This work is aimed at creating new types of portable sources and detectors of radiation. These will be handheld, about the size of a normal torch, and will run off batteries. They work in the terahertz (THz) range, this can be thought of either as very high frequency radio waves or as light which is invisible to the human eye. For a long time it has been quite difficult to generate and detect THz, but over recent years people have used large powerful lasers to create pulses of THz radiation. This has proved very useful in medical applications to build up pictures of body tissue, rather like an x-ray, which can show up abnormalities. Other interesting areas being studied include using THz in fossil imaging, analysing chemicals and gases, in security and in astronomy.The work in the project aims to make a new generation of THz 'torches' and 'cameras' which can be carried in the pocket. Making the devices, small, low power and portable, will allow people to use THz radiation in applications like airport security to screen for explosive chemicals or drugs, to look for pollution in the local environment, and even to be used in pharmacies or GPs for helping with diagnosis. Moreover the radiation they use will be very 'pure' and that will help to make very sensitive detection.A feature of the work is to build upon the optoelectronic technologies developed for optical communications systems which provides a good foundation of advanced fabrication techniques leading to high reliability components capable of low power and efficient room temperature operation. UCL, Bath and Essex will work together with the Centre for Integrated Photonics (CIP), to design, fabricate and characterise novel components for THz operation. Leeds will focus on users and applications issues undertaking a detailed comparison between the performances of old and new systems.

There is growing interest in the UK space sector for communications, imaging and earth observation. Key to this is sending and receiving electromagnetic waves. To enable higher communication rates and get greater accuracy in imaging often higher frequencies are used. This project will develop new structures using microfabrication techniques to develop novel antennas and polarizers for satellites and the earth segment over frequencies from 28 GHz up to 1 THz. This frequency range overlaps and extends the currently used frequencies. ANISAT will address these five technical challenges: 1) Designing anisotropic metamaterials; 2) Exploiting these properties to design novel antennas, polarizers and RF devices; 3) Developing novel methods of measuring these properties; 4) Microfabricating heterogeneous anisotropic structures; 5) Combining these elements into a series of demonstrators. The above five points are addressed in more detail below: i) When an electromagnetic wave moves through a material it is slowed down by the dielectric properties. If an artificial dielectric can be composed of small (compared to a wavelength) rectangular or elliptical inclusions, then this composite material will behave differently when the incident electromagnetic wave has different polarizations. This can be exploited to create circularly polarized antennas where the electric field traces a circle in time. This is an advantageous property for space communications. ii) Currently, dielectric measurements only consider the dielectric properties for one polarization and effectively assume the materials are isotropic. ANISAT will develop a novel measurement system using resonant metasurfaces that can measure the properties along all three axes. This will open a new degree of freedom for antenna and radiofrequency engineers. iii) These anisotropic artificial dielectrics will be used to design novel circularly polarized antennas. It is currently challenging to feed antennas to create circular polarization at frequencies above 50 GHz due to the small scale of the feed structure. High gain multi beam cavity antennas and polarizers will be designed at a range of frequencies up to 1 THz. iv) Initial anisotropic artificial dielectrics will be fabricated using 3D-printing. This provides a simple and readily exploitable fabrication process. However, the upper frequency range is limited to approximately 40 GHz by the size of the small-scale air/metal inclusions inside the composite. Above this frequency the inclusions approach the scale of a wavelength and they become resonant. To extend the frequency range, novel microfabrication processes in clean rooms will be developed and exploited. These include fully metallised SU8 photoresist polymers and/or silicon layers with a high dimensional accuracy of the scale of a few microns. v) The learning process will be multidisciplinary and iterative as each stage innovates further advances. The close geographical proximity of the two universities will be highly beneficial in this regard. The plan is to create laboratory demonstrators that can be showcased to industry. These provisionally include: a novel dielectric measurement system; a high gain circularly polarized antenna at Ka band (26 - 40 GHz); a circularly polarized Fabry-Perot antennas at frequencies up to 110 GHz; and linear to circular polarizers and beam splitters from 220 - 300 GHz and at a central frequency of 640 GHz.

In recent years there has been a huge explosion in the use of mobile devices such as smartphones, laptop computers and tablets which require a wireless connection to the internet. Numbers are forecast to reach 40 billion worldwide by 2020 as areas as diverse as the home, transport, healthcare, military and infrastructure experience increasing levels of embedded 'smart' functionality and user operability. Major applications such as future 5G communications systems, the Internet of Things and Autonomous Vehicles are driving this technology. At present wireless systems operate at frequencies up to 6GHz. However, there is a growing realisation that the spectrum below 6GHz cannot support the huge data rates being demanded by future users and applications. The next step is to develop technologies utilising much higher frequencies to give data rates compatible with future demand. Currently, world licencing bodies such as ETSI and ITU have identified millimetre wave frequencies up to 90 GHz as most likely for this expansion in the spectrum. Strategically, the UK must develop wireless technologies to compete on the world stage and increase its competitiveness particularly in competition with the Far East. Superfast 5G level Telecoms infrastructure is central to the Industrial Strategy Green Paper, which the UK government has been championing and highlighting in the ten pillars of combined strategy. Two technology bottlenecks in millimetre wave receivers, which are important aspects of future communication systems, are: 1) current receiver architectures are unable to directly digitise millimetre wave signals with acceptable power consumption, and 2) antenna arrays are not sufficiently frequency agile. This project aims to address both bottlenecks using new techniques developed on the FARAD project. The proposed research will embrace the co-design of antennas, filters and amplifiers with track-and-hold-amplifiers, analogue-to-digital-convertors and digital down conversion. This will result in new receiver architectures for fully digital massive MIMO systems. The techniques and architectures developed in this project will enable future high-frequency networks to operate efficiently in the new millimetre wave transmission bands. The research will have far-reaching consequences for solving the wireless capacity bottleneck over the next 20 to 30 years and keeping the UK at the forefront of millimetre wave technology and innovation.

We are living through a revolution, as electronic communications become ever more ubiquitous in our daily lives. The use of mobile and smart phone technology is becoming increasingly universal, with applications beyond voice communications including access to social and business data, entertainment through live and more immersive video streaming and distributed processing and storage of information through high performance data centres and the cloud. All of this needs to be achieved with high levels of reliability, flexibility and at low cost, and solutions need to integrate developments in theoretical algorithms, optimization of software and ongoing advances in hardware performance. These trends will continue to shape our future. By 2020 it is predicted that the number of network-connected devices will reach 1000 times the world's population: there will be 7 trillion connected devices for 7 billion people. This will result in 1.3 zettabytes of global internet traffic by 2016 (with over 80% of this being due to video), requiring a 27% increase in energy consumption by telecommunications networks. The UK's excellence in communications has been a focal point for inward investment for many years - already this sector has a value of £82Bn a year to the UK economy (~5.7% GDP). However this strength is threatened by an age imbalance in the workforce and a shortage of highly skilled researchers. Our CDT will bridge this skills gap, by training the next generation of researchers, who can ensure that the UK remains at the heart of the worldwide communications industry, providing a much needed growth dividend for our economy. It will be guided by the commercial imperatives from our industry partners, and motivated by application drivers in future cities, transport, e-health, homeland security and entertainment. The expansion of the UK internet business is fuelled by innovative product development in optical transport mechanisms, wireless enabled technologies and efficient data representations. It is thus essential that communications practitioners of the future have an overall system perspective, bridging the gaps between hardware and software, wireless and wired communications, and application drivers and network constraints. While communications technology is the enabler, it is humans that are the producers, consumers and beneficiaries in terms of its broader applications. Our programme will thus focus on the challenges within and the interactions between the key domains of People, Power and Performance. Over three cohorts, the new CDT will build on Bristol's core expertise in Efficient Systems and Enabling Technologies to engineer novel solutions, offering enhanced performance, lower cost and reduced environmental impact. We will train our students in the mathematical fundamentals which underpin modern communication systems and deliver both human and technological solutions for the communication systems landscape of the future. In summary, Future Communications 2 will produce a new type of PhD graduate: one who is intellectually leading, creative, mathematically rigorous and who understands the commercial implications of his or her work - people who are the future technical leaders in the sector.

The Communications sector is a vital component within the UK economy, with revenues in this area totalling around 129B. Recognised as a key enabler of telecommunications, broadcasting and ICT, communications is also poised to be a transformational technology in areas such as energy, the environment, health and transport. The UK is well placed to reap the full economic and social benefits enabled by communications and investment in a CDT, embracing the breath and reach of the discipline, will help to facilitate our economic recovery and growth and enhance our global standing.There is a serious and growing concern over the future availability of suitably skilled staff to work in the communications sector in the UK. International competition is fierce, with large investments being made by competitor countries in research and in the training of personnel. IT and telecoms companies in the UK are reporting difficulties in attracting candidates with the right skills. In this context, the National Microelectronics Institute and the IET have warned that the ICT sector is facing a growing recruitment crisis with little confidence that the problem will improve in the short or medium term. Various organisations (eg DC-KTN and Royal Academy of Engineering) with support from industry are addressing this issue but acknowledge that it cannot be achieved without relevant high quality under- and postgraduate degrees through which specialist skills can be obtained.To address this shortage, a new Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in 'Future Communication' is proposed. The University of Bristol has a world leading reputation in this field, focused on its Centre for Communications Research (CCR), but built on close collaboration between colleagues from Mathematics, Computer Science, Safety Systems and industry. Our vision is to establish a world-leading research partnership which is focused on demand and firmly footed in a commercial context, but with freedom to conduct academically lead blue skies research.The Bristol CDT will be focused on people: not just as research providers, but also as technology consumers and, importantly, as solutions to the UK skills shortage. It will develop the skilled entrepreneurial engineers of the future, provide a coherent advanced training network for the communications community that will be recognised internationally and produce innovative solutions to key emerging research challenges. Over the next eight years, the CDT will build on Bristol's core expertise in Efficient Systems and Enabling Technologies to engineer novel solutions, offering enhanced performance, lower cost and reduced environmental impact. The taught component of the Programme will build on our MSc programme in Communication Systems & Signal Processing, acknowledged as leading in the UK, complemented by additional advanced material in statistics, optimisation and Human-Computer Interaction. This approach will leverage existing commitment and teaching expertise. Enterprise will form a core part of the programme, including: Project Management, Entrepreneurship, Public Communication, Marketing and Research Methods. Through its research programme and some 50 new PhD students, the CDT will undertake fundamental work in communication theory, optimisation and reliability. This will be guided by the commercial imperatives from our industry partners, and motivated by application drivers in Smart Grid, transport, healthcare, military/homeland security, safety critical systems and multimedia delivery. While communications technology is the enabler it is humans that are the consumers, users and beneficiaries in terms of its broader applications. In this respect we will focus our research programme on the challenges within and interactions between the key domains of People, Power and Performance.