IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ADVANCED PACKAGING, VOL. 33, NO.

1, FEBRUARY 2010 139

Active Heatsink Antenna for

Radio-Frequency Transmitter
Atef Alnukari, Philippe Guillemet, Yves Scudeller, and Serge Toutain

Abstract—This paper deals with the design of an active heat-sink on reliability and coupling effects are undesirable. Localized
antenna for radio-frequency transmitter. The antenna achieves temperature increase, caused by power dissipation, can drasti-
electromagnetic and thermal functions by offering a suitable cally affect performance of the devices [4]. Therefore, optimal
radiating pattern for transmission as high efficiency to remove
the dissipated power within the transmitter by heat exchange RF design has to consider both electromagnetic propagation
to the surrounding medium. A test transmitter has been per- and heat transport by taking into account all relevant features
formed by combining a 2 GHz MESFET power amplifier in a of the devices such as the operating conditions, the physical
conductor-backed coplanar wave-guide with a wire-fed patch properties, and the structural characteristics.
heat-sink antenna connected to the ground plane. The active To limit the volume of the front end, a radio-frequency
heat-sink antenna has been investigated by measurement and
simulation. As expected, it was found that the antenna exhibits transmitter utilizing the cooler attached to the power amplifier
desirable electromagnetic performance as achieving an efficient as electromagnetic antenna was considered by some authors [5]
thermal control by offering suitable operating temperature. A [6]. Such a solution can be envisaged in some particular cases
heat spreader connecting the transistor to the antenna, was espe- but cannot offer a general route with respects to RF design. This
cially developed to cause any significant influence on transmitter paper deals with design and performance of an active heatsink
performance. The amplifier can deliver an output power as high as
5 W under natural convection with air at room temperature and antenna for radio-frequency transmitters. The objective of the
atmospheric pressure. According to the temperature and direction study was to develop an antenna achieving electromagnetic
of the antenna, thermal resistance of the transmitter was found and thermal functions by offering a suitable radiating pattern
between 6 and 8 KW 1 . The transmitter can thus operate over
for transmission as a high efficiency for removing the power
a wide temperature range without any additional cooling device. dissipated by promoting heat exchange with the surrounding
Index Terms—Heat-sink antenna, radio-frequency (RF) device, medium. The test transmitter, as fabricated for investigation, is
RF packaging, thermal analysis. presented. Design issues are discussed on the base of measure-
ments and simulations.
I. INTRODUCTION
II. DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
ADIO frequency (RF) front ends must be miniaturized to
R create high data bit rate terminals and provide numerous
accesses to multimedia services. In recent years, new integration
A RF transmitter and its heat-sink antenna are shown in Fig. 1.
The heat-sink antenna combines electromagnetic and thermal
functions by achieving a desirable radiating pattern for trans-
concepts using low temperature co-fired components (LTCC) mission as a temperature control by heat exchange with the sur-
[1] and system on package [2] (SOP) have been proposed. rounding medium. The antenna has high thermal conductivity
Nowadays, communication modules need more functionality, and a quite large surface exposed to the surrounding medium
higher performance, with low cost and high integrity. Such suitable for removing a large amount of thermal energy dis-
concepts are becoming more promising solutions to develop sipated within the transmitter. Heat can be exchanged as well
the future miniaturized communication modules [3]. Minia- by natural or forced convection with the ambient air at given
turization poses crucial issues, related to the devices topology, temperature and pressure, as by thermal radiation with the sur-
such as the parasitic couplings between circuit elements and lo- rounding surfaces. Because of its small thermal resistance, the
calized heat dissipation. Generally, thermal management plays antenna offers a preferential thermal path that can drastically
an essential role in design of microwave and radio-frequency reduce the temperature difference between the device and the
devices. It is recognized that temperature has a strong influence surrounding medium.
The transmitter shown in Fig. 1 is composed of a power am-
plifier circuit included in a conductor-backed coplanar wave-
Manuscript received June 27, 2008; revised February 11, 2009. First pub-
lished July 28, 2009; current version published February 26, 2010. This work
guide built on a FR4 type epoxy substrate and combined with
was recommended for publication by Associate Editor L.-T. Hwang upon eval- a wire-fed antenna. The thickness of the substrate and copper
uation of the reviewers’ comments. metallization is 1.58 mm and 35 , respectively. Dimensions
A. Alnukari and S. Toutain are with the Université de Nantes, Ecole Poly-
technique IREENA, 44306 Nantes Cedex 3, France.
of the power amplifier circuit are 76 mm 58 mm. The diam-
P. Guillemet and Y. Scudeller are with the Université de Nantes, eter of the fed wire is 1 mm. Dimensions of the antenna are
Ecole Polytechnique LGMPA, 44306 Nantes Cedex 3, France (e-mail: 67 mm 54 mm in length and width. The wire-fed patch an-
yves.scudeller@univ-nantes.fr). tenna has been especially designed for the 2 GHz band. The
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. heat-sink antenna exhibits a gain near 5 dBi and transmits an
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TADVP.2009.2023858 output power of 42 dBm, as reported in Section IV. The output
1521-3323/$26.00 © 2010 IEEE
140 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ADVANCED PACKAGING, VOL. 33, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2010

Fig. 3. Schematic of the power amplifier circuit, as designed.

amplifier to the antenna, as avoiding a deformation of the elec-

tromagnetic field in the device topology. Then, the heat spreader
has a strong influence on the operating temperature. Electro-
magnetic performance could be affected if the size of the heat
spreader become quite large compared to the wavelength. The
heat spreader with 10 mm in thickness and diameter, as rep-
resented in Fig. 1, offers suitable performance, as reported in
Section IV. The effect of the heat spreader dimensions is dis-
cussed in Section IV.

B. Power Amplifier Circuit

Schematic of the power amplifier circuit is shown in Fig. 3.
The power amplifier circuit is composed of a 2 GHz MESFET
transistor device mounted on the top side of the substrate,
Fig. 1. RF transmitter with the heat-sink antenna, as fabricated. (a) Cross view. incorporated in a conductor-backed coplanar waveguide. The
(b) Back side view. Power amplifier configured into a grounded coplanar wave power amplifier circuit consists of a single power stage, input
guide.
and output match networks and bias circuits. The input match
network is a 50 single-stub shunt tuning circuit and the output
match network is a quarter-wave transformer with single-stub
shunt tuning circuit. A collection of vias holes connects be-
tween the top and bottom sides of the ground planes in order to
filter the parasite propagation modes of electromagnetic waves.
Vias holes create additional thermal paths through the substrate
for promoting larger exchange surface with the surrounding
medium. This significantly reduces the thermal resistance of the
printed circuit board. The amplifier circuit can be designed by
different technologies such as micro-strip type, coplanar, and
grounded coplanar (conductor-backed coplanar waveguide).
The conductor-backed coplanar waveguide structure was pre-
Fig. 2. Topology of the heat-sink antenna, cross section view. [1] Heatsink an- ferred because of its ability to offer larger exchange surface
tenna. [2] Heat spreader. [3] Short circuit. [4] Heat exchange surface and radi- and then weaker thermal resistance. This point is discussed in
ating surface. [5] Ground plane. [6] Power amplifier circuit-ground plane. [7]
Transistor device. [8] Printed circuit board. [9] Surrounding medium. Section IV.

C. Fabrication
power transmitted by the antenna can be as high as 15 W. An- The heat-sink antenna was assembled to the heat spreader and
tenna performance is discussed in Section IV. the transistor device to about 180 temperature by a conven-
tional SnPb solder. Assembling was performed into a single step
A. Wire-Fed Heatsink Patch Antenna to limit duration of the process in high temperature and then
avoid damaging the transistor device. The fabrication process
Fig. 2 presents the topology of the heat-sink antenna. The
has required setting up a device for connecting the different
structure incorporates a conducting cylinder acting as a heat
components before heating.
spreader that connects the amplifier circuit and the wire-fed
patch antenna to the ground plane. The plane of symmetry of
III. EXPERIMENTAL
the antenna develops a short circuit and no major influence on
the electromagnetic field should be consequently observed if the As shown in Fig. 4(a), the experimental setup was composed
short-circuit is placed through the as considered plane. This such of the heat-sink antenna [1] configured into the test transmitter
configured cylinder, the so-called heat spreader, has suitable di- [2] placed under an holder device [3]. The holder device [3]
mensions, creating an efficient thermal path between the power allowed to turn the antenna [1] toward a given direction. The
ALNUKARI et al.: ACTIVE HEATSINK ANTENNA FOR RADIO-FREQUENCY TRANSMITTER 141

The power dissipated by the transmitter was determined by

the energy balance, relation (1)

(1)

where is the power delivered by the dc power source to the

amplifier circuit. and represents the input and
output power of RF signals respectively, referred to the oper-
ating frequency and using relation (2) to convert from dBm to
watts

(2)

was determined by relation (3)

(3)

where and are the supply dc current and voltage. For

input power up to 21 dBm (
and ). For input power greater than 21 dBm,
grows. For instance, for ,
( and ).
The power added efficiency was obtained as function of fre-
quency by relation (4)

Fig. 4. Schematic of the experimental setup. (a) [1] Heatsink antenna. [2] Test (4)
transmitter. [3] Holder device. (b) Thermocouples position. [4] Antenna temper-
ature. [5] Heat spreader temperature. [6] Transistor device temperature. [7] Air
temperature. [8] Radiating shield. Thermal resistance of the transmitter, [ ] was mea-
sured by using relation (5)

(5)
amplifier circuit was supplied by a power source delivering
an adjustable dc voltage ranging from 0 to 35 V. The input where is the maximum temperature measured into the
power was delivered by a signal generator. The output power transmitter and Ta the ambient temperature.
and the efficiency of the power amplifier were measured with The input reflection coefficient of the antenna was mea-
a signal generator Marconi-2031 (9 kHz–21.2 GHz, 50 sured with a network analyzer operating in the frequency range
RF output, 30 dBm maximum output power) and a spectrum 10 MHz–50 GHz, with 13 dBm as maximum power (Agilent
analyzer Anritsu MS2665C (10 kHz–2.7 GHz, 50 RF input, E8364B). Two similar wire-fed heat-sink patch antennas were
30 dBm maximum input power). Temperature distributions fabricated for electromagnetic measurements. A first antenna
were measured by a thermal imaging camera (ThermoVision was used to be investigated alone with dimensions of the ground
A320; FLIR-Systems) and several K type thermocouples after plane chosen as 100 mm 100 mm. A second antenna was used
applying the input RF signals. Infrared imaging is a noncon- in combination with the power amplifier circuit with dimensions
tact temperature measurement technique offering the least of the ground plane chosen as 76 mm 58 mm equivalent to the
disturbance to the point being measured, especially suitable amplifier circuit. Otherwise, radiation patterns were measured
for noninvasive thermal testing of RF devices. The infrared into an anechoic chamber having 6.5 m 3 m 4 m as length,
camera operated with uncooled microbolometers in medium width, and height.
infrared wavelength 8–12 with a resolution of 320 240
pixels. A black paint coating has been previously laid down on IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
the whole surface of the PCB and the antenna. Thermocouples Measurements were performed after applying the RF input
of 0.1 mm diameter were placed to the transistor device, the signals to the test transmitter placed in air at room temperature
heat spreader and the antenna as shown in Fig. 4(b). Ambient and atmospheric pressure. Fig. 5 gives the output power and the
temperature was detected by a thermocouple protected against power added efficiency of the RF signal measured at 2 GHz as
thermal radiation by a shield. Absolute error in temperature function of the input power in dBm. The input power was ranged
was estimated to . from 0 to 25 dBm [0.316 W]. The linear gain of the power
142 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ADVANCED PACKAGING, VOL. 33, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2010

Fig. 5. Output power and power added efficiency as function of the input
power. (a) Output power, as measured. (b) Power added efficiency, as measured.

Fig. 7. Infrared thermal images of the transmitter with the antenna vertically
positioned in air at 25 C temperature and atmospheric pressure. The total dis-
sipated power is 8.3 W. (a) Temperature distribution to the front side of the
heatsink antenna, as measured. (b) Temperature distribution to the front side of
the power amplifier circuit, as measured.

gate-source voltage and a drain-source voltage equal to

and 8.0 V, respectively. The output power reached 37 dBm at
25 dBm input power up to a maximum power added efficiency
found to 50%. The amplifier can thus deliver an output power
as high as 5 W with a suitable efficiency, as shown in Fig. 6.
Temperature distributions of the transmitter were measured
in steady state for different directions of the heat-sink antenna.
According to the power added efficiency of the amplifier, the
Fig. 6. Dissipated power and output power as a function of the power added
efficiency. ( ) Output power in dBm, as measured. ( ) Dissipated power in dissipated power was ranged from 4.5 to 10 W (see Fig. 6).
watts, as measured. Fig. 7(a) and (b) shows infrared thermal images obtained to
the test transmitter with 8.3 W as dissipated power when the
amplifier was found as 17 dB. Fig. 6 shows the measured output heat-sink antenna is vertically positioned and exposed to air at
power and the dissipated power as function of the power 25 temperature and one atmosphere pressure. For this par-
added efficiency. The dissipated power is calculated from ticular case, maximum surface temperature, measured to the
relation (1) in watts using relation (2). Additional tests were bottom side of the transistor, was found approximately to 89
performed to the transmitter mounted on a plate controlled in [see Fig. 7(b)]. Infrared measurements were confirmed by the
temperature to demonstrate that the power added efficiency thermocouples. Fig. 7(a) indicates that temperature of the an-
does not significantly change with temperature in the range tenna is quite uniform and smaller as ones to the transistor de-
20 –80 . One observes in Fig. 6 that the power ampli- vice (bottom side). Temperature measured to the heat spreader
fier achieves an output power of 36.5 dBm at 22 dBm input (transistor-antenna interconnect) is reported in Table I as a func-
power with a power added efficiency of 47% at 2 GHz with a tion of the dissipated power for vertical and horizontal directions
ALNUKARI et al.: ACTIVE HEATSINK ANTENNA FOR RADIO-FREQUENCY TRANSMITTER 143

TABLE I
TEMPERATURE MEASURED TO THE HEAT SPREADER FOR DIFFERENT POWER
WITH THE HEAT SINK ANTENNA VERTICALLY AND HORIZONTALLY POSITIONED
IN AIR, AT ABOUT 25 C TEMPERATURE AND ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE

Fig. 8. Reflection coefficient S11 as a function of the frequency, as measured.

of the antenna [horizontal position is shown in Fig. 1(a) vertical

position is shown in Fig. 1(b)]. Finally, thermal resistance of
the transmitter, as defined by relation (4), was found between
6 to 8 according to the temperature and direction of
the antenna. Mention that the power dissipated by the ampli-
fier is removed by two thermal paths: one through the printed
circuit board, and the other through the antenna attached to the
heat spreader. Heat flowing through the printed circuit board,
is especially conducted through the ground plane and the trans-
mission lines. Heat flowing through the heat spreader is then Fig. 9. Gain of radiating pattern of the transmitter and heatsink antenna.
(a) E-plane co-polarization, as measured. (b) H-plane co-polarization, as
exchanged to the antenna surface by radiation and convection measured.
with the surrounding medium. Numerical simulations (see end
of Section IV) confirm this analysis.
Fig. 8 shows the input reflection coefficient of the
wire-fed heatsink patch antenna measured as a function of one referred to the power amplifier and the other to the heatsink
frequency in the range 1.5–2.5 GHz with an heat spreader patch antenna. One can observed that gain patterns referring
of 10 mm in diameter. As expected, the resonant frequency to the uncombined antenna are weakly affected by the heat
was found to 2 GHz and the 10-dB return-loss bandwidth spreader. A more significant influence could be observed for
of the antenna at about 70 MHz. This demonstrates that the smaller dimensions of the ground plane.
antenna is not significantly affected by the size and shape of the Electromagnetic simulations were additionally conducted
heat spreader. A second resonant frequency was additionally (HFSS software) to confirm measurement performed to the
observed at 1.25 GHz. Fig. 9(a) and (b) shows the gain of Wire-fed heatsink patch antenna as well investigate the in-
- and -plane co-polarization measured with 25 dBm input fluence of the heat spreader in the device topology. The
power to the combined and uncombined wire-fed heatsink three-dimensional structure presented in Fig. 10(a) was con-
patch antenna. The peak gain of the uncombined and combined sidered. A 50- fed transmission line connected to a wire fed
wire-fed heatsink patch antenna was found near 5 and 17 dB, etched on a substrate has been considered. Dielectric constant
respectively. The peak gain of the transmitter is the sum of the of the substrate was taken as 4.4. Fig. 10(b) represents the as
144 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ADVANCED PACKAGING, VOL. 33, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2010

Fig. 11. Temperature distribution calculated by finite elements method with

Fig. 10. Electromagnetic simulation. (a) Wire-fed patch antenna topology, as 7.48 W and 0.82 W as power dissipated to the transistor and the out RF line,
considered by the HFSS model. (b) Input reflection coefficient as a function of respectively. The heatsink antenna is vertically positioned in air at 25 C tem-
frequency, as calculated by the HFSS model for different heat spreader diameter perature and atmospheric pressure. (a) Device topology: [1] heat sink antenna,
(6, 10, 14 mm). [2] output RF line, [3] power amplifier device. (b) Surface temperature on the
front side of the PCB [power amplifier side, top view of Fig. 11(a)]. (c) Surface
temperature on the back side of the antenna [bottom view of Fig. 11(a)].

calculated input reflection coefficients of the wire-fed heatsink performance of the wire patch antenna. Thermal efficiency of
patch antenna as a function of frequency for different heat the antenna should be therefore considered.
spreader diameter comprised between 6 to 14 mm. Calculations Thermal calculations were performed by the finite elements
were found in good accordance with measurement reported in method (Comsol-Multiphysics Software) to confirm infrared
Fig. 8. Two resonant frequencies were found approximately at measurements as to investigate other topologies capable to de-
1.25 GHz and 2.0 GHz, referred to as 2 and 1 in Fig. 10(b), liver high output power under natural convection cooling with
respectively. The first frequency is the patch antenna reso- air. The transmitter has been three-dimensionally described by
nant frequency as the second one is the wire patch resonant considering all relevant features as well the pattern of the power
frequency. It was observed that the heat spreader diameter amplifier circuit as the transistor device and the patch antenna.
increase shifts the first frequency up and change the magnitude Localized heat sources and the wide range in dimension of the
of [see Fig. 10(b)]. This is due to the change of the surface multiple layers have required a quite dense mesh. In order to
area of the wire-fed heatsink patch antenna. The patch antenna reduce the computational cost, the transistor device was con-
resonant frequency remains around 2 GHz for heat spreader sidered as a conducting layer embedded into a plastic package.
diameter ranging from 6 to 14 mm. However, the magnitude of Average heat exchange coefficient has been applied over all
was slightly changed because increasing the heat spreader surfaces exposed to the surrounding medium. According to
diameter has no significant influence on the antenna input temperature and direction of the antenna, they were ranged
impedance. One can conclude that the first resonant frequency from 5 to 20 . In addition, the thermal power was
and matching of patch antenna are weakly disturbed by the considered as generated uniformly within the transistor and the
heat spreader. A well-matched antenna could be obtained at a output RF line. Fig. 11(b) and (c) presents thermal simulations
desirable frequency by modifying the length and the feeding obtained with the antenna vertically positioned in air at 25
point position of the patch antenna. The second resonant fre- temperature and one atmosphere pressure. 7.48 and 0.82 W is
quency found at 1.25 GHz, denoted as the wire patch resonant dissipated to the transistor and the output RF line, respectively.
frequency [see Fig. 10(b)], is caused by the lumped circuit In this case, the average exchange coefficient, referring to
resonance, composed of the capacitance of the roof connected convection and radiation, identified to about 13 ,
in parallel with the equivalent inductance of the heat spreader. was found in agreement with classical correlations (see, for
magnitude and resonant frequency are quite more disturbed example, [7]). Fig. 11(b) and (c) highlight maximum and min-
by the heat spreader. imum temperature computed on the PCB and on the antenna.
Finally, the resonance of the patch antenna at 2 GHz could be Those temperatures are relatively closed to the temperature
used as operating frequency. The wire patch resonant frequency measured by infrared thermography, given in Fig. 7.
could be only useful if a higher reduction in size is needed. In Thermal calculations were in good agreement with measure-
the future, additional studies should be conducted to improve ments for all RF input power: the temperature on the top of
ALNUKARI et al.: ACTIVE HEATSINK ANTENNA FOR RADIO-FREQUENCY TRANSMITTER 145

TABLE II TABLE III

TEMPERATURE ON THE TOP SIDE OF THE TRANSISTOR MEASURED BY MAXIMUM POWER DISSIPATION FOR 125 C TEMPERATURE OF THE
INFRARED THERMOGRAPHY COMPARED TO THE ONE OBTAINED BY TRANSISTOR DEVICE AND 25 C AMBIENT TEMPERATURE, AS FUNCTION OF
FINITE ELEMENT METHOD SIMULATION DIFFERENT COPPER THICKNESS OF THE GROUNDED PLANE

properties of the materials, input power and cooling conditions.

Fig. 12(c) gives the thermal resistance of the transmitter in air
as a function of copper thickness for micro strip and grounded
coplanar wave guide technologies with and without heatsink
antenna. The thermal resistance is suitable for predicting the
maximum temperature. For 25 ambient temperature and
6 W dissipated power, Fig. 13 indicates that the temperature
of the transistor device mounted on a grounded coplanar wave
guide structure with 35 copper is approximately 69
with the heatsink antenna and 106 without. For 125
maximum temperature, the transistor can dissipated up to 14
and 7 W with and without the heatsink antenna respectively
(see Table III). Difference can be highlighted by simulations
presented in Fig. 11: the total power ( ) is removed
by the PCB (4.7 W) and the antenna (3.6 W) which exhibit
a surface area of 36 and 44 , respectively. Conse-
Fig. 12. Thermal performance for different transmitter design (calculation).
(a) Micro strip line structure, as fabricated. (b) Grounded coplanar wave guide, quently, the heat sink antenna reduces by half the temperature
as fabricated. (c) Thermal resistance as a function of copper thickness for difference between the ambient and the transistor. This clearly
different transmitter topology. ( ) topology (a) without antenna. ( ) topology demonstrates thermal efficiency of the active heatsink antenna
(b) without antenna. () topology (a) with antenna. ( ) topology (b) with
antenna. when this one is combined with the heat spreader attached to
the transistor device.

V. CONCLUSION
Design of active heat-sink antenna for radio-frequency trans-
mitter was investigated. Such antenna ensures electromagnetic
and thermal function giving suitable radiating pattern for trans-
mission as a high efficiency to remove the dissipated power
within the transmitter by promoting heat exchange with the sur-
rounding medium. The active heat-sink antenna has been inves-
tigated by measurement and simulation. A test transmitter has
been fabricated by combining a 2 GHz MESFET power ampli-
fier in a conductor-backed coplanar wave-guide with a wire-fed
Fig. 13. Transistor temperature as a function of dissipated power for different patch heat-sink antenna connected to the ground plane. As ex-
transmitter topology (calculation). ( ) Micro strip line structure technology pected, it was found that the antenna offers desirable electro-
without antenna. ( ) Grounded coplanar wave guide technology without
antenna. () micro strip line structure technology with antenna. ( ) grounded magnetic performance as achieving an efficient thermal control
coplanar wave guide with antenna. by getting suitable operating temperature. It was shown that the
antenna exhibits a gain near 5 dBi and transmits an output power
of 42 dBm. The output power transmitted by the antenna is as
the transistor device measured by infrared thermography was high as 15 W. The amplifier can deliver an output power as high
always close to the one obtained by finite element method sim- as 5 W with natural convection cooling in air at room tempera-
ulation, for four different input power (see Table II). ture and atmospheric pressure. The wire-fed patch heatsink an-
Additionally, temperature distributions were determined tenna exhibits two resonant frequencies. The first one at 2 GHz
by simulation as function of the transmitter topology, layout, is the patch antenna resonant frequency which can be used as
146 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ADVANCED PACKAGING, VOL. 33, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2010

operating frequency. The second one, at 1.25 GHz, is the wire Atef Alnukari received the engineering diploma
patch resonant frequency caused by the lumped circuit reso- in high power microwave from HIAST, Syria,
Damascus, in 1999 and the M.S. degree in electronic
nance. This could be used as radiating frequency in the case systems from University of Nantes, France, in 2007.
of higher reduction in size. Therefore, additional studies are Currently, he is preparing a Ph.D. on “Study and
needed. Infrared imaging was performed for thermal testing of development of RF compact power transmitters
optimized in efficiency and consummation for
the transmitter. Its thermal resistance was found between 6 to the telecommunication” at IREENA Laboratory,
8 , according to the operating temperature and direc- University of Nantes, France.
tion of the antenna. Finally, a such transmitter can operate over
a wide temperature range by requiring any cooling device.
In the future, additional investigations should be performed,
especially to unlighted the effects of the electromagnetic losses Philippe Guillemet, photograph and biography not available at the time of
through the output RF lines. publication.

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