This paper presents two precoding techniques for a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted multi-user (MU) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) double quadrature spatial modulation (DQSM) downlink transmission system. Instead of being applied at the remote RIS, the phase shift vector is applied at the base station (BS) by using a double precoding stage. Results show that the proposed RIS-MU-MIMO-DQSM system has gains of up to 17 dB in terms of bit error rate (BER) and a reduction in detection complexity of 51% when compared with the conventional MU-MIMO system based on quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). Compared with a similar system based on amplify and forward (AF) relay-assisted technique, the proposed system has a gain of up to 18 dB in terms of BER under the same conditions and parameters.

In this work, a comparison of the microwave absorption properties of Opuntia ficus-indica cladodes, Agave atrovirens branches, and Cocos nucifera L. husk samples was performed. The study was carried out by inserting dry and powdered samples of these organic materials transversely and in the middle of a rectangular waveguide, for which scattering parameters S₂₁ and S₁₁ were measured to estimate the absorption coefficient. These measurements were compared to determine the material that behaves the best as a microwave absorber with a view to develop future low-cost and eco-friendly products by reusing agricultural waste. Specifically, Agave atrovirens sample showed the best performance, having an average value of absorption coefficient of 0.4218, while its maximum was 0.5792 at 9.706 GHz within the range from 8.005 to 13 GHz.

This article presents the design, fabrication, and measurement of a square Koch fractal slot antenna for UHF band using both the FR4-G10 and Cuclad 250 substrates. Conveniently, this 56.56 cm full-length antenna possesses a geometry that allows it to be incorporated into the standardized 10 cm × 10 cm faces of the CubeSats. Furthermore, it is shown that both selected substrates exhibit an acceptable performance at the frequency of interest despite the economic cost difference and relative permittivity. Hence, the commercial FR4-G10 antenna substrate can be preferred because of its low-cost and admissible performance at 458 MHz, which is a frequency in the UHF band that is commonly used for telemetry, tracking, and command downlinks of CubeSats. Measurements show that the proposed antenna exhibits a reflection coefficient of −16.53 dB, a bandwidth of 22.62 MHz at −10 dB, a VSWR of 1.3508, a normalized impedance of 0.794 − j0.173 at 50 Ω, and a directivity of 2.24 dBi. The contribution of this work consists in the use of a fractal geometry to construct a low-cost slot antenna working at UHF frequencies over the limited area of the CubeSat faces and in order to optimize the area for an eventual coexistence with solar cells.

In this work, a flexible and reconfigurable feeding network design for a nonuniform aperture on circular concentric ring arrays is proposed and analyzed. The network subsystem delivers coherent in-phase outputs with a Gaussian-like amplitude distribution, in a modular and basic topology based on sets of alternated power combiners and dividers. A complete antenna system in a monobeam configuration with a coherent network based on grouped inputs (blocks) per ring for an aperiodic concentric ring array with beam scanning and beam shaping properties is synthesized and analyzed. Additionally, a comparative analysis based on nonuniform and uniform concentric ring arrays fed by the proposed coherent network configuration is conducted and assessed. The optimization of the aperiodic layout on the antenna aperture (radii and interelement antenna spacings) is done by the differential evolution algorithm. Numeric experimentation demonstrates the performance advantages and capabilities of the proposed coherent network configuration with a nonuniform aperture over its uniform counterpart, with an improvement in average equal to −8.7 dB of side lobe level and 3.9 dB of directivity. Furthermore, the numeric examples show a complexity reduction on the coherent feeding network configuration based on the number of control signal inputs compared with a conventional phased antenna array; in the proposed configuration, the main beam is steered and shaped with N-1 control feeding ports per ring in this antenna system.