SEMINAR ON

PLASMA ANTENNA

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering

PRESENTED BY: UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF:

Siddhartha Krishna Mr. R.NAGENDRA M.Tech
16121A0498 ASSISTANT PROFESSOR(SL)
Department of ECE
 PLASMA ANTENNA

 Before going to know what actually a plasma antenna

is lets have a look on types of matter that present on
our earth.
 Normally there are three types of matter occured
naturally on the earth.
 They are 1. Solid
2. Liquid and
3. Gas
 Solid can be converted into liquid when it is
subjected to some pressure and temperature
 Similarily liquid is converted into gas when it is
subjected to some more pressure and temperature
 Now arises a question what is plasma and how we
get it ?. Let us discuss it in the following slide
 WHAT IS PLASMA ?

 Plasma is similar to gas in which certain portion of

particles are ionized.
 Plasma is formed when certain amount of energy is
applied to gas at which it’s particles ionize.
 Plasma is the fourth state of matter.
 Because of ionized particles plasma is conductive.
 The following slide shows the atomic arrangement in
the above stated states.
STATES OF MATTER
 The word plasma is dervied from the ancient greek
word πλάσμα which means moldable substance
 It was first described by a chemist named IRVING
LANGMUIR
 Plasma and ionized gases have properties and
display behaviour unlike those of other states and
the transition between them is mostly a matter of
nomenclature.
 Now we discuss about transition occurs in plasma
generation
 Plasma has various advantages when
compared to other states
 The usage of plasma is increased
exponentially in all the industries and various
problems are solved by using plasma and we
call it as plasma technology
 Plasma antenna is one of the plasma
technologies
 APPLICATIONS OF PLASMA TECHNOLOGY:
 Plasma is used as a display in many electronic
devices now a days a flexible screen is being
developed by using plasma technology
 In textile industry it is used for chemical free pre-
treatment
 Plasma technology is used in designing of an
antenna for effective transmission of signals
 WHAT IS AN ANTENNA ?
 An antenna is an array of conductors (elements),
electrically connected to the receiver or
transmitter. Antennas can be designed to transmit
and receive radio waves in all horizontal directions
equally (omnidirectional antennas), or
preferentially in a particular direction (directional or
high gain antennas). An antenna may
include parasitic elements, parabolic reflectors
or horns, which serve to direct the radio waves into a
beam or other desired radiation pattern.
 It can send and receive signals simultaneously, so it
is also called as a Transceiver.
 Here comes the topic PLASMA ANTENNA

WHAT IS PLASMA ANTENNA ?

 On hearing the name plasma antenna for the first

time , we may get a wrong impression that it is
something entirely different.
 But it is not the case, Plasma antenna is just another
type of radio antenna which is currently under
development
 In this innovation, plasma is used as a replacement
for the metal elements of the traditional antennas.
 This can be used for the transmission and reception
of signals
 It is a special type of antenna in which the metal
conducting elements of a conventional antenna
 TYPES OF PLASMA ANTENNAS

 These are of two types and they are gas and PSiAn
antennas.
GAS PLASMA ANTENNA
 It employs an ionized gas enclosed in a tube as the
conducting element of an antenna. When the gas is
electrically charged or ionized to a plasma, it
becomes conductive and allowing radio frequency
signals to be transmitted or received. When gas is
not ionized, the antenna element ceases to exist.
Alternatively the plasma can be used as a reflector
BLOCK DIAGRAM
 When supply is given the gas is ionized to plasma.
Plasma gets energized and behaves as a conductor it
acts as a mirror and reflects the beam.
PSiAn ANTENNA
 PSiAn antenna consists of thousands of diodes.
When activated each diode generates a cloud of
electrons- the plasma. At a high electron cloud
density, each cloud reflects high frequency radio
waves like a mirror. By selectively activating diodes,
the shape of the reflecting area can be changed to
focus and steer a beam of radios waves.
 This ‘beam-forming’ capability makes the antenna
crucial to ultrafast wireless applications, because
they can focus a stream of high frequency radio
waves that would quickly dissipate through normal
antennas.
 TRADITIONAL v/s PLASMA ANTENNA

 Unlike simple antenna, plasma antenna selects a

beam avoiding the need for mechanical or manual
alignment and realignment of fixed point to point
communication links.
 The traditional antennas operate at lower
frequencies whereas plasma antennas operate at very
high frequencies.
 Plasma antenna have no ringing effect associated
with them where as traditional antennas have this
effect associated with them.
 FEATURES

 High power:- This can be achieved in the plasma antenna

than in the corresponding metal antenna because of
lower Ohmic losses. Plasmas have a much wider range of
power capability than metals.
 Enhanced bandwidth:- By the use of electrodes or lasers
the plasma density can be controlled. The theoretical
calculations on the controlled variation of plasma density
in space and time suggest that greater bandwidth of the
plasma antenna can be achieved than the corresponding
metal antenna of the same geometry. This enhanced
bandwidth can improve discrimination.
 FEATURES

 Higher efficiency and gain-Radiation efficiency in

the plasma antenna is higher due to lower Ohmic
losses in the plasma.
 Lower noise :- The plasma antenna has a lower
collision rate among it’s charge carriers than a metal
antenna and calculations show that this means less
noise.
 Perfect reflector :- When the plasma density is high
the plasma becomes a loss-less perfect reflector.
Hence there exist the possibilities of a wide range of
lightweight plasma reflector antennas.
 ADVANTAGES

 As soon as the plasma generator is switched off, the

plasma returns to a non conductive gas and therefore
becomes effectively invisible to radar.
 They can be dynamically tuned and reconfigured for
frequency, bandwidth, direction, gain and beam
width so replacing the need for multiple antennas
 They are resistant to electronic welfare
 At satellite frequencies, they exhibit much thermal
noise and are capable of faster data rates
 DISADVANTAGES

 Plasma antenna design is more complex when

compared to the metal ones.
 More power is used to ionize the gases, hence ionizer
increases the power consumption of plasma antenna
 The semi-conductor version of the plasma antenna is
limited to high frequencies, which makes certain
applications difficult.
 FUTURE SCOPE

 Growing need for speed of communication network along

with data handling capacity are the major forces helping
to explore new vistas of transmission and reception. With
the wireless generations moving from 2G to 3G, 4G, 5G
and so on, the real benefit of upgrading the Wi-Fi
networks is to get them to run faster. Wi-Fi usually can
manage 54 megabits of data per second. The fancied Wi-
Fi would handle up to 7 gigabits per second. This would
mean downloading a TV show in a matter of seconds.
The advances in plasma antenna technology are expected
to play a great role in the desired speed and capacity-
handling capabilities of communication networks.
 CONCLUSION

 In conclusion, the plasma antenna works according

to the same principles and physics laws as the
normal antenna, with plasma replacing the metal
conductors of the normal antenna. But because the
conducting material used is plasma, it affords some
advantages over a normal antenna. The most notable
advantage of the plasma antenna is the fact that it is
practically invisible to radar and can release short
pulses of signals. Therefore, the military of US is
currently racing to implement the plasma antenna
into their existing systems.
 REFERENCES

 'Stealth' Antenna Made Of Gas, Impervious To

Jamming science20.com, published 2007-11-12,
accessed 2010-12-14
 Plasma Antenna Center for Remote Sensing,
accessed 2010-12-14
 Aerial Conductor for Wireless Signaling and Other
Purposes United States Patent 1309031, published
1919-07-08, accessed 2010-12-15
 Plasma Antennas scribd, accessed 2010-12-15
 REFERENCES

 Wireless at the speed of plasma New Scientist,

published 2010-12-13, accessed 2010-12-14
 Plasma Antennas: Survey of Techniques and the
Current State of the Art D C Jenn, published 2003-
09-29, accessed 2010-10-15
 Advances in Plasma Antenna Design Alexeff, I et al.,
Tennessee University, ISSN 0730-9244, ISBN 0-
7803-9300-7, published 2007-05-15, accessed 2010-
12-14
 EXTERNAL LINKS

 Antenna having reconfigurable length - United

States Patent 6710746
 Solid state plasma antenna - United States Patent
7109124
 Article with image
 Static Satellite Plasma Antenna
 Plasma Antennas: Survey of Techniques and the
Current State of the Art
 Low insertion loss beamforming antennas
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE.