641 research outputs found

    Utilisation of microsystems technology in radio frequency and microwave applications

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    The market trends of the rapidly growing communication systems require new product architectures and services that are only realisable by utilising technologies beyond that of planar integrated circuits. Microsystems technology (MST) is one such technology which can revolutionise radio frequency (RF) and microwave applications. This article discusses the enabling potential of the MST to meet the stringent requirements of modern communication systems. RF MST fabrication technologies and actuation mechanisms empower conventional processes by alleviating the substrate effects on passive devices and provide product designers with high quality versatile microscale components which can facilitate system integration and lead to novel architectures with enhanced robustness and reduced power consumption. An insight on the variety of components that can be fabricated using the MST is given, emphasizing their excellent electrical performance and versatility. Research issues that need to be addressed are also discussed. Finally, this article discusses the main approaches for integrating MST devices in RF and microwave applications together with the difficulties that need to be overcome in order to make such devices readily available for volume-production.peer-reviewe

    Adaptive RF front-ends : providing resilience to changing environments

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    RF-MEMS Technology for High-Performance Passives (Second Edition) - 5G applications and prospects for 6G

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    The focus of this book develops around hardware, and in particular on low-complexity components for Radio Frequency (RF) applications. To this end, microsystem (MEMS) technology for RF passive components, known as RF-MEMS, is employed, discussing its potentialities in the application frame of 5G. The approach adopted is practical, and a significant part of the content can be directly used by scientists involved in the field, to put their hand on actual design, optimization and development of innovative RF passive components in MEMS technology for 5G and beyond applications. This update (which includes a review of the main approaches to the modelling and simulations of MEMS and RF-MEMS devices) is timely and will find a wider readership as it crosses into the translational aspects of applied research in the subject. Key features • With over 50 pages of new content, the book will be 1/3 larger than the 1st edition. • New chapter on simulation and modelling techniques. • Practical approach to the design and development of RF-MEMS design concepts for 5G and upcoming 6G. • Includes case studies. • Video figures. • Includes a review of the business landscape

    High-Power Microwave/ Radio-Frequency Components, Circuits, and Subsystems for Next-Generation Wireless Radio Front-Ends

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    As the wireless communication systems evolve toward the future generation, intelligence will be the main signature/trend, well known as the concepts of cognitive and software-defined radios which offer ultimate data transmission speed, spectrum access, and user capacity. During this evolution, the human society may experience another round of `information revolution\u27. However, one of the major bottlenecks of this promotion lies in hardware realization, since all the aforementioned intelligent systems are required to cover a broad frequency range to support multiple communication bands and dissimilar standards. As the essential part of the hardware, power amplifiers (PAs) capable of operating over a wide bandwidth have been identified as the key enabling technology. This dissertation focuses on novel methodologies for designing and realizing broadband high-power PAs, their integration with high-quality-factor (high-Q) tunable filters, and relevant investigations on the reliabilities of these tunable devices. It can be basically divided into three major parts: 1.Broadband High-Efficiency Power Amplifiers. Obtaining high PA efficiency over a wide bandwidth is very challenging, because of the difficulty of performing broadband multi-harmonic matching. However, high efficiency is the critical feature for high-performance PAs due to the ever-increasing demands for environmental friendliness, energy saving, and longer battery life. In this research, novel design methodologies of broad-band highly efficient PAs are proposed, including the first-ever mode-transferring PA theory, novel matching network topology, and wideband reconfigurable PA architecture. These techniques significantly advance the state-of-the-art in terms of bandwidth and efficiency. 2.Co-Design of PAs and High-Q Tunable Filters. When implementing the intelligent communication systems, the conventional approach based on independent RF design philosophy suffers from many inherent defects, since no global optimization is achieved leading to degraded overall performance. An attractive method to solve these difficulties is to co-design critical modules of the transceiver chain. This dissertation presents the first-ever co-design of PAs and tunable filters, in which the redundant inter-module matching is entirely eliminated, leading to minimized size & cost and maximized overall performance. The saved hardware resources can be further transferred to enhance system functionalities. Moreover, we also demonstrate that co-design of PAs and filters can lead to more functionalities/benefits for the wireless systems, e.g. efficient and linear amplification of dual-carrier (or multi-carrier) signals. 3.High-Power/Non-Linear Study on Tunable Devices. High-power limitation/power handling is an everlasting theme of tunable devices, as it determines the operational life and is the threshold for actual industrial applications. Under high-power operation, the high RF voltage can lead to failures like tuners\u27 mechanical deflections and gas discharge in the small air spacing of the cavity. These two mechanisms are studied independently with their instantaneous and long-term effects on the device performance. In addition, an anti-biased topology of electrostatic RF MEMS varactors and tunable filters is proposed and experimentally validated for reducing the non-linear effect induced by bias-noise. These investigations will enlighten the designers on how to avoid and/or minimize the non-ideal effects, eventually leading to longer life cycle and performance sustainability of the tunable devices

    RECONFIGURABLE POWER AMPLIFIER WITH TUNABLE INTERSTAGE MATCHING NETWORK USING GaAs MMIC AND SURFACE-MOUNT TECHNOLOGY

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    As the demand of reconfigurable devices increases, the possibility of exploiting the interstage matching network in a two-stage amplifier to provide center frequency tuning capability is explored. While placement of tuning elements at the input and/or output matching network has some disadvantages, placement of tuning elements in the interstage absorbs the lossy components characteristics into useful attributes. The circuit design methodology includes graphical method to determine the bandpass topology that achieves high Q-contour on the Smith chart thus result in narrow bandwidth. T-section and π-section topologies are used to match reactive terminations provided by the first and second amplifier stages. The design methodology also includes utilization of interstage mismatch loss that decreases as increasing frequency to compensate for amplifier gain roll-off and equalize the gain at different tuning states. In prototype realization, three design configurations are discussed in this thesis: 1) a discrete design for operation between 0.1 – 0.9 GHz with the total layout area of 7.5 mm x 12.5 mm, 2) a partial monolithic design (Quasi-MMIC) for operation between 0.9 – 2.4 GHz that is 25 times smaller layout area compared to the discrete design, and 3) a conceptual design of integrated monolithic reconfigurable PA for operation between 0.9 – 2.4 GHz that is 130 times smaller layout area compared to the discrete design. One variant of the fabricated reconfigurable PA offers advantage of 4-states center frequency tuning from 1.37 GHz to 1.95 GHz with gain of 21.5 dB (+ 0.7 dB). The feasibility of interstage matching network as tuning elements in reconfigurable power amplifier has been explored. The input and output matching networks are fixed while the interstage impedances are varied using electronic switching (discrete SP4T and GaAs FET switches). The discrete design is suited for the operation at low frequency (fo < 1GHz), while monolithic implementation of the tunable interstage matching network is required for higher frequency operation due to size limitation and parasitic effects. The reconfigurable PA using MMIC tuner was designed at higher frequency to possibly cover GSM, CDMA, Bluetooth, and WiMAX frequency (0.9 – 2.4 GHz)

    Integrated Tunable Magnetic RF Inductor

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    Towards a Universal Multi-Standard RF Receiver

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    Future wireless communication market calls for the need of an extreme compact wireless device that can easily access to all the available services at any time and at any location with minimum power consumption and cost. The key is to find a multi-standard wireless receiver that can cover all the service specifications while keeping redundant components to minimum. Reconfigurable concept is right fit the need. In this thesis, a fully integrated universal multi-standard receiver using low-cost CMOS technology has been proposed based on the survey for different wireless receiver specifications and optimum architectures. Tunable receiver building blocks such as filters, LNAs, Mixers, VCOs, gain blocks are the main factor to approach this novel receiver. In order to realize frequency agility, low cost as well as low power consumption, a good switch is a must. In this thesis, MEMS switches are preferred rather than active switches or active tuning elements based on their performance comparisons. In the feasibility study, as an example, first, a reconfigurable LNA and a reconfigurable oscillator using hard wires as switches have been developed, and then a LNA and an oscillator have been designed using a MEMS switch. The effect of hard-wire connection and MEMS to the circuits has been evaluated. No performance degradation has been found when using hard-wire connections, while some has been observed when using MEMS. However, MEMS could be integrated with other circuits on the same die if it could be built on low resistive silicon substrate without performance degradation

    Tunable decoupling and matching concepts for compact mobile terminal antennas

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    RF IC performance optimization by synthesizing optimum inductors

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    Even with optimal system design and careful choice of topology for a particular RF application, large amounts of energy are often wasted due to low-quality passives, especially inductors. Inductors have traditionally been difficult to integrate due to their inherent low quality factors and modelling complexity. Furthermore, although many different inductor configurations are available for an RF designer to explore, support for integrated inductors in electronic design automation tools and process design kits has been very limited in the past. In this chapter, a recent advance in technology-aware integrated inductor design is presented, where drawbacks of the integrated inductor design are addressed by introducing an equation-based inductor synthesis algorithm. The intelligent computation technique aims to allow RF designers to optimize integrated inductors, given the inductor center frequency dictated by the device application, and geometry constraints. This does not only lay down a foundation for system-level RF circuit performance optimization, but, because inductors are often the largest parts of an RF system, it also allows for optimal usage of chip real estate

    Mechanical-Resonance-Enhanced Thin-Film Magnetoelectric Heterostructures for Magnetometers, Mechanical Antennas, Tunable RF Inductors, and Filters

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    The strong strain-mediated magnetoelectric (ME) coupling found in thin-film ME heterostructures has attracted an ever-increasing interest and enables realization of a great number of integrated multiferroic devices, such as magnetometers, mechanical antennas, RF tunable inductors and filters. This paper first reviews the thin-film characterization techniques for both piezoelectric and magnetostrictive thin films, which are crucial in determining the strength of the ME coupling. After that, the most recent progress on various integrated multiferroic devices based on thin-film ME heterostructures are presented. In particular, rapid development of thin-film ME magnetometers has been seen over the past few years. These ultra-sensitive magnetometers exhibit extremely low limit of detection (sub-pT/Hz1/2) for low-frequency AC magnetic fields, making them potential candidates for applications of medical diagnostics. Other devices reviewed in this paper include acoustically actuated nanomechanical ME antennas with miniaturized size by 1-2 orders compared to the conventional antenna; integrated RF tunable inductors with a wide operation frequency range; integrated RF tunable bandpass filter with dual H- and E-field tunability. All these integrated multiferroic devices are compact, lightweight, power-efficient, and potentially integrable with current complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, showing great promise for applications in future biomedical, wireless communication, and reconfigurable electronic systems
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