Abstract:
The growing demands of modern wireless communications systems are creating new challenges for antenna design. Antenna platforms of increasing complexity, capable of providing multiple dynamically accessible functionalities, are becoming essential to enhance capacity and support the diverse requirements of communications and sensing applications. This presentation focuses on the concept of multi-port, multi-mode antennas, in which multiple independent radiating modes are excited within the same frequency band and shared physical volume. By tightly integrating these uncorrelated modes into a compact structure, such antennas can significantly enhance link capacity and agility through pattern diversity and Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) operation. The talk will first discuss techniques for efficiently realizing multiple independent modes within a limited volume. It will then show how multi-port antennas, combined with global optimization algorithms, can be used to achieve advanced beamforming by exploiting a large number of co-located radiating modes. This approach enables consistent full-hemisphere beam steering and null placement for arbitrary polarization states. The resulting paradigm opens new opportunities for future communication and distributed sensing systems. Biography:
Christophe Fumeaux received his Ph.D. degree from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, in 1997. From 1998 to 2008, he held various positions at the University of Central Florida, the Swiss Federal Office of Metrology, and ETH Zurich. From 2008 to 2023, he was a Professor with The University of Adelaide. In 2023, he joined the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at The University of Queensland, as Chair Professor in Optical and Microwave Engineering. His main research interests concern applied electromagnetics, antenna engineering, and the application of RF design principles across the electromagnetic spectrum. Prof. Fumeaux was the recipient of the ETH Medal for his doctoral dissertation. He was the recipient of the 2018 Edward E. Altshuler Prize, the 2014 IEEE Sensors Journal and the 2004 ACES Journal best paper awards. He was the recipient of the University of Adelaide 2018 Stephen Cole the Elder Award for Excellence in PhD Supervision. From 2017 to early 2023, he served as the Editor-in-Chief for the IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters. He was 2025 President of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society and he is currently serving as IEEE AP-S Vice-President of Publications. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.
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