The Antennas and Propagation Technical Network facilitates sharing and understanding of technical information and knowledge associated with Antennas and propagation for the benefit of IET members and the wider community. All of our events are open to the public and most are free of charge.
Upcoming Events
Details of our October Online Lunch and Learn Session and our December Discussion Forum will be posted here when confirmed.
Past Events
If you missed the opportunity to watch 'live' our:
February Online Lunch & Learn Session - Generation After Next Antennas you can catch it on demand on IET.tv
June Online Lunch and Learn Session - Novel Antennas and propagation research at Edinburgh University - catch OnDemand on IET.tv
Following on from our recent Novel Antennas and propagation research at Edinburgh University online Lunch and Learn session on 6 June, here are some responses from one of our speakers Dr Symon Podilchak to the questions we didn't have time to ask. For those who weren't able to join live on the day, you can catch up with the webinar on demand on IET.tv
Phased array antennas require expensive MMIC per radiating element (e.g. £400/channel). The application seems that the direction of the beam does not need to change at the speed that phased arrays can be steered (milliseconds) - would a mechanically steered antenna be a cheaper alternative that still fulfils the requirements?
Answer: Yes. This was mentioned in the presentation. It is indeed possible to use a mechanical steering system or an automatic (fixed and programmable) beam steering system for the ambulance scenario.
Does the virus embed itself on surfaces? If so, would the RF power need to be delivered long enough to penetrate into the surface and deactivate the virus below the surface?
Answer: This was not part of the earlier RF-focused research. From the findings from the World Health Organization (WHO), the coronavirus can stay (and be active) on the surface of metal, for example, for up to 48 hours. Also, the WHO has clarified that the virus can stay airborne for up to 48 hours. This was briefly mentioned in the presentation. Please note that penetration into materials (sub-surface) is not believed to occur, and as such the methodology works on a surface cleaning approach.
What consideration was given to all of the medicines and susceptible substances inside an ambulance?
Answer: Given that the stages of the research is still in the early stages, we have followed and considered EMI/EMC best practices and this deals with the suitable power levels. Also, most substances inside ambulances are well contained within sterile containers and likely would not be of concern.
Is there enough demand to repurpose this research for applications outside medical fields?
Answer: As briefly mentioned in the presentation itself, the approach can be applied to other sterilization scenarios such as food and ventilation sterilization for subways and large venues with large footfall, for example.
Committee Members
Dr Anil Shukla - Chair
Vacancy - Vice Chair
Dr Ivor Morrow
Dr John Batchelor
Dr Kenneth Lee Ford
Dr Michael Neve
Professor Michael Warrington
Dr Rebecca Walton
Mr Richard Rudd
Professor Sana Salous
Professor Tian Loh
Dr Viktor Doychinov
Deborah- Claire McKenzie- Community Manager