Solid state plasma antennas

The paper presents research into a disruptive antenna technology, now demonstrated by Plasma Antennas Ltd and validated independently by QinetiQ for the UK´s MoD. 1) The technology has applications in telecommunications, sensing, imaging and transport systems. 2) It is based on low cost, silicon integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing processes. 3) It has the desirable property of dramatically reducing the unit price of smart electronically steered antennas with increasing frequency. A plasma silicon device (PSiD) performs beam-forming and beam-selection operations in a single monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC). The MMIC works by reflecting an RF signal off electronically controllable solid state plasma, trapped within a parallel plate waveguide. This RF technology has applications from 1GHz to 100GHz. The latest advancements in the technology are reviewed, together with its functionality and cost/performance characteristics within various antenna configurations and how it will to be used in future wireless and sensor systems.