FLEXANT

Development of new 3D antennas in microstrip technology based on flexible and conformable materials.

The FLEXANT project aims to design, construct and characterize flexible and conformable antennas in microstrip technology, realized using substrates in which both dielectric layer and the metallic layers have a high flexibility, for their integration in passive and active RFID tags developed for application on heterogeneous materials or objects with three-dimensional forms typically hindering the tagging.

Specific scientific-technological objectives of FLEXANT are:

• Development and characterization of new flexible materials for the realization of microwave flexible substrates.
• Development of passive RFID tags in UHF and SHF bands for their use on metallic and non-metallic objects, and for tagging persons.
• Development of a systematic approach for the design of radiating structures focused on RFID identification.

Consortium

     University of Oviedo - Coordinating Institution

The University of Oviedo, established in 1608, is a public institution, with more than 1500 researchers and 250 research groups, devoted to higher education teaching and research that fosters the social, economic and cultural development of the Principado de Asturias – a region in the north-west of Spain with more than one million inhabitants. The University of Oviedo was distinguished in November 2009 as Campus of International Excellence by the Spanish Ministry of Education.

Particularly, the Signal and Communications Theory group (TSC-UNIOVI), established at UNIOVI in 2000, will give strong scientific and technical support to the FLEXANT project. The group is currently formed by 18 Ph.D. and 10 pre-doctoral researchers which are involved in the design, analysis and optimization of microwave, mm-wave, and submm-wave active circuits and antennas, nonlinear analysis of circuits and systems, characterization of microwave materials and substrates, analysis and diagnosis of antennas, electromagnetic emissions measurements, calculus of radio-electric coverage, numerical techniques in electromagnetism, resolution of direct and inverse electromagnetic radiation and dispersion problems, etc. The group has its own laboratory with all necessary equipment for the design, simulation, manufacturing and characterization of circuits, antennas and subsystems operating up to 300 Ghz.

        ITMA Foundation

ITMA Materials Technology is a Spanish private and non-profit technological organization, which aims at promoting companies’ innovation through applied research and technological development in the field of materials science. ITMA manages two centers with nearly 7.000m2, 4.600m2 of which are dedicated to laboratories and has a total staff of 104 employees, 62% of which are highly qualified university degrees in engineering, chemistry and physics. Research performed in ITMA is fully multidisciplinary and targets at six strategic sectors: Health, Energy, Security & Defense, Steel & Metallurgy, Optics & Electronics and Refractory.

Treelogic - Collaborating Entity

Treelogic is a specialized Spanish SME in Information and Communication Technologies. Cooperation in R&D is the company hallmark. Treelogic R&D is the key to the business model followed by Treelogic, which assesses the maturity and potential of emerging technologies to create a new business opportunity. Semantic technologies, robotics, cognitive computing, mobile communications, future internet, location systems occupy a position of high standing between the company’s research lines.

Short Facts

FLEXANT is funded by the Government of Asturias - Spain through the Ministry of Education and Science and by the FEDER program (European Regional Development Fund - ERDF) of the Principality of Asturias.

FLEXANT is co-fundend by the company Treelogic (associated entity), a Spanish SME specialized in Information and Communication Technologies.

• Grant date: February 11, 2011
• Grant publication: Boletín Oficial del Principado de Asturias NÚM. 54 de 7-III-2011
• Project Reference: PC10-06
• Number of partners: 3
• Coordinator Institution: University of Oviedo
• Coordinator: Dr. Samuel Ver Hoeye
• Start date: March 1, 2011
• Duration: 22 months
• Budget:

Grant: 57.751,93 Euros

Contribution Treelogic: 10.972,87 Euros

Research Group

• Samuel Ver Hoeye
• Fernando Las Heras Andrés
• Emilio Gago Ribas
• Marcos Rodríguez Pino
• Rafael González Ayestarán
• María Elena de Cos Gómez
• Luis Fernando Herrán Ontañón
• Jesús Alberto López Fernández
• Yuri Álvarez López
• Miguel Fernández García
• Jaime Laviada Martínez
• Javier Gutiérrez Meana
• Carlos Vázquez Antuña
• Cebrián García González
• Juan Heredia Juesas

Publications

JCR indexed journals

1. M. Fernández, S. Ver Hoeye, C. Vázquez, G. Hotopan, R. Camblor, F. Las Heras, “Design and Analysis of a Multi-Carrier Tx-Rx System Based on Rationally Synchronized Oscillators for Localization Applications,” Progress in Electromagnetic Reserarch, Vol. 120, 1-16, 2011.
2. G. Hotopan, S. Ver Hoeye, C. Vázquez, R. Camblor, M. Fernández, F. Las Heras, P. Álvarez, R. Menéndez, “Millimeter Wave Microstrip Mixer Based on Graphene,” Progress in Electromagnetic Research, Vol. 118, 57-69, 2011.
3. R. Camblor, S. Ver Hoeye, G. Hotopan, C. Vázquez, M. Fernández, F. Las Heras, P. Álvarez, R. Menéndez, “Microwave Frequency Tripler Based on a Microstrip Gap with Graphene,” Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, ISSN 0920-5071, Online ISSN 1569-3937, Vol. 25, pp. 1921-1929, 2011.
4. Cebrián García, Yuri Álvarez, Aránzazu D. Casas, Fernando Las-Heras, “Characterization of Antenna Interaction with Scatterers by means of Equivalent Currents,” Progress In Electromagnetics Research PIER 116 (ISSN 1559-8985), 185-202, 2011.
5. María Elena de Cos, Yuri Álvarez, Fernando Las-Heras, “On the influence of coupling AMC resonantes for RCS reduction in the SHF band,” Progress In Electromagnetics Research PIER 117 (ISSN 1559-8985), 103-119, 2011.
6. Yuri Álvarez, José Ángel Martínez, Fernando Las-Heras, Carey M. Rappaport, “An Inverse Fast Multipole Method for Imaging Applications,” IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters (ISSN 1536-1225). Vol. 10, pp. 1259-1262, 2011.
7. Jana Álvarez, Rafael G. Ayestarán, Germán León, Susana Loredo, Jesús A. López-Fernández, Fernando Las Heras, “Echo Characterization Based on Maximum Likelihood Estimation for Antenna Measurement Correction”, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, aceptado para publicación en Abril de 2012.

Books or Book Chapters

Under eleboration

Conference Proceedings

1. C. Ortiz, M. Suárez, S. Ver Hoeye, E. De Cos, M. Fernández, C. Vázquez, R. Camblor, G. Hotopan, R. Hadarig, F. Las Heras, J.L. Menéndez, S. García, “Synthesis of flexible polymer-ceramic composites for RFID tagging of people,” European Polymer Congress EPF2011, Granada, Spain, Jun. 2011.
2. C. Ortiz, M. Suárez, L. Andrés, N. Campos, S. Ver Hoeye, E. De Cos, M. Fernández, C. Vázquez, R. Camblor, G. Hotopan, R. Hadarig, F. Las Heras, J.L. Menéndez, S. García, “New materials for RFID tagging on people and metallic objects,” IX Congreso Nacional de Materiales Compuestos, Girona, Spain, Jul. 2011.
3. C. Vázquez, S. Ver Hoeye, R. Camblor, M. Fernández, F. Las Heras, “Millimetre Wave Frequency Scanning Probe for Imaging Applications,” 6th ESA Workshop on Millimetre-Wave Technology and Applications and 4th Global Symposium on Millimeter Waves, Helsinki 05/2011, 2011.
4. S. Ver Hoeye, F. Rodríquez-Reinoso, F. Menéndez, P. Álvarez, G. Hotopan, R. Camblor, C. Vázquez, M. Fernández, F. Las Heras, “Evaluation of the microwave frequency multiplication effects in microstrip gaps with graphene layers exfoliated from graphites with a different angular spread of the crystallite C-axes,” ImagineNano, Bilbao, Spain, 04/2011, 2011.
5. Yuri Álvarez, Cebrián García, Fernando Las-Heras, “Profile Reconstruction using the Sources Reconstruction Method,” 5th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP’11), Rome (Italy), 11-15 April 2011. pp. 2134-2137, 2011.
6. Yuri Álvarez, Cebrián García, Fernando Las-Heras, “Geometry Reconstruction from Amplitude-Only Scattered Field Data,” 5th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP’11), Rome (Italy), 11-15 April 2011. pp. 4052-4055, 2011.
7. Yuri Álvarez, Cebrián García, Fernando Las-Heras, “Antenna Diagnostics Method Extension for Geometry Reconstruction,” Antenna Measurement Techniques Association Conference, AMTA 2011, Denver (USA), 16-20 October 2011, pp. 1-5, 2011.
8. Yuri Álvarez, Jaime Laviada, Cebrián García, Fernando Las-Heras, “On the use of Equivalent Currents for Antenna Interaction with Scatterers Characterization,” Antenna Measurement Techniques Association Conference, AMTA 2011, Denver (USA), 16-20 October 2011, pp. 1-6, 2011.
9. Rafael G. Ayestarán, Jana Álvarez, Germán León, Jesús A. López, Fernando Las-Heras, “Antenna Array Simultaneous Focus on Multiple Targets”, VIII Iberian Meeting on Computational Electromagnetics (EIEC 2011), Sesimbra (Portugal), Nov. 2011.
10. Jesús A. López, M López-Portugués, Rafael G. Ayestarán, Fernando Las-Heras, “A GPU accelerated scattering solver based on the Single Level Fast Multipole Method”, VIII Iberian Meeting on Computational Electromagnetics (EIEC 2011), Sesimbra (Portugal), Nov. 2011.
11. Rafael G. Ayestarán, Jana Álvarez, Jesús A. López, Fernando Las-Heras, “NF-Multifocused Arrays Using Optimization”, 5th International Conference on Electromagnetic Near-Field Characterization and Imaging (ICONIC 2011), Rouen (Francia), Nov. 2011.
12. Jana Álvarez, Rafael G. Ayestarán, Jesús López, Fernando Las Heras, “Diseño de arrays multienfocados mediante optimización”, XXVI Simposium Nacional de la Unión Científica Internacional de Radio (URSI 2011), Leganés (Madrid), Sept. 2011.
13. Emilio Gago-Ribas, Manuel Carril Campa, “Complex parameterization of the lossy transmission line theory”, Progress in Electromagnetic Research Symposium, PIERS 2012, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, March 27-30, 2012.

14. Juan Heredia Juesas, Emilio Gago-Ribas, “A new view of spectral analysis of linear systems”, Progress in Electromagnetic Research Symposium, PIERS 2012, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, March 27-30, 2012.