zero Climate Challenge.
A critical part of the development of LyceanEM in support of the development of Space-based Solar Power is the development of a robust and accurate model for microwave propagation. The critical issue for space-based solar power is an accurate prediction of the losses from propagation through the different layers of the atmosphere for extremely large scale microwave beams, over 1km in radius. This level of electromagnetics modelling is beyond the capability of current commercial software, and requires the development of new open-source tools to support the development of the technology.
The Royal Academy of Engineering Awardee Excellence Community Conference was an excellent opportunity to meet other awardees, and discuss the future of engineering in the UK. The conference was held in Manchester, and was a great opportunity to brings together Royal Academy awardees and alumni to network, exchange ideas, learn from each other and to shape the work of the Academy.
Addition of examples to the documentation for LyceanEM, found at examples. The examples cover Aperture Projection, Aperture Modelling, Array Modelling and Beamforming, and modelling physical channels in the Frequency or Time Domain.
LyceanEM, the electromagnetics software I have been developing to support my research is now open for anybody to use. If you have an interest in communications, antennas, or radar then LyceanEM can help.
In order to predict the performance envelope of an array, the effects of beamforming the aperture need to be taken into account. The array is modelled using electric current sources to replicate the individual elements and "Equal Gain Combining" to form the beam efficiently in along the desired directions.
Welcome to the LyceanEM blog, I will add to it as I work on new ways to model electromagnetics for sensors and communications. I will update this blog with musings on the changing needs of antenna engineers in the battle for bandwidth and capability on the latest sensor and communications systems, and ways to address them.
I’m excited to announce “The Power of the Sun : Workshop on Space Based Solar Power”, funded by the University of Bristol, and supported by the Satellite Applications Catapult and Virtus Solis. Beyond the academic interest in the problems of modelling such large antenna arrays in orbit, I am very excited about the possibility of transforming what was a staple of science fiction, into a very real contributor to the energy mix.
A welcome invite from Reset Connect resulted in Professor Mark Beach and I taking the train up to Westminster with posters and a Communication Systems and Networks Laboratory banner up to Parliament. Presenting the results of my work on scalable electromagnetics for Space-based Solar Power. We were able to engage with Members of Parliament from the North of England, and discuss the potential for different technologies to address the Net Zero Climate Challenge.
Workshop Announcement: RF Sensing as a Service A workshop hosted by the University of Bristol as part of my research into satellite based passive radar, in order to explore the challenges, breakthroughs and applications for space based sensor networks.
The emergence of Space-based Solar Power (SBSP) offers the potential of green, reliable, deliverable power from space to Earth. This technology is under development around the globe, with notable advances in the United Kingdom, Japan, China, and the United States. The UK has a strong position with the Space Energy Initiative which has been formed by stakeholders in government, academia and industry to develop SBSP. Advances in the UK have been funded by the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, and various government agencies. However, beyond the primary application in civil energy production, the dynamic nature of wireless power beaming means that there is an attractive opportunity for military applications, including power beaming to forward operating bases, and the potential use of strong orbital signals to be used to support navigation and sensing systems. In particular, the well-defined positions and frequency standard of SBSP systems could allow their use as navigation beacons, and suitably designed passive radar receivers could use the satellites as convenient and durable illuminators of opportunity. A deployable power system which could produce over 1MW using a 10GHz narrow band power transmission from low earth orbit is considered, and the effects of transmitter size on efficiency and passive radar range is considered, while requiring less than 20% of the equivalent mass of a conventional deployable power generation system, without fuel requirements.
Comparing the performance of different antenna array designs and beamforming methods can be challenging, especially when conformal antenna arrays are also considered in the design arena. The boresight gain and half power beamwidth are often used to compare antenna arrays and antenna designs, and the ideal figures are easy to calculate for a planar aperture at a given frequency. However, this tells us little about the performance of the antenna array away from boresight, and is of limited use for conformal antenna arrays. Quite a number of years ago I came across a very useful concept called steering efficiency, and the steering efficiency product, which can be used to compare different antenna array architectures and beamforming methods, accounting for different frequencies and array sizes.
[2]: J. G. Marin and J. Hesselbarth, “Figure of Merit for Beam-Steering Antennas,” 2019 12th German Microwave Conference (GeMiC), Stuttgart, Germany, 2019, pp. 44-47, doi: 10.23919/GEMIC.2019.8698122
A critical part of the development of LyceanEM in support of the development of Space-based Solar Power is the development of a robust and accurate model for microwave propagation. The critical issue for space-based solar power is an accurate prediction of the losses from propagation through the different layers of the atmosphere for extremely large scale microwave beams, over 1km in radius. This level of electromagnetics modelling is beyond the capability of current commercial software, and requires the development of new open-source tools to support the development of the technology.
Workshop Announcement: RF Sensing as a Service A workshop hosted by the University of Bristol as part of my research into satellite based passive radar, in order to explore the challenges, breakthroughs and applications for space based sensor networks.
A welcome invite from Reset Connect resulted in Professor Mark Beach and I taking the train up to Westminster with posters and a Communication Systems and Networks Laboratory banner up to Parliament. Presenting the results of my work on scalable electromagnetics for Space-based Solar Power. We were able to engage with Members of Parliament from the North of England, and discuss the potential for different technologies to address the Net Zero Climate Challenge.
The Royal Academy of Engineering Awardee Excellence Community Conference was an excellent opportunity to meet other awardees, and discuss the future of engineering in the UK. The conference was held in Manchester, and was a great opportunity to brings together Royal Academy awardees and alumni to network, exchange ideas, learn from each other and to shape the work of the Academy.
I’m delighted to announce the version 0.1.0 release of LyceanEM. The support of the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio has allowed us to complete the first major release of our development roadmap. This includes :
A welcome invite from Reset Connect resulted in Professor Mark Beach and I taking the train up to Westminster with posters and a Communication Systems and Networks Laboratory banner up to Parliament. Presenting the results of my work on scalable electromagnetics for Space-based Solar Power. We were able to engage with Members of Parliament from the North of England, and discuss the potential for different technologies to address the Net Zero Climate Challenge.
A critical part of the development of LyceanEM in support of the development of Space-based Solar Power is the development of a robust and accurate model for microwave propagation. The critical issue for space-based solar power is an accurate prediction of the losses from propagation through the different layers of the atmosphere for extremely large scale microwave beams, over 1km in radius. This level of electromagnetics modelling is beyond the capability of current commercial software, and requires the development of new open-source tools to support the development of the technology.
I’m excited to announce “The Power of the Sun : Workshop on Space Based Solar Power”, funded by the University of Bristol, and supported by the Satellite Applications Catapult and Virtus Solis. Beyond the academic interest in the problems of modelling such large antenna arrays in orbit, I am very excited about the possibility of transforming what was a staple of science fiction, into a very real contributor to the energy mix.
Workshop Announcement: RF Sensing as a Service A workshop hosted by the University of Bristol as part of my research into satellite based passive radar, in order to explore the challenges, breakthroughs and applications for space based sensor networks.
I’m excited to announce “The Power of the Sun : Workshop on Space Based Solar Power”, funded by the University of Bristol, and supported by the Satellite Applications Catapult and Virtus Solis. Beyond the academic interest in the problems of modelling such large antenna arrays in orbit, I am very excited about the possibility of transforming what was a staple of science fiction, into a very real contributor to the energy mix.
When considering antennas and antenna arrays, one of the more useful and consistent abstractions are that of the plane wave, and the related concept of the farfield. These concepts are simplifications of the expanding spherical wavefronts in the limit of large distances. The approximation states that when considering a specific direction or set of directions the spherical wavefront can be approximated as a plane wave propagating in the direction of interest.
I’m excited to announce “The Power of the Sun : Workshop on Space Based Solar Power”, funded by the University of Bristol, and supported by the Satellite Applications Catapult and Virtus Solis. Beyond the academic interest in the problems of modelling such large antenna arrays in orbit, I am very excited about the possibility of transforming what was a staple of science fiction, into a very real contributor to the energy mix.
The emergence of Space-based Solar Power (SBSP) offers the potential of green, reliable, deliverable power from space to Earth. This technology is under development around the globe, with notable advances in the United Kingdom, Japan, China, and the United States. The UK has a strong position with the Space Energy Initiative which has been formed by stakeholders in government, academia and industry to develop SBSP. Advances in the UK have been funded by the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, and various government agencies. However, beyond the primary application in civil energy production, the dynamic nature of wireless power beaming means that there is an attractive opportunity for military applications, including power beaming to forward operating bases, and the potential use of strong orbital signals to be used to support navigation and sensing systems. In particular, the well-defined positions and frequency standard of SBSP systems could allow their use as navigation beacons, and suitably designed passive radar receivers could use the satellites as convenient and durable illuminators of opportunity. A deployable power system which could produce over 1MW using a 10GHz narrow band power transmission from low earth orbit is considered, and the effects of transmitter size on efficiency and passive radar range is considered, while requiring less than 20% of the equivalent mass of a conventional deployable power generation system, without fuel requirements.
I’m delighted to announce the version 0.1.0 release of LyceanEM. The support of the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio has allowed us to complete the first major release of our development roadmap. This includes :
A welcome invite from Reset Connect resulted in Professor Mark Beach and I taking the train up to Westminster with posters and a Communication Systems and Networks Laboratory banner up to Parliament. Presenting the results of my work on scalable electromagnetics for Space-based Solar Power. We were able to engage with Members of Parliament from the North of England, and discuss the potential for different technologies to address the Net Zero Climate Challenge.
The Royal Academy of Engineering Awardee Excellence Community Conference was an excellent opportunity to meet other awardees, and discuss the future of engineering in the UK. The conference was held in Manchester, and was a great opportunity to brings together Royal Academy awardees and alumni to network, exchange ideas, learn from each other and to shape the work of the Academy.
I’m excited to announce “The Power of the Sun : Workshop on Space Based Solar Power”, funded by the University of Bristol, and supported by the Satellite Applications Catapult and Virtus Solis. Beyond the academic interest in the problems of modelling such large antenna arrays in orbit, I am very excited about the possibility of transforming what was a staple of science fiction, into a very real contributor to the energy mix.
I’m excited to announce “The Power of the Sun : Workshop on Space Based Solar Power”, funded by the University of Bristol, and supported by the Satellite Applications Catapult and Virtus Solis. Beyond the academic interest in the problems of modelling such large antenna arrays in orbit, I am very excited about the possibility of transforming what was a staple of science fiction, into a very real contributor to the energy mix.
