It's hard to imagine that there are still three billion people in the world who don't have access to the Internet. To connect the remaining three billion, a research team from The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering is working on a new, thin and flat antenna that can soon replace bulky satellite dishes.
The team, led by Professor George Eleftheriades, is concentrating on a novel metamaterial that can redirect and concentrate electromagnetic waves into intense beams. This laser-like energy can be sent out to distance areas and to an orbiting satellite in space, Eleftheriades said. This inexpensive antenna system can soon make global Internet access a reality.
The new, cheap antenna will enable you to get signals straight from space without the need for costly, immovable and bulky equipment. The existing antenna prototype resembles a ceiling tile.
The most notable innovation from the research is the flat and thin antenna that is only two centimeters thick. The current satellite dish design has a tripod structure in the middle. This catches the signal down onto the satellite dish that refocuses it as a single beam. The tripod requires a specific distance away from the surface in order to work, hence the need for a bulky setup.
Eleftheriades and his team created a metamaterial that can capture signals found very close to its surface. The metamaterial then refocuses that signal into an intense beam. Metamaterials are man-made materials that don't exist in nature.
"With this design, we've optimized the way the antenna works to overcome the traditional compromise between the size of low-profile aperture antennas, and the strength of their beams," said Eleftheriades whose team is currently pushing for an even thinner and more focused prototype.
Eleftheriades believes that their new, flat antenna is a step towards accomplishing the goal of providing global Internet access through inexpensive, portable and low-profile antennas that can directly tap into satellites. The research was published on Jan. 21 in the journal Nature Communications.
Perhaps soon, people can attach a small and think panel of the metamaterial at the back of their tablets and smartphones to connect with the rest of the world through the Internet.
Photo: Julian Burgess | Flickr
