Professor Eddie Ball

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Professor of Radio Frequency Engineering

UKRI Future Leaders Fellow (2021-2028)

Eddie Ball
Profile picture of Eddie Ball
e.a.ball@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 5839
Sir Frederick Mappin Building

Full contact details

Professor Eddie Ball
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Sir Frederick Mappin Building
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
Profile

I am a Professor in RF Engineering, in the Communications Research Group.

Prior to starting at The University of Sheffield in 2015, my career has been as a practising RF Engineer in industry:-

  • Tunstall Healthcare Ltd (Principal RF Engineer & Radio System Architect) 2011-2015
  • Cambridge Consultants Ltd (Principal RF Engineer, in Wireless Business Unit) 1996 - 2011

My industrial expertise is in building innovative, bespoke, wireless systems that require a balanced and holistic view of RF / Digital / DSP / Protocol aspects to achieve best partitioning for performance vs cost trade-off. I am experienced in adapting COTS radio protocols and creating bespoke protocols.

I am particularly experienced and passionate about hardware design, for both high volume and low volume manufacture.

My reach extends from the pre-specification creation process, through all theoretical aspects of RF design, to the practical lab bench development and field test; all core to the creation of a mass producible item. Im also experienced at talent identification and selection for developing high capability teams.

Qualifications
  • Ph.D (University of Sheffield 2024)
  • M.Eng (University of York 1996, 1st class)
  • Chartered Engineer
Research interests

My industrial expertise and academic research interests span 3 broad, overlapping themes:-

  1. Novel RF circuit design
  2. Novel RF system design, including DSP and Software Defined Radio
  3. Novel applications of RF and radio technology (including non-communications applications)

I am investigating new fields of radio transceiver design, applied to modern commercial & industrial applications for:-

  • Future IoT radios
  • Millimetre wavelength radios
  • RF MMIC and RF SiGe design

If you are a researcher looking to work in areas related to these fields, please contact me.

If you are an industrial organisation with desire to better exploit these fields, or address existing complex technical issues, please contact me.

Publications

Journal articles

  • Joseph SD, Davies B, Davies M, Ball EA & Willmott JR (2025) . IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation, 1-1.
  • Joseph SD & Ball EA (2025) . IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology, 15(9), 1986-1995.
  • Asfour RW, Khamas SK & Ball EA (2025) . IEEE Access, 13, 4267-4280.
  • Ball E & David Joseph S (2025) . IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation, 6(1), 144-162.
  • Zhao Y, Deng T, Gavin B, Ball EA & Seed L (2025) . IEEE Open Journal of the Computer Society, 6, 460-467.
  • Joseph SD, Gavin B & Ball EA (2024) . IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation, 5(3), 543-556.
  • Gavin B, Deng T & Ball E (2024) . IEEE Open Journal of the Computer Society, 5, 50-61.
  • Asfour R, Khamas SK, Ball EA, Ng JS, Huang G, Allanic R, Le Berre D, Quendo C, Leuliet A & Merlet T (2024) . Sensors, 24(2).
  • Asfour R, Khamas SK & Ball EA (2023) . Sensors, 23(24).
  • Asfour RW, Khamas SK & Ball EA (2023) . IEEE Access, 11, 122016-122028.
  • Zhao Y, Gavin WCJ, Deng T, Ball EA & Seed L (2023) . IEEE Access, 11, 120955-120962.
  • Ball EA, Joseph SD & Tennant A (2023) . IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation, 4, 626-640.
  • Ball EA & Joseph SD (2023) . IEEE Open Journal of Instrumentation and Measurement, 2(2023).
  • Joseph SD & Ball EA (2023) . IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation, 4, 254-261.
  • Alrubei S, Ball E & Rigelsford J (2022) . Computer Networks, 217.
  • Ball EA (2022) . Electronics, 11(16).
  • Alrubei SM, Ball E & Rigelsford JM (2022) . IEEE Access, 10, 18583-18595.
  • Sun Y & Ball E (2022) . IET Communications, 16(11), 1303-1314.
  • Alrubei S, Ball E & Rigelsford J (2022) . IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 9(16), 14790-14802.
  • Wright DP & Ball EA (2021) . IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation, 15(8), 871-884.
  • Liu Q & Ball EA (2021) . IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, 17(4), 2579-2586.
  • Liu Q & Ball E (2020) . International Journal of Sensor Networks, 33(4), 211-223.
  • Wright D & Ball E (2020) . IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 69(8), 5446-5457.
  • Alrubei S, Ball E, Rigelsford J & Willis C (2020) . IEEE Sensors Journal, 20(13), 7372-7383.
  • Ball E & Tennant A (2020) . IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 68(7), 5375-5386.
  • Ball E (2019) . IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation, 13(6), 714-724.
  • Ball E & David Joseph S () Simplifying mmWave transmission: a time modulated array at 73 GHz with beam steering and direct digital modulation of QPSK, 8PSK and 16QAM to 128QAM. IEEE Journal of Microwaves.
  • David Joseph S, Davies B, Davies M, Ball EA & Willmott JR () Additive Manufacturing on Kapton substrate for rapid prototyping of low-cost mmWave antennas. IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation.

Book chapters

  • Gavin B, Ball E & Deng T (2023) , Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems (pp. 960-967). Springer Nature Switzerland

Conference proceedings

  • Ali M, Ball E, Joseph SD, O'Farrell T & Anbiyaei MR (2025) . 2025 IEEE International Mediterranean Conference on Communications and Networking (MeditCom) (pp 1-4). Nice, France, 7 July 2025 - 7 July 2025.
  • Ball EA & Joseph SD (2025) . 2025 IEEE International Mediterranean Conference on Communications and Networking (MeditCom) (pp 1-5). Nice, France, 7 July 2025 - 7 July 2025.
  • Anbiyaei MR, Snr TO, Ali M & Ball EA (2025) . 2025 IEEE International Conference on Communications Workshops (ICC Workshops) (pp 1031-1036), 8 June 2025 - 12 June 2025.
  • Joseph SD & Ball EA (2025) . 2025 19th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP). Stockholm, Sweden, 30 March 2025 - 30 March 2025.
  • Ball EA & Joseph SD (2025) . 2025 19th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP). Stockholm, Sweden, 30 March 2025 - 30 March 2025.
  • Yu H, Saad R & Ball EA (2025) . 2025 19th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP) (pp 1-4), 30 March 2025 - 4 April 2025.
  • Anbiyaei MR, O'Farrell T, Ali M & Ball EA (2025) . 2025 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC) (pp 1-6), 24 March 2025 - 27 March 2025.
  • Anbiyaei MR, O'Farrell T, Ali M & Ball EA (2025) . 2025 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC) (pp 1-3), 24 March 2025 - 27 March 2025.
  • Joseph SD, Davies BE, Davies MM, Ball EA & Willmott JR (2025) . 2024 IEEE Microwaves, Antennas, and Propagation Conference (MAPCON). Hyderabad, India, 9 December 2024 - 9 December 2024.
  • Joseph SD, Askre S & Ball EA (2025) . 2024 IEEE Microwaves, Antennas, and Propagation Conference (MAPCON). Hyderabad, India, 9 December 2024 - 9 December 2024.
  • Asfour R, Albakosh W, Khamas SK & Ball EA (2024) . 2024 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and INC/USNCURSI Radio Science Meeting (AP-S/INC-USNC-URSI) (pp 189-190), 14 July 2024 - 19 July 2024.
  • Ball EA & Joseph SD (2024) . 2024 15th German Microwave Conference (GeMiC) (pp 144-147). Duisburg, Germany, 11 March 2024 - 11 March 2024.
  • Ball EA, Joseph SD & Tennant A (2024) . 2024 18th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP) (pp 1-5), 17 March 2024 - 22 March 2024.
  • Joseph SD, Ball EA & Tennant A (2024) . 2024 18th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP) (pp 1-5), 17 March 2024 - 22 March 2024.
  • Joseph SD & Ball EA (2024) . 2024 18th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP) (pp 1-5), 17 March 2024 - 22 March 2024.
  • Allanic R, Le Berre D, Quendo C, Ball EA, Shien Ng J, Huang G, Leuliet A & Merlet T (2023) . 2023 IEEE Conference on Antenna Measurements and Applications (CAMA) (pp 653-656). Genoa, Italy, 15 November 2023 - 15 November 2023.
  • Allanic R, Le Berre D, Quendo C, Ball EA, Shien Ng J, Huang G, Leuliet A & Merlet T (2023) . 2023 IEEE Conference on Antenna Measurements and Applications (CAMA) (pp 649-652). Genoa, Italy, 15 November 2023 - 15 November 2023.
  • Ball E & Joseph SD (2023) . 2023 IEEE Conference on Antenna Measurements and Applications (CAMA) Proceedings (pp 560-563). Genoa, Italy, 15 November 2023 - 15 November 2023.
  • Asfour R, Khamas S & Ball EA (2023) . 2023 17th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP) (pp 1-5), 26 March 2023 - 31 March 2023.
  • Clayton D & Ball E (2022) An Investigation into the Isolation and Bandwidth Characteristics of X-Band Chireix Power Amplifier Combiners. ICAMT 2022: XVI(1307-6892) (pp 18-21). Online, 9 December 2022 - 10 December 2022.
  • Alrubei S, Ball E & Rigelsford J (2022) . 2022 IEEE Latin-American Conference on Communications (LATINCOM), 30 November 2022 - 2 December 2022.
  • Sun Y & Ball E (2022) . Advances in Automation, Mechanical and Design Engineering: SAMDE 2021 (pp 53-67). Beijing, China, 3 December 2021 - 3 December 2021.
  • Sun Y & Ball EA (2022) . Intelligent Systems and Applications: Proceedings of the 2022 Intelligent Systems Conference (IntelliSys) Volume 1, Vol. 1(LNNS 542) (pp 403-414). Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1 September 2022 - 1 September 2022.
  • Joseph SD & Ball E (2022) . 2022 16th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP) Proceedings. Madrid, Spain, 27 March 2022 - 27 March 2022.
  • Ball EA (2021) . 2021 IEEE Texas Symposium on Wireless and Microwave Circuits and Systems (WMCS). Waco, TX, USA (Virtual conference), 18 May 2021 - 18 May 2021.
  • Ball EA (2021) . 2021 IEEE Texas Symposium on Wireless and Microwave Circuits and Systems (WMCS). Waco, TX, USA (Virtual conference), 18 May 2021 - 18 May 2021.
  • Alrubei S, Ball E & Rigelsford J (2021) . 2021 International Conference on Cyber Situational Awareness, Data Analytics and Assessment (CyberSA). Virtual conference, 14 June 2021 - 14 June 2021.
  • Alrubei S, Ball E & Rigelsford J (2020) . Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE Cloud Summit (pp 85-90). Online conference, 21 October 2020 - 21 October 2020.
  • Alrubei S, Rigelsford J, Willis C & Ball E (2019) Ethereum blockchain for securing the internet of things: Practical implementation and performance evaluation. Cyber Science: Cyber Situational Awareness for Predictive Insight and Deep Learning 2019 (pp 81-85). United Kingdom, 3 June 2019 - 3 June 2019.
  • Ball EA & Vasileiadis A (2018) . 2018 IEEE Sensor Array and Multichannel Signal Processing Workshop (SAM) (pp 84-88). Sheffield, UK, 8 July 2018 - 8 July 2018.
  • Ball EA (2018) . Loughborough Antennas & Propagation Conference (LAPC 2017). Loughborough, UK, 13 September 2017 - 13 September 2017.
  • Wright DP & Ball EA (2018) Highly portable software defined radio test bed for dual band propagation studies. Iet Conference Publications, Vol. 2018(CP746)
  • Ball EA & Tennant A (2017) Antenna Beam Steering Without Phase Shifters an Old Technique Revisited. Proceedings of Automated RF & Microwave Measurement Society (ARMMS). Wyboston Lakes, Wyboston, 13 November 2017 - 13 November 2017.
  • Ball E & Vasileiadis A (2017) . Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, Vol. 242 (pp 80-85). Netherlands
  • Charles SA, Ball EA, Whittaker TH & Pollard JK (2003) . IEE Proceedings - Communications, Vol. 150(4) (pp 253-253)
  • Ball EA & Joseph SD () 73 GHz pHEMT pumped transconductance RX Mixer with low local oscillator drive power. Proceedings of The 50th International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves. Espoo, Finland, 17 August 2025 - 17 August 2025.
  • Ball EA & Joseph SD () Microwave subsampler using cascaded cold pHEMTs. Proceedings of The 50th International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves. Espoo, Finland, 17 August 2025 - 17 August 2025.
  • Ali M, Ball EA, Joseph SD, O'Farrell T & Anbiyaei MR () Dual-mode E-band mixer for 6G mmWave front-ends: simple structure with reconfigurable PT/resistive operation for optimized gain and linearity. Proceedings of The 50th International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves. Espoo, Finland, 17 August 2025 - 17 August 2025.
  • Vasileiadis A & Ball E () . Loughborough Antennas & Propagation Conference (LAPC 2017). Loughborough, UK, 13 November 2017 - 13 November 2017.

Preprints

  • Alrubei S, Ball E & Rigelsford J () .
Research group

Electromagnetics, Wireless Hardware & RF Devices

Teaching activities
  • I created and teach EEE6239 RADIO TRANSCEIVER SYSTEM & CIRCUIT DESIGN to final year M.Eng. and MSc students. In this course we explore contemporary aspects of RF circuit design and Software Defined Radio and then investigate them in the lab.
  • I created and teach VHF SYNTHESISER FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS as part of the 2nd year Design Exercise EEE262.
Professional activities and memberships
  • SMIEE
  • MIET
Other responsibilities

Theme Lead for Electromagnetics, Wireless Hardware & RF Devices. Director of UKRI National mmWave Measurement Facility.
 

Links

Information and Communications Engineering