Tunable microwave filters using ferroelectric thin films

Frequency agile microwave devices based on Barium Strontium Titanate (BST) thin films have gained a lot of interest in recent years. The frequency agility of the ferroelectric devices is based on the external DC electric field controlled permittivity of BST thin film. In this research work, several tunable microwave filters incorporating BST thin film varactors operating in a frequency range between 1 GHz and 25 GHz are designed, tested and analysed. A lumped element lowpass filter incorporating integrated meander line inductors and BST parallel plate capacitors is implemented on a high resistivity silicon substrate and demonstrates 32.1 % tuning of the cut-off frequency at 15 V. A combline bandpass filter employing integrated BST parallel plate varactors as tuning elements is implemented on a MgO substrate and shows a reasonable tuning from about 8 GHz to 12 GHz with 10 V bias of only one resonator. Two pole and four pole coupled resonator bandpass filters with discrete BST or GaAs varactors as tuning elements are implemented in a frequency range of 1 - 3 GHz. The filters based on BST parallel plate capacitors show an insertion loss in line with the GaAs filters, which is also the lowest insertion loss of BST filters ever reported. Future work on improving the BST film and metal film loss at tens of gigahertz range is also discussed

Antennas and Propagation Aspects for Emerging Wireless Communication Technologies

The increasing demand for high data rate applications and the delivery of zero-latency multimedia content drives technological evolutions towards the design and implementation of next-generation broadband wireless networks. In this context, various novel technologies have been introduced, such as millimeter wave (mmWave) transmission, massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems, and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) schemes in order to support the vision of fifth generation (5G) wireless cellular networks. The introduction of these technologies, however, is inextricably connected with a holistic redesign of the current transceiver structures, as well as the network architecture reconfiguration. To this end, ultra-dense network deployment along with distributed massive MIMO technologies and intermediate relay nodes have been proposed, among others, in order to ensure an improved quality of services to all mobile users. In the same framework, the design and evaluation of novel antenna configurations able to support wideband applications is of utmost importance for 5G context support. Furthermore, in order to design reliable 5G systems, the channel characterization in these frequencies and in the complex propagation environments cannot be ignored because it plays a significant role. In this Special Issue, fourteen papers are published, covering various aspects of novel antenna designs for broadband applications, propagation models at mmWave bands, the deployment of NOMA techniques, radio network planning for 5G networks, and multi-beam antenna technologies for 5G wireless communications

Lithium niobate RF-MEMS oscillators for IoT, 5G and beyond

This dissertation focuses on the design and implementation of lithium niobate (LiNbO3) radiofrequency microelectromechanical (RF-MEMS) oscillators for internet-of-things (IoT), 5G and beyond. The dissertation focuses on solving two main problems found nowadays in most of the published works: the narrow tuning range and the low operating frequency (sub 3 GHz) acoustic oscillators currently deliver. The work introduced here enables wideband voltage-controlled MEMS oscillators (VCMOs) needed for emerging applications in IoT. Moreover, it enables multi-GHz (above 8 GHz) RF-MEMS oscillators through harnessing over mode resonances for 5G and beyond. LiNbO3 resonators characterized by high-quality factor (Q), high electromechanical coupling (kt2), and high figure-of-merit (FoMRES= Q kt2) are crucial for building the envisioned high-performance oscillators. Those oscillators can be enabled with lower power consumption, wider tuning ranges, and a higher frequency of oscillation when compared to other state-of-the-art (SoA) RF-MEMS oscillators. Tackling the tuning range issue, the first VCMO based on the heterogeneous integration of a high Q LiNbO3 RF-MEMS resonator and complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) is demonstrated in this dissertation. A LiNbO3 resonator array with a series resonance of 171.1 MHz, a Q of 410, and a kt2 of 12.7% is adopted, while the TSMC 65 nm RF LP CMOS technology is used to implement the active circuitry with an active area of 220×70 µm2. Frequency tuning of the VCMO is achieved by programming a binary-weighted digital capacitor bank and a varactor that are both connected in series to the resonator. The measured best phase noise performances of the VCMO are -72 and -153 dBc/Hz at 1 kHz and 10 MHz offsets from 178.23 and 175.83 MHz carriers, respectively. The VCMO consumes a direct current (DC) of 60 µA from a 1.2 V supply while realizing a tuning range of 2.4 MHz (~ 1.4% tuning range). Such VCMOs can be applied to enable ultralow-power, low phase noise, and wideband RF synthesis for emerging applications in IoT. Moreover, the first VCMO based on LiNbO3 lateral overtone bulk acoustic resonator (LOBAR) is demonstrated in this dissertation. The LOBAR excites over 30 resonant modes in the range of 100 to 800 MHz with a frequency spacing of 20 MHz. The VCMO consists of a LOBAR in a closed-loop with two amplification stages and a varactor-embedded tunable LC tank. By the bias voltage applied to the varactor, the tank can be tuned to change the closed-loop gain and phase responses of the oscillator so that Barkhausen’s conditions are satisfied for the targeted resonant mode. The tank is designed to allow the proposed VCMO to lock to any of the ten overtones ranging from 300 to 500 MHz. These ten tones are characterized by average Qs of 2100, kt2 of 1.5%, FoMRES of 31.5 enabling low phase noise, and low-power oscillators crucial for IoT. Owing to the high Qs of the LiNbO3 LOBAR, the measured VCMO shows a close-in phase noise of -100 dBc/Hz at 1 kHz offset from a 300 MHz carrier and a noise floor of -153 dBc/Hz while consuming 9 mW. With further optimization, this VCMO can lead to direct RF synthesis for ultra-low-power transceivers in multi-mode IoT nodes. Tackling the multi-GHz operation problem, the first Ku-band RF-MEMS oscillator utilizing a third antisymmetric overtone (A3) in a LiNbO3 resonator is presented in the dissertation. Quarter-wave resonators are used to satisfy Barkhausen’s oscillation conditions for the 3rd overtone while suppressing the fundamental and higher-order resonances. The oscillator achieves measured phase noise of -70 and -111 dBc/Hz at 1 kHz and 100 kHz offsets from a 12.9 GHz carrier while consuming 20 mW of dc power. The oscillator achieves a FoMOSC of 200 dB at 100 kHz offset. The achieved oscillation frequency is the highest reported to date for a MEMS oscillator. In addition, this dissertation introduces the first X-band RF-MEMS oscillator built using CMOS technology. The oscillator consists of an acoustic resonator in a closed loop with cascaded RF tuned amplifiers (TAs) built on TSMC RF GP 65 nm CMOS. The TAs bandpass response, set by on-chip inductors, satisfies Barkhausen's oscillation conditions for A3 only. Two circuit variations are implemented. The first is an 8.6 GHz standalone oscillator with a source-follower buffer for direct 50 Ω-based measurements. The second is an oscillator-divider chain using an on-chip 3-stage divide-by-2 frequency divider for a ~1.1 GHz output. The standalone oscillator achieves measured phase noise of -56, -113, and -135 dBc/Hz at 1 kHz, 100 kHz, and 1 MHz offsets from an 8.6 GHz output while consuming 10.2 mW of dc power. The oscillator also attains a FoMOSC of 201.6 dB at 100 kHz offset, surpassing the SoA electromagnetic (EM) and RF-MEMS based oscillators. The oscillator-divider chain produces a phase noise of -69.4 and -147 dBc/Hz at 1 kHz and 1 MHz offsets from a 1075 MHz output while consuming 12 mW of dc power. Its phase noise performance also surpasses the SoA L-band phase-locked loops (PLLs). The demonstrated performance shows the strong potential of microwave acoustic oscillators for 5G frequency synthesis and beyond. This work will enable low-power 5G transceivers featuring high speed, high sensitivity, and high selectivity in small form factors

High-Power Comb-Line Filter Architectures for Switched-Mode RF Power Amplifier Systems

Die vorgelegte Arbeit behandelt die Analyse der Anforderungen, denschaltungstechnischen Entwurf, den Aufbau und die messtechnische Verifizierungvon Rekonstruktionsfiltern für Leistungsschaltverstärker im Klasse-SBetrieb, die auf Grund ihres hohen Wirkungsgrades vorzugsweise in MobilfunkbasisstationenVerwendung finden sollen. Die Brauchbarkeit des Entwurfeswird an Hand einer Reihe von Applikationsbeispielen anschaulich dargestellt.Als Kernforderung einer derartigen Filterauslegung hat sich die Aufrechterhaltungder Rechteckzeitfunktion des Drain-Stromes für einen (im ”CurrentMode” arbeitenden) Schaltverstärker herausgestellt, weil sonst die damit erzielbarehohe Effizienz nicht erreicht werden kann. Darüber hinaus fließen indie Filterauslegung nicht nur die Fixierung des Filterdurchlass- und sperrbereichesein, sondern auch die Festlegung der Eingangs- und Lastimpedanz bei unterschiedlichenAnregungsmoden über einen breiten Frequenzbereich. Doppelundeinzelterminierte Filter werden theoretisch betrachtet, simuliert, getestetund gemessen.Es wurde herausgearbeitet, dass die schaltungstechnischen und geometrischenAnforderungen an einen derartigen Rekonstruktionsfilterentwurf gutdurch symmetrisch gespeiste Kammleitungsfilter erfüllt werden können. VerschiedeneFilterarchitekturen werden im Hinblick auf ihr Gleich- und Gegentaktaktimpedanzverhaltenvorgestellt, experimentell untersucht und kritischanalysiert. Soweit dem Autor bekannt ist, werden hier erstmalig Rekonstruktionsfilterfür Klasse-S Leistungsverstärker im ”Current Mode” komplett analysiert.Desweiteren wird die Funktionalität des Rekonstruktionsfilters an Handanderer Typen von Leistungsschaltverstärkern simuliert und messtechnisch untersucht.Der maximale Wirkungsgrad von 65% bei Leistungsschaltverstärkersystemenlässt sich dem erfolgreichen Filterentwurf zuschreiben.This work has taken place in the context that a class-S power amplifiersystem with simplified transmitter architectures and increased power efficiencymakes an attractive candidate for cellular phone base transceiver station applications.The author describes the requirements for, and a number of successfulimplementations of, a reconstruction filter suitable for such an amplifier system.In a current-mode class-S power amplifier system, crucial to the maintenanceof the rectangular shape of the drain current and thus to high efficiency arenot only the tailoring of pass-band and stop-band, but also the specification ofinput impedance for different modes of excitation over a wide frequency range.Doubly and singly terminated filters are subjected to theoretical consideration,simulation, testing and measurement. The main focus of the research is on thedesign of the reconstruction filter.It is found that the electrical and geometrical constraints for the designof a reconstruction filter are well satisfied by balanced input comb-line filters.Several filter architectures are proposed, experimentally investigated, and criticallyanalysed in terms of differential and common mode impedances. Thisis the first complete analysis of reconstruction filters for current mode class-Spower amplifier systems, as far as the author knows. Switched-mode poweramplifier systems which include the proposed filters are also simulated andmeasured under different driving conditions. The maximum power efficiencyof 65% to date in the switched-mode power amplifier systems can be attributedto the successful filter design

Energy Harvesting Strategies and Upcycling in Manufacturing

This thesis examines the interconnected domain of energy harvesting, modular component build, and upcycling strategies in manufacturing with the goal of achieving net-zero emissions. The research is grounded in the Design for X (DFX) paradigm, which integrates various design considerations to enhance product quality while minimising environmental impact. The first part of the thesis investigates the application of radio frequency (RF) and thermoelectric generator (TEG) energy harvesting technologies in manufacturing settings. These technologies capture waste heat and electromagnetic radiation from industrial equipment and convert them into usable electricity, reducing the overall energy consumption of the manufacturing process. The second part of the thesis explores modular component build, which enables easy replacement, upgrading, and servicing of components, thus reducing waste and prolonging product lifespan. This approach contributes to sustainable manufacturing and complements the energy harvesting aspect by minimising emissions. The third part of the thesis examines upcycling, which involves repurposing waste materials into new products or components. This concept supports the circular economy and synergises with the energy harvesting and modular component build strategies to further reduce waste and emissions in manufacturing. The results reveal that upcycling can substantially enhance manufacturing sustainability. Overall, this thesis emphasises the importance of integrating energy harvesting, modular component build, and upcycling strategies in manufacturing to achieve net-zero emissions. The findings contribute to the growing body of knowledge on sustainable manufacturing practices, offering valuable insights for manufacturers, policymakers, and researchers in the pursuit of net-zero emissions

EUROSENSORS XVII : book of abstracts

Fundação Calouste Gulbenkien (FCG).Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

Abstracts on Radio Direction Finding (1899 - 1995)

The files on this record represent the various databases that originally composed the CD-ROM issue of "Abstracts on Radio Direction Finding" database, which is now part of the Dudley Knox Library's Abstracts and Selected Full Text Documents on Radio Direction Finding (1899 - 1995) Collection. (See Calhoun record https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/57364 for further information on this collection and the bibliography). Due to issues of technological obsolescence preventing current and future audiences from accessing the bibliography, DKL exported and converted into the three files on this record the various databases contained in the CD-ROM. The contents of these files are: 1) RDFA_CompleteBibliography_xls.zip [RDFA_CompleteBibliography.xls: Metadata for the complete bibliography, in Excel 97-2003 Workbook format; RDFA_Glossary.xls: Glossary of terms, in Excel 97-2003 Workbookformat; RDFA_Biographies.xls: Biographies of leading figures, in Excel 97-2003 Workbook format]; 2) RDFA_CompleteBibliography_csv.zip [RDFA_CompleteBibliography.TXT: Metadata for the complete bibliography, in CSV format; RDFA_Glossary.TXT: Glossary of terms, in CSV format; RDFA_Biographies.TXT: Biographies of leading figures, in CSV format]; 3) RDFA_CompleteBibliography.pdf: A human readable display of the bibliographic data, as a means of double-checking any possible deviations due to conversion