611 research outputs found

    Beam scanning by liquid-crystal biasing in a modified SIW structure

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    A fixed-frequency beam-scanning 1D antenna based on Liquid Crystals (LCs) is designed for application in 2D scanning with lateral alignment. The 2D array environment imposes full decoupling of adjacent 1D antennas, which often conflicts with the LC requirement of DC biasing: the proposed design accommodates both. The LC medium is placed inside a Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) modified to work as a Groove Gap Waveguide, with radiating slots etched on the upper broad wall, that radiates as a Leaky-Wave Antenna (LWA). This allows effective application of the DC bias voltage needed for tuning the LCs. At the same time, the RF field remains laterally confined, enabling the possibility to lay several antennas in parallel and achieve 2D beam scanning. The design is validated by simulation employing the actual properties of a commercial LC medium

    Probabilistic Uncertainty Quantification of Microwave Circuits Using Gaussian Processes

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    In this article, a probabilistic machine learning framework based on Gaussian process regression (GPR) and principal component analysis (PCA) is proposed for the uncertainty quantification (UQ) of microwave circuits. As opposed to most surrogate modeling techniques, GPR models inherently carry information on the model prediction uncertainty due to unseen data. This article shows how the inherent uncertainty of GPR pointwise predictions can be combined with the uncertainty of the design parameters to provide global statistical information on the device performance with the inclusion of confidence bounds. The model confidence is possibly improved by increasing the amount of training data. In addition, PCA is employed to effectively deal with problems with multiple and possibly complex-valued output components, such as those involving the UQ of time-domain responses or multiport scattering parameters. The proposed technique is successfully applied to two low-noise amplifier designs subject to the process variation of up to 25 parameters. Comparisons against the state-of-the-art polynomial chaos expansion method demonstrates that GPR achieves superior accuracy, while additionally providing information on the prediction confidence

    Switchable wideband receiver frontend for 5G and satellite applications

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    Modern day communication architectures provides the requirement for interconnected devices offering very high data rate (more than 10 Gbps), low latency, and support for multiple service integration across existing communication generations with wideband spectrum coverage. An integrated satellite and 5G architecture switchable receiver frontend is presented in this thesis, consisting of a single pole double throw (SPDT) switch and two low noise amplifiers (LNAs) spanning X-band and K/Ka-band frequencies. The independent X-band LNA (8-12 GHz) has a gain of 38 dB at a centre design frequency of 9.8 GHz, while the K/Ka-band (23-28 GHz) has a gain of 29 GHz at a centre design frequency of 25.4 GHz. Both LNAs are a three-stage cascaded design with separated gate and drain lines for each transistor stage. The broadband high isolation single pole double throw (SPDT) switch based on a 0.15 μm gate length Indium Gallium Arsenide (InGaAs) pseudomorphic high electron transistor (pHEMT) is designed to operate at the frequency range of DC-50 GHz with less than 3 dB insertion loss and more than 40 dB isolation. The switch is designed to improve the overall stability of the system and the gain. A gain of about 25 dB is achieved at 9.8 GHz when the X-band arm is turned on and the K/Ka-band is turned off. A gain of about 23 dB is achieved at 25.4 GHz when the K/Ka-band arm is turned on and the X-band arm is off. This presented switchable receiver frontend is suitable for radar applications, 5G mobile applications, and future broadband receivers in the millimetre wave frequency range

    Output signal re-injection in load modulated balanced amplifiers for RF bandwidth improvement

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    This letter discusses the theory, simulation, and experimental characterization of a load-modulated balanced amplifier (LMBA) where the control signal power (CSP) is obtained by re-injecting part of the output RF signal. Compared to the standard balanced load-modulated power amplifier (PA), this approach does not require an external amplification of the CSP. The potential of this technique is explored experimentally with a balanced PA (BPA) working on 1400-3400-MHz band, using an external off-the-shelf directional coupler and manual phase shift adjustment. The induced load modulation can lead to a 10% increase of power added efficiency, or 1 dB of output power, across the frequency band of operation compared to the BPA

    Linear Predistortion-less MIMO Transmitters

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    1-D broadside-radiating leaky-wave antenna based on a numerically synthesized impedance surface

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    A newly-developed deterministic numerical technique for the automated design of metasurface antennas is applied here for the first time to the design of a 1-D printed Leaky-Wave Antenna (LWA) for broadside radiation. The surface impedance synthesis process does not require any a priori knowledge on the impedance pattern, and starts from a mask constraint on the desired far-field and practical bounds on the unit cell impedance values. The designed reactance surface for broadside radiation exhibits a non conventional patterning; this highlights the merit of using an automated design process for a design well known to be challenging for analytical methods. The antenna is physically implemented with an array of metal strips with varying gap widths and simulation results show very good agreement with the predicted performance

    Efficient and Wideband Load Modulated Power Amplifiers for Wireless Communication

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    The increasing demand for mobile data traffic has resulted in new challenges and requirements for the development of the wireless communication infrastructure. With the transition to higher frequencies and multi-antenna systems, radio frequency (RF) hardware performance, especially the power amplifier (PA), becomes increasingly important. Enhancing PA energy efficiency and bandwidth is vital for maximizing channel capacity, reducing operational costs, and facilitating integration.In the first part of the thesis, the bandwidth limitations of the standard two-way Doherty PA are discussed. A comprehensive analysis is provided, and the frequency responses of different Doherty combiner networks are presented. Furthermore, a Doherty combiner network is proposed, notable for its inherent broadband frequency and its capacity to account for the influence of output parasitics and packaged components from the active devices. The introduced Doherty combiner network is experimentally verified by a wideband gallium nitride (GaN) Doherty PA operating over 1.6-2.7 GHz.In the second part of the thesis, an analytically based combiner synthesis approach for the three-stage Doherty PA is proposed and presented. A compact output combiner network, together with the input phase delays, is derived directly from transistor load-pull data and the PA design requirements. The technique opens up new design space for three-stage Doherty PAs with reconfigurable high-efficiency power back-off levels. The utility of the proposed technique is demonstrated by the implementation of a 30-W GaN three-stage Doherty PA prototype at 2.14 GHz. Measurements show that a drain efficiency of 68% and 55% is exhibited at 6- and 10-dB back-off power, respectively.In the third part, a new PA architecture named the circulator load modulated amplifier (CLMA), is proposed. This architecture utilizes active load modulation for achieving enhanced back-off efficiency. Two active devices are incorporated in this innovative architecture, and a non-reciprocal circulator-based combiner is leveraged. Following this, the sequential CLMA (SCLMA) is introduced, characterized by its ability to enhance back-off efficiency without the necessity of load modulation. GaN demonstrator circuits for both CLMA and SCLMA architectures, whether with dual-input or RF single-input, are designed and fabricated, with excellent performance being measured.\ua0The thesis contributes novel design techniques and architectures to enhance PA efficiency and bandwidth. These findings pave the way for energy-efficient and adaptable RF transmitters in future wireless communication systems
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