Steven Gao

Steven Gao received the PhD from Shanghai University, China. He is a Professor at Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, where he is also the Director of Center for intelligent Electromagnetic Systems. Prior to joining CUHK, he was a Professor at the University of Kent (UKC), UK during 2013-2022, and became an Honorary Professor at UKC since 2022. His research covers smart antennas, phased arrays, MIMO, reconfigurable antennas, broadband/multiband antennas, satellite antennas and wireless systems (mobile and satellite communications, synthetic-aperture radars, IOT). He co-authored/co-edited 3 books (Space Antenna Handbook, Wiley, 2012; Circularly Polarized Antennas, IEEE & Wiley, 2014; Low-Cost Smart Antennas, Wiley, 2019), over 500 papers and 20 patents.

He is a Fellow of IEEE, and the Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters. He was a Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (2014-2016), and an Associate Editor for several international Journals (IEEE TAP; Radio Science; Electronics Letters; IET Circuits, Devices and Systems, etc). He served as the Lead Guest Editor of Proceedings of the IEEE for a Special Issue on “Small Satellites” (2018), and the Lead Guest Editor of IEEE Trans on Antennas and Propagation for Special Issues on “Low-Cost Wide-Angle Beam-Scanning Antennas” (2022) and “Antennas for Satellite Communication” (2015), and a Guest Editor of IET Circuits, Devices & Systems for a Special Issue in “Photonic and RF Communications Systems” (2014). He was the UK’s Representative in European Association on Antennas and Propagation (EurAAP) during 2021-2022, and an Invited or Keynote Speaker at many international conferences (APMC 2024, IWOP 2024…).

This talk will provide a review of recent development and future trends in ultra-wideband phased array antennas. Such antennas are promising for future multi-function systems integrating communications, sensing and imaging onboard smart terminals (airplane, UAV, satellites…) in 6G non-terrestrial networks (NTN) and beyond. The past decades saw rapid development of wireless communications, radar and imaging systems using more and more frequency bands, together with more and more antennas and arrays. Though it is possible to cover an ultra-wideband operation using multiple separate phased array antennas, it is difficult to find space to accommodate multiple phased array antennas on a smart terminal. Thus it is very important to develop one single ultra-wideband phased array capable of receiving and sending multiple beams over an ultra-wideband frequency range for multiple systems e.g. communications, sensing and imaging.  Such an antenna could replace numerous separate antennas and arrays, hence leading to significant reduction in size, mass, power consumption, and complexity of antenna systems onboard smart terminals.

During recent decades, many research programs on this topic were carried out worldwide. For example, Advanced Multifunction Radio Frequency Concept (AMRFC) Program, funded by US Office of Naval Research, aimed to demonstrate the integration of numerous types of shipboard radio frequency functions including radar, wireless communications, and electronic warfare utilizing a common set of wideband array antennas, signal and data processing, signal generation, and display hardware. Recently, the “Advanced Antenna Technology for a Smart World” Project, funded by Hong Kong Research Grant Council under Area of Excellence (AOE) Scheme, was launched. One of objectives of this AOE project is to investigate the innovation in the theory, design, manufacturing and measurement techniques of compact-size ultra-wideband wide-angle-scanning dual-polarized phased arrays for integrated sensing, communications and imaging in 6G NTN and beyond. A review of the state-of-the-art development will be given, and some recent examples will be discussed. Future trends will also be discussed in the end.