Research
Buon Kiong Lau, Professor
While an enormous amount of research has been done in various areas of multiple antenna systems, there has been a noticeable lack of research that exploits the interactions and links between those areas. Thus in the future, the biggest performance improvements can be anticipated from interdisciplinary research. One prime example for this is the interplay between the antennas and the MIMO wireless channels. In other words: how can the antennas and systems be optimized at the design stage, so that during actual operation, they exploit - rather than suffer from - wireless multipath environments.
My current research focus is on the application of MIMO techniques in compact systems. In such systems, e.g. mobile terminals, strong mutual coupling exists among the closely separated antennas. The coupling and inherently high spatial correlation undermine the expected performance gain from MIMO techniques. While suitable compensation techniques are available, a size-performance tradeoff governs the achievable result. Thus, fundamental limits for compact multiple antenna systems in relation to practical implementations are also of interest. Another research topic is the optimal design of antenna systems for both the terminals and base stations, taking into consideration the propagation channel and practical aspects (such as user influence).
One important emphasis of my research is the practical significance of the research results. As a result, close collaborations with Volvo Car Corporation (VCC), Sony Mobile Communications AB and Ericsson Research have been established.
During Jan 2018-Dec 2019, I was spending 50% of my time at nok9 AB, a company developing test tools for inductive wireless charging using the Qi standard (now adopted by major smartphone vendors including Apple and Samsung). The collaboration was supported by a Mobility Grant from the Swedish Strategic Foundation (SSF). We were awarded two research grants from Google to work on different aspects of in-band communications in wireless power transfer. During 2020, we also obtained a grant from SSF that co-fund an industrial PhD student.
Current Research Grants
- Stiftelsen för Strategisk Forskning ("The Swedish Strategic Research Foundation") Industrial PhD Project Grant (with nok9 AB) for the topic "Interference Reduction in Inductive Wireless Power Transfer" (dnr. ID20-0096), 5 years, 5 million SEK (50% industrial cofunding), 2021-2025.
- Vetenskapsrådet (The Swedish Research Council) Project Grant for the topic “Optimal MIMO Terminal Antennas for 5G and Beyond” (dnr. 2018-04717), 4 years, 4 million SEK, 2019-2022.
- VINNOVA-FFI Programme Industrial PhD Project on the topic "Simulation and Design of Integrated Vehicular Antennas – SDIVA" (dnr. 2014-01403), 4 years (extended by 3 years), 4.88 MSEK (10.4 MSEK with co-funding from Volvo Cars AB), 2014-2021.
Past Research Grants
- Mobility Grant from Stiftelsen för Strategisk Forskning (Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research), or SSF in short, entitled "User Experience Enhancement in Wireless Power Transfer" (dnr. SM17-0059), 0.91 million SEK, 2018-2019.
- Vetenskapsrådet Senior Researcher ("rådsforskare") Position Grant on for the topic "Novel Antenna System Design Paradigm for High Performance Mobile Communications" (dnr. 2010-468), within the specialization of "Optimization of Antenna Systems", 6 years (+ extension), 7.4 million SEK, 2011-2019 (A total of 7 rådforskare grant were offered by Vetenskaprådet in 2010 over all areas of science).
- Vetenskapsrådet Project Grant for the topic "Design of Ambient-optimized Compact Antenna Systems (DACAS)" (dnr. 2016-4683), 1 year, 0.92 million SEK, 2017.
- Vetenskapsrådet Project Grant for the topic "Optimal Super-antennas for Communications (OSAC)", 1 year, 0.4 million SEK, 2015.
- Vetenskapsrådet (The Swedish Research Council) Project Grant on the topic "Novel Antenna System Design Paradigm for Compact MIMO Terminals", 2 years, 0.8 million SEK, 2013-2014.
- eLLIIT strategic research grant for "Very Large Arrays; Theory and Practice", awarded to several staff members at the department and at Linköping University (total of 1.1 million SEK per year for 5 years). Linköping University and Lund University are equal partners in this project.
- Vetenskapsrådet (The Swedish Research Council) Forskarassistent Position Grant on the project "Fundamental Limits of Compact MIMO Systems" in Nov 2006, 3.8 million SEK, 2007-2011 (9% success rate among male applicants).
- VINNOVA ICT-Program "Smartare, snabbare, konvergerande lösningar" Grant on the project "Antenna-Channel Harmonization for Throughput Enhancement in Advanced Mobile Terminals", 3 million SEK, 2010-2013. Matching co-funding (3 million SEK) from Sony Mobile Communications AB.
- VINNOVA Sino-Swedish Program Grant on the project "Access technologies: multiple access, multiple users, multiple distributed antenna systems" for collaboration between Lund University and KTH (Royal Institute of Technology) with three premiar Chinese universities: Beihang University, Tsinghua University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 4 million SEK, 2008-2011.
- VINNOVA Telecom Program Grant on the project "Innovative Multiple Antenna Structures for Compact Mobile Terminals", 1.296 million SEK, 2009-2010. Matching co-funding (1.296 million SEK) from Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB.
- VINNOVA Telecom Program Grant on the project "MIMO Technology for Compact Multiband Antenna Systems", 3 million SEK, 2006-2010. Matching co-funding (3 million SEK) from Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB.
- Ericssons forskningsstiftelse (Ericsson Research Foundation) Grant for a Guest Professor in Advanced Antenna Systems to spend extended time in Lund University for research collaborations, 2009-2010.
- Crafoord Foundation Research Grant for the Project "Design of Multi-antennas for High Performance Mobile Terminals", 1 year, 0.3 million SEK, 2013-2015.
- Crafoord Foundatioon Grant for the topic “Design of a Parasitically Decoupled Radiative RF Coil Array for a 7T MRI Scanner”, 0.2 million SEK, 2015-2016.
Current Ph.D. Students/Staff
- Irfan Yousaf, PhD Student (Aug 2014- )
- Hanieh Aliakbariabar, PhD Student (Dec 2017- )
- Qiuyan Liang, PhD Student (Double PhD degree with Xidian University, China)
- Alexander Svarvare, Research Assistant
Current Visitors
- Kentaro Murata, Visiting Assistant Professor, Iwate University, Japan (Aug 2022- )
- Ahmed El Yousfi, Visiting PhD student, Charles III University of Madrid, Spain (Aug 2022- )
Current Master Students
Guest Professor
- Professor Michael A. Jensen, Brigham Young University, Utah, USA. (Fellow, IEEE)
Alumni - Past PhD Students
- Dr Zachary T. Miers (2012-2016). Topic of Thesis "Systematic Antenna Design Using the Theory of Characteristic Modes". Thesis defense held on 29 Nov 2016. He is currently with Ball Aerospace, USA.
- Dr Ivaylo Vasilev (2010-2015). Topic of thesis: "User Effect Mitigation in MIMO Terminal Antennas". Thesis defense held on 28 April 2015. He is with Gemalto, Germany.
- Dr Ruiyuan Tian (2007-2011). Topic of thesis: "Design and Evaluation of Compact Multi-antennas for Efficient MIMO Communications". Thesis defense held on 29 November 2011. He is currently with Huawei Technologies, Finland.
- Dr Vanja Plicanic (2006-2011), industry PhD student with Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB. Topic of thesis: "Characterization and Enhancement of Antenna System Performance in Compact MIMO Terminals". Thesis defense held on 14 June 2011. She is currently with Sony Mobile Communications, Sweden.
- Dr Xiang Gao (co-supervised PhD student, 2010-2016). Topic of thesis: "Massive MIMO in Real Propagation Environments". Thesis defense held on 18 February 2016.
- Mr Doruk Tayli (co-supervised PhD student, 2013-2018). Topic of thesis: "Computational Tools for Antenna Analysis and Design". Thesis defense held on 2 February 2018.
Alumni - Past Master Students (served as thesis supervisor/examiner)
- Oskar Nygren and Axel Sneitz-Björkman, in cooperation with Ericsson, "Investigating and Modeling Uplink Processing in 5G NR Multisector Scheduler Simulator", completed Jun. 2022.
- Soha Emara, in cooperation with Sony Nordic, "Positioning in Non-Terrestrial Networks,", completed Jul. 2021.
- Gopal Gomatam and Filip Dujmic, in cooperation with Axis Communications AB, "Audio-based Motion Detection", completed Jun. 2021.
- Love Rosén, in cooperation with nok9 AB and Google Inc., "Communication Channel Measurement and Modeling for Inductive Wireless Power Transfer", completed Mar. 2020.
- Hesham Sharkas and Haruhi Ichigo, "Beamforming Solutions for Efficient Link Setup and Link Maintenance in mmWave Communication Systems", completed Jun. 2019.
- Brenda Awuor Odhiambo, in cooperation with nok9 AB, "Impact of Surrounding Objects on Inductive Wireless Power Transfer", completed Jun. 2019.
- Arianna Ginette Amaya Colina, in cooperation with nok9 AB, "Analysis of Inductive Coupling Wireless Power Transfer Systems", completed Sep. 2018.
- Manuel Jose Lopez Morales, in cooperation with Ericsson AB, "Millimeter Wave Antenna Array Calibration and Validation for 5G New Radio Access", completed Feb. 2018.
- Sina Shamekhi and Karl Nordin, "24 GHz Patch Antenna Array Design for RADAR", completed Jun. 2016.
- Rui Ma and John Chountalas, "Pattern Reconfigurable MIMO Antennas for Multiband LTE Operation," completed Nov. 2015.
- Augustine Sekyere and John Ako Enohnyaket, in cooperation with Liteon Mobile AB, "Design of MIMO Antenna for Realistic Mobile Phone Platform Using Characteristic Modes," completed Sep. 2015.
- Ms Farnaz Chamanzadeh, "Feeding of Characteristic Modes in Multi-Antenna Handsets," completed Nov. 2014.
- Mr Apostolos Tsiaras, in cooperation with ART-FI SAS, France, "SAR evaluation in multi-antenna handsets," completed Mar. 2014. A conference paper, partly based on this work, has been published.
- Mr Hayder Al-Zubaidi and Ms Baydai Abdulameer, "Statistical Characterization of User Effects on MIMO Terminal Antennas," completed Mar. 2014.
- Mr Wang Fu, performed at Ericsson AB, Linköping, "Radio resource management for M2M communication in LTE,", completed Oct. 2013.
- Mr Ehsan Foroozanfard, "Design and evaluation of MIMO terminal antennas with adaptive matching in realistic user scenarios," completed Nov. 2012.
- Mr Zhi Chai, performed at Ericsson AB, Linköping, "Network energy efficiency in LTE through antenna muting," completed Sep. 2012.
- Mr Bangguo Zhu and Ms. Zhang Zheng, in cooperation with Sony Mobile Communications AB, "OTA measurements and performance optimization of mobile terminals for user scenarios," completed Sep. 2012.
- Mr Russell Whiton and Ms Farzanehsadat Firouzabad, in cooperation with Sony Mobile Communications AB, "Co-located antenna design in a mobile phone," completed Jun. 2012.
- Ms Ningxin Chen, in cooperation with Ericsson Research, Ericsson AB, "Multi-sector cooperation in multi-user MIMO for a measured urban macro-cellular environment," completed Mar. 2012.
- Mr Bo Wu, in cooperation with Ericsson Research, Ericsson AB, "Polarization and multi-sector cooperative MIMO in a measured urban macrocellular environment," completed Jun. 2011. A journal paper, which is partly based on this work, has been published.
- Mr Jonas Långbacka, in cooperation with Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, "Design and evaluation of a dielectric multi-mode antenna array for MIMO applications," completed May 2011. Some initial results were published as a conference paper.
- Ms Shengyan Yan, performed at the Vodafone Chair of the Technical University of Dresden, Germany, "Analysis of Uplink Multi-Cell Closed Loop Power Control with Imperfect Channel Knowledge," completed Mar. 2011.
- Mr Mikael Håkansson, in cooperation with Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, "Decoupling Techniques for a Multi-Band MIMO Antenna System," completed Nov. 2010.
- Mr Peng Li, "Antenna-Channel Interactions in On-Body Communications," completed May 2010.
- Ms Xiang Gao and Ms Xiaoguang Wang, in cooperation with Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, "OTA Performance Evaluation of MIMO Terminals with Multipath Simulator," completed May 2010. Some results have been published as an international conference paper.
- Mr Muhammad Ali Khan and Mr Salman Hussain Changazi, "Robust On-Body MIMO Communications," completed May 2009.
- Ms Meifang Zhu, in cooperation with Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, "On optimal IEEE802.11n Schemes for Maximum Throughput Performance of Four 6×6 MIMO Antenna Configurations in Measured Indoor Office Environments," completed Apr 2009. Some results have been published as an international conference paper.
- Mr Johannes Westström and Ms Victoria Olsson, in cooperation with Perlos AB, "Studies of Diversity Performance in Mobile Terminals," completed Jun. 2007. (Co-supervised with Prof Anders Karlsson)
- Mr Johan Avendal, in cooperation with Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, "Multiband Diversity Antennas," completed Jan 2007. Some results have been published as an international conference paper.
- Ms Serene Ow, "Impact of Mutual Coupling on Compact MIMO Systems," completed Mar 2005. Some results have been published as an international conference paper.
Alumni - Staff
- Dr Shang Xiang, Marie-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, 2018-2020.
- Dr Juan-Diego Sanchez, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2015.
- Dr Hui Li, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2012-2015.
- Dr Ruiyuan Tian, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2011-2012.
- Mr Yi Tan, Project Assistant for the VINNOVA project "Innovative Multiple Antenna Structures for Compact Mobile Terminals", Jan-Dec 2010.
- Emeritus Prof Jørgen Bach Andersen, Guest Professor, Aalborg University, Denmark, 2004-2011 (Visiting 1 month/year)
Alumni - Visitors
- Ms Liying Nie, Visiting PhD Student, University of Electronic Science and Technology (UESTC), China, 1 Dec 2018-30 Nov 2019.
- Dr Sevda Özdemir, Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey, 1 Apr 2019-31 Mar 2020.
- Ms Yan Li, Visiting PhD Student, University of Electronic Science and Technology (UESTC), China, 1 Feb-31 Jul 2018.
- Mr Changfei Zhou, Visiting PhD Student, University of Hong Kong, China, 1 Dec 2017-30 April 2018.
- Dr Frankie Chi-Yuk Chiu, Research Assistant Professor, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), China, 1-30 Nov 2017.
- Ms Chuan Wan, Visiting PhD Student, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, China, Nov 2016-Apr 2017.
- Ms Di Su, Visiting PhD Student, Beihang University, China, Jul 2012 -Sep 2012.
- Mr Shuai Zhang, Visiting PhD Student from Zhejiang University (Hanzhou, China) and Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden), Sep 2010-Jun 2011.
- Ms Hui Li, Visiting PhD Student from Zhejiang University (Hanzhou, China) and Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden), Jan 2010-Feb 2011.
- Mr Nipun Bansal, Summer Intern, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, India, Jun-Aug 2008.
- Ms Yuanyuan Fei, University of Edinburgh, UK, Visiting PhD Student, 1 Mar-31 May 2006.