Activities and Initiatives

The activities of CM-SIG are currently facilitated by Buon Kiong Lau (Lund University), assisted by several key volunteers:

Webinar Coordinators: Marta Cabedo Fabrés (Universidad Politécnica de Valencia) and Divitha Seetharamdoo (University Gustave Eiffel)

Newsletter Editors: Binbin Yang (North Carolina A&T State University), Kalyan Durbhakula (University of Missouri – Kansas City)

Social Media Coordinator: Fenghan Lin (ShanghaiTech University)

Benchmarking Activity Coordinator: Yikai Chen (UESTC)

Our ongoing activities and initiatives are:

  • The Third Edition of the European School of Antenna (ESoA) Course on “Characteristic Modes: Theory and Applications” will be held in-person in Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover during 5-9 June 2023. The course is jointly organized by Czech Technical University in Prague, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Leibniz Universität Hannover and Lund University. This course is given every 2nd year, hope to see some of you there in 2023!
  • Special Session #19 entitled “Theory and Applications of Characteristic Modes” at the URSI International Symposium on Electromagnetic Theory (EMTS 2023) in Vancouver, Canada 22–26 May 2023 (Co-organizers: Dr. Henrik Wallén and Dr. Pasi Ylä-Oijala, Aalto University, Finland).
  • Session B21 entitled “Theory and Applications of Characteristic Modes” at the XXXVth URSI General Assembly and Scientific Symposium (URSI GASS 2023) in Sapporo, Japan 19–26 August 2023 (Co-organizers: Dr. Henrik Wallén and Dr. Pasi Ylä-Oijala, Aalto University, Finland).
  • Special Session entitled “Theory of Characteristic Mode and Its Applications” at the 2022 International Conference on Antenna Measurements and Applications (CAMA 2022), in Guangzhou, China, 14-17 Nov. 2022 (Co-organizers: Hui Li, Dalian Univeristy of Technology, China and Zhan Zhang, Beijing Jiaotong Univeristy, China).
  • Benchmarking activities to verify characteristic mode software tools (both inhouse and commercial), led by Yikai Chen of UESTC, China. Those interested can contact Yikai Chen for more details. Participants of a discussion on benchmarking activity at EuCAP 2017 are shown in the group photo below.

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Our past activities and initiatives include the following (listed in reverse chronological order):

  • Special Session entitled “Characteristic Mode Analysis for Radiation, Scattering and Absorption” at the 2022 The International Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society Symposium in China (ACES China 2022) in Xuzhou, China, 28-31 Oct. 2022 (Co-organizers: Fenghan Lin, ShanghaiTech University, China, Teng Li, Southeast University, China and Xiao Zhang, Shenzhen University, China)
  • Special Session entitled “Characteristic Mode Analysis for Beyond Antennas” at the 2022 IEEE 10th Asia-Pacific Conference on Antennas and Propagation (APCAP 2022), in Xiamen, China, 26-29 Sep. 2022 (Co-organizers: Fenghan Lin, ShanghaiTech University, China and Teng Li, Southeast University, China).
  • Special Session entitled “Recent Developments in the Theory of Characteristic Modes and Its Applications to Modern Antenna Systems” at the 2022 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and CNC/USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting (IEEE APS/URSI2018) in Denver, CO, USA, 10-15 July 2022 (Co-organizers: Binbin Yang, North Carolina A&T State University, USA and Nader Behdad, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA).
  • Characteristic Modes Convened Session at 2022 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2022) entitled “Enhanced Capabilities of Characteristic Mode Analysis for Novel Applications”. The conveners were John Borchardt (Sandia National Laboratories, USA) and Chao-Fu Wang (National University of Singapore, Singapore) and the session chairs were Kurt Schab (Santa Clara University, USA) and Simone Genovesi (University of Pisa, Italy). EuCAP 2022 was held in Madrid, Spain between 27 Mar – 1 Apr 2022.
  • 28 May 2021 – The Second Edition of the European School of Antenna (ESoA) Course on “Characteristic Modes: Theory and Applications” has been successfully held online during 24-28 May 2021. The course was jointly organized by Czech Technical University in Prague, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Leibniz Universität Hannover and Lund University. The course website with detailed information is available here. The course pamphlet is found here. This course is given every 2nd year, so hope to see some of you in 2023!

  • Marta Cabedo Fabres and Divitha Seetharamdoo organized a webinars on 15 Apr 2021. The webinar was recorded and the video has been uploaded to our YouTube channel. Details are given below:

Webinar on 15 Apr 2021 – https://youtu.be/OBLSkHNY_hg

Title of Presentation Speaker Affiliation
Analysis of Excitation in UWB Slot-loaded Microstrip Antennas using Characteristic Modes Mahrukh Khan The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ, USA
Design Procedure for 5G/IoT Multiple-Port Cavity-Backed Antennas Jaime Molins Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), Spain

The video is also available on Bilibili (courtesy of Fenghan Lin): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1WV411J78P/

  • Convened Session “Characteristic Mode Analysis for Emerging Applications and New Structures” at the 2021 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation in Düsseldorf, Germany, 22-26 March, 2021 (Organizers: Dirk Manteuffel, Kalyan C. Durbhakula, and Fenghan Lin).
  • Marta Cabedo Fabres and Divitha Seetharamdoo organized two webinars, on 1 and 3 Dec 2020. Both have been uploaded to our YouTube channel. Details are given below:

Webinar on 1 Dec 2020 – https://youtu.be/wUdJ_czttLA

Title of Presentation Speaker Affiliation
Characteristic Mode Analysis on Multi-mode Patch Antennas John Borchardt Sandia National Laboratories, USA
Review of Characteristic Mode Analysis for Resonant Metasurface Antennas Fenghan Lin
 ShanghaiTech University, China

Unfortunately, the actual recording was of poor quality due to some technical issues, so the two speakers were kind enough to made separate recordings (of very high quality) for the uploaded version. The downside is that we lost the Q&A.

The video is also available on Bilibili (courtesy of Fenghan Lin): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1V5411V7Vr

Webinar on 3 Dec 2020 – https://youtu.be/QKi74A971rg

Title of Presentation Speaker Affiliation
Innovations in Smartphone MIMO Antenna Design using Characteristic Modes Buon Kiong Lau Lund University, Sweden
Application of Characteristic Mode Theory to MIMO Antennas Binbin Yang  North Carolina A&T State University, USA

The video is also available on Bilibili (courtesy of Fenghan Lin): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1ya4y1W7Gi

23 June 2020

Title of Presentation Speaker Affiliation
Characteristic Mode Analysis for the Design of Nanosatellite Reconfigurable Antennas Simone Genovesi University of Pisa, Italy
Antenna Positioning for Bandwidth Optimization Using Characteristic Mode Analysis Peter W. Futter Altair Development S.A. (Pty) Ltd, South Africa
Circularly Polarized Electrically Small Antenna Using Chiral Metamaterials and Based on Characteristic Modes Theory Nadia Kari Universite Gustave Eiffel, Lille Campus, France

25 June 2020

Title of Presentation Speaker Affiliation
Systematic Design Method for Asymmetric Multiport Antennas Based on Characteristic Modes Nikolai Peitzmeier Leibniz University Hannover, Germany
Patten Synthesis for Single Antennas Using Theory of Characteristic Modes Hui Li Dalian University of Technology (DLUT), China
Broadband Metasurface-Based Antenna Using Hexagonal Loop Elements Wenzhang Zhang University of Liverpool, United Kingdo
  • Convened Session “CS45 New Perspectives and Applications of Characteristic Mode Analysis in Antenna Design” at the 2020 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2020), 15-20 March 2020, Copenhagen, Denmark (Conveners: Hui Li and Naobumi Michishita)
  • Special Session on “Modeling and Design of Innovative Antennas” at the 9th IEEE-APS Topical Conference on Antennas and Propagation in Wireless Communications (APWC 2019) in Granada, Spain, 9 – 13 September 2019 (Convener: Zhi Ning Chen). The conference is coupled with International Conference on Electromagnetics in Advanced Applications (ICEAA 2019)
  • Special Session on “Theory and Applications of Characteristic Modes” at the URSI Commission B International Symposium on Electromagnetic Theory (EMTS 2019) in San Diego, USA, 27 – 31 May 2019 (Co-conveners: Deb Chatterjee and Ahmed M. Hassan). The papers presented in the session were:
    • The Shape Optimization of Dielectric Resonator Antennas
    • Characteristic Modes of Lossy Objects
    • Scalable Characteristic Mode Analysis Using Big Data Techniques
    • Characteristic Mode Analysis of Electromagnetic Coupling to Wires with Realistic Shapes
    • A Multilayered Green’s Function Model for the Characteristic Mode Analysis of Carbon Nanotube Composites
  • Convened Sessions on “CS40 Progress in the Application of Characteristic Modes Analysis” (Co-conveners: Danie Ludick and Werner L. Schroeder) and “CS3 Generalized MoM-based Eigenvalue Problems for Antennas and Scattering” (Co-conveners: Mats Gustafsson and Kurt Schab) at the 2019 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP2019) in Krakow, Poland, 31 March – 5 April 2019.
  • “Workshop on Characteristic Modes Theory and Applications”, organized by Yikai Chen and his team at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) in Chengdu, China on 17 July 2018. There were three hour-long talks, focusing on the development of the theory behind characteristic modes for dielectric as well as some specific applications. Apart from the professors, about 70 local and international students attended the event. A detailed description of the workshop in Mandarin is available here. A photo of the professors participating in the event is shown below.
  • Special Session on “Characteristic Modes 2.0 – From Fundamental Limits to 5G Antenna Systems” at the 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and CNC/USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting (IEEE APS/URSI2018) in Boston, MA, USA, 8-13 July 2018 (Co-conveners: Jacob Adams and Buon Kiong Lau, Co-chairs: Jacob Adams and Dirk Manteuffel).
  • The First Edition of the European School of Antenna (ESoA) Course on “Characteristic Modes: Theory and Applications” was held in Valencia, Spain during 21-25 May 2018. The course was jointly organized by Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Czech Technical University in Prague, Leibniz Universität Hannover and Lund University. The course website with detailed information is available here. The course pamphlet is found here. 17 students attended the course.
  • Convened Sessions on “Advances in Antenna Design and Analysis Using Characteristic Modes (Co-conveners: Kurt Schab and Eva Antonino Daviu) and “Advances in Theory and Computation of Characteristic Modes” (Co-conveners: Hiroyuki Arai and Miloslav Capek) at the 2018 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP2018) in London, UK, 9-13 April, 2018.
  • Special Sessions on “Theory of Characteristic Mode and Its Applications” at the 2017 Asia-Pacific Conference on Antennas and Propagation (APCAP2017) in Xi’an, China, October 16-19, 2017 (Co-chairs: Hui Li and Yikai Chen).
  • Special Session on “Recent Advances on Characteristic Mode Analysis and Applications” at the 2017 International Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES) Symposium in Florence, Italy, 26-30 March 2017 (Co-chairs: Agostino Monorchi and Simone Genovesi).
  • Convened Sessions on “Characteristic Mode Analysis for Platform-Mounted Antenna Design” (Co-conveners: Yikai Chen and Simone Genovesi) and “New Trends in Characteristic Modes Research” (Co-conveners: Divitha Seetharamdoo and Qi Wu) at the 2017 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP2017) in Paris, France, 19-24 March, 2017.
  • Mini-Workshop on Characteristic Modes, Lund, Sweden on 29 Nov 2016, in conjunction with the PhD thesis defense of Zachary Miers at Lund University. Workshop speakers include Jennifer Bernhard, Dirk Manteufffel, Eva-Antonino Daviu, Miloslav Capek.
  • Special Session on “Characteristic Mode Analysis for Small Antenna Design” at the International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (ISAP2016) in Okinawa, Japan, 24-28 October, 2016 (Co-conveners: Hiroyuki Arai and Naobumi Michishita).
  • Special Session on “Antenna Design/Analysis Based on Stored Energy and Characteristic Modes” at the 2016 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and CNC/USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting (IEEE APS/URSI2016) in Puerto Rico, USA, 26 June-2 July 2016 (Co-conveners: Mats Gustafsson, Buon Kiong Lau, and Guy Vandenbosch).
  • Special Issue on “Theory and Applications of Characteristic Modes” published in the July 2016 issue of the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.
  • Convened Session on “Theory and Application of Characteristic Modes” at the 2016 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP2016) in Davos, Switzerland, 10-15 April 2016 (Co-conveners: Dirk Manteuffel and Yikai Chen).
  • Focused and Special Sessions on “Modal Analysis of Electromagnetic Structures” at the 2015 European Microwave Conference (EuMC2015) (Co-conveners: George Kyriacou and Theodoros Kaifas).
  • Invited Talk on “Characteristic Mode Based Antenna Design – a Straight Forward Approach to Small Form Factor Antenna Integration” given by Dirk Manteuffel (University of Kiel, Germany) at the 2015 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP2015) in Lisbon, Portugal, 12-17 April 2015.
  • Special Session on “Theory of Characteristic Modes for Antenna System Design in Wireless Communications” in 2014 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and CNC/USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting (IEEE APS/URSI2014), Memphis, TN, USA, 6-12 July 2014 (Co-conveners: Buon Kiong Lau and Joseph Modro).

Some archived News:

  • 2023-06-11 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society has just announced the winners of the “2022 Edward E. Altshuler AP-S Magazine Prize Award” are our members Miloslav Capek and Kurt Schab, for their paper “Computational Aspects of Characteristic Mode Decomposition: An Overview” IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, vol. 64, no. 2, pp. 23-31, 2022. Congratulations!!!

  • 2019-05-15 We are proud to receive the news that our SIG member Associate Prof. Eva Antonino-Daviu of Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) has been awarded the prestigious 2019 IEEE AP-S Lot Shafai Mid-Career Award for her accomplishments on Characteristic Modes. The citation is: “For her contribution to the systematic design of antenna systems for practical applications using characteristic modes and promoting access of women to engineering.” Eva has made tremendous contributions to our SIG from the very beginning and we trust that the momentum generated by our joint efforts has led to many more people realizing the importance of the area. Bravo, Eva!
  • 2019-01-18 The First Edition of the European School of Antenna (ESoA) Course on “Characteristic Modes: Theory and Applications” held in Valencia, Spain during 21-25 May 2018, received a good review by the ESoA Board in their meeting today. Therefore, we will continue this successful venture: We are happy to announce that the next edition of this course will be held in Prague, Czech Republic during 18-22 May 2020. For those interested, please note the dates down in your diary. Further details will come later.
  • 2018-01-10  We congratulate our members Feng Han Lin and Prof. Zhi Ning Chen for obtaining the CST University Publication Award 2017 for their CM paper: F. H. Lin and Z. N. Chen”Low-Profile Wideband Metasurface Antennas Using Characteristic Mode Analysis,” IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 65, no. 4, pp. 1706-1713, Apr. 2017.
  • 2016-04-15 – The Special Interest Group would like to congratulate our member Ms. Montaha Bouezzeddine (RheinMain University of Applied Sciences) for winning the ESoA-EuCAP 2016 Best Student Paper Award at the 2016 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP’2016) in Davos, 10-15 April 2016 (details here). The winning entry was co-authored with her advisor Prof. Werner L. Schroeder and it is entitled “Systematic Approach for Electrically Tuning N-port Antenna System Based on Characteristic Modes”. Fantastic work!

TCM Special Session 2014