Dual Polarized Patch Antenna for UHF RFID Readers

RFID is a fast emerging automatic identification system. Its bigger data density, better security, high speed and the fact that it does not need mechanical contact or line of sight communication have made it preferable to many other identification systems such as bar code, optical character recognition, biometric identification and smart cards. Nevertheless, this fast growing technology faces some difficulties in keeping tags simple and low cost while keeping efficient and reliable communication. This thesis is among the solutions that are proposed to fulfill this goal. So far, readers usually have either linearly or circularly polarized antennas and most tags are linearly polarized. Linearly polarized reader antennas are highly sensitive to the orientation of tags. In addition, circularly polarized reader antennas have fields that rotate across a plane and thus have only 50% polarization matching with tags. Accordingly, a dual linearly polarized patch antenna is proposed, implemented and tested as a solution to reduce the power loss caused by an arbitrary orientation of RFID tags. Among the RFID technologies, passive UHF RFID, which has a bigger read range and simpler tags, working in UHF frequency, is given emphasis in this project. Thus, background information about reader antennas and dual polarized antennas has been made. In addition, a reader antenna based on a patch antenna operating in European UHF RFID band of 865 MHz-868 MHz is considered. The modeling softwares CST Microwave Studio and Empire XCcell were used in simulation. Then, the laboratory facility in Electronics department of Tampere University of Technology was used to implement and test the prototype. /Kir1

Development of turnable and miniature microwave filters for modern wireless communication

Due to the increasing demand for new wireless services and applications, the high level of integration and the coexistence of multi-standard (MS) or multi-band operations into a single device are becoming defining trends in designing microwave filters. This has driven considerable technological advances in reconfigurable/tunable and miniaturized filters. More specifically, reconfigurable/tunable filters that tune to different frequency bands instead of classical filter banks have great potential to significantly reduce the system size and complexity; while reducing the filter size becomes essential to achieve the highest degree of integration density in compact and portable wireless devices. In the light of this scenario, the objective of this dissertation is to develop the new design technologies, concepts and filtering configurations for tunable microstrip filters and compact passive microwave filters. To this aim, this dissertation is divided into two main parts. The first part (Part I) focuses on the designs of novel varactor-tuned microstrip filters with advanced performances. In this aspect, new topologies for realizing tunable lowpass and highpass filters are firstly developed. State-of-the-art performances, including wide tuning range, high selectivity with multiple transmission zeros, low insertion loss and compact size for all the tuning states are obtained in both of these filters. Secondly, two novel classes of tunable bandpass filters are presented. One of them is designed based on varactor-loaded parallel-coupled microstrip lines (PCML) and short-circuited stubs, which allows the lower passband edge together with two transmission zeros located around the lower passband skirt to be reconfigured separately. While the other tunable bandpass filter is iii constructed by the combination of tunable bandpass and lowpass filters, featuring both centre frequency and bandwidth tunabilities, as well as high selectivity with abundant transmission zeros. Furthermore, a new concept of tunable lossy filter is demonstrated, which attempts to achieve an equivalent high-Q tunable performance by using low-Q resonators. This concept makes the presented tunable combline filter interesting for some frequency-agile applications in which the low in-band loss variation and high selectivity are much desired while the absolute insertion loss can be a tradeoff. The second part (Part II) is devoted to the design of miniaturized passive microwave filters with improved characteristics. For this, the concept of artificial right-handed and left-handed transmission lines are applied to the signal interference filtering topology, which results in a compact circuit size and good out-of-band performance. In particular, for a further size reduction, such filter is implemented in the forms of multilayered structure by using liquid crystal polymer (LCP) technology. Additionally, another two types of miniaturized bandpass filters using stepped impedance resonators are demonstrated, which are implemented based on different fabrication processes (i.e. LCP bonded multilayer PCB technology and a standard planar PCB technology). Among their main features, the compact size, wide passband, broad stopband with multiple transmission zeros and circuit simplicity are highlighted. For all the proposed design techniques and filtering structures, exhaustive theoretical analyses are done, and design equations and guide rules are provided. Furthermore, all the proposed schemes and/or ideas have been experimentally validated through the design, implementation and measurement of different filters. The fabrication processes of multilayer technology utilized: liquid crystal polymer (LCP) technology and liquid crystal polymer (LCP) bonded multilayer printed circuit board (PCB) technology, are also demonstrated for reference. All of the results achieved in this dissertation make the proposed filters very attractive for their use in modern wireless communication systems.MultiWaves Project (PIRSES-GA-2010-247532) of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), European Commission

Development of tunable and miniature microwave filters for modern wireless communications

Due to the increasing demand for new wireless services and applications, the high level of integration and the coexistence of multi-standard (MS) or multi-band operations into a single device are becoming defining trends in designing microwave filters. This has driven considerable technological advances in reconfigurable/tunable and miniaturized filters. More specifically, reconfigurable/tunable filters that tune to different frequency bands instead of classical filter banks have great potential to significantly reduce the system size and complexity; while reducing the filter size becomes essential to achieve the highest degree of integration density in compact and portable wireless devices. In the light of this scenario, the objective of this dissertation is to develop the new design technologies, concepts and filtering configurations for tunable microstrip filters and compact passive microwave filters. To this aim, this dissertation is divided into two main parts. The first part (Part I) focuses on the designs of novel varactor-tuned microstrip filters with advanced performances. In this aspect, new topologies for realizing tunable lowpass and highpass filters are firstly developed. State-of-the-art performances, including wide tuning range, high selectivity with multiple transmission zeros, low insertion loss and compact size for all the tuning states are obtained in both of these filters. Secondly, two novel classes of tunable bandpass filters are presented. One of them is designed based on varactor-loaded parallel-coupled microstrip lines (PCML) and short-circuited stubs, which allows the lower passband edge together with two transmission zeros located around the lower passband skirt to be reconfigured separately. While the other tunable bandpass filter is constructed by the combination of tunable bandpass and lowpass filters, featuring both centre frequency and bandwidth tunabilities, as well as high selectivity with abundant transmission zeros. Furthermore, a new concept of tunable lossy filter is demonstrated, which attempts to achieve an equivalent high-Q tunable performance by using low-Q resonators. This concept makes the presented tunable combline filter interesting for some frequency-agile applications in which the low in-band loss variation and high selectivity are much desired while the absolute insertion loss can be a tradeoff. The second part (Part II) is devoted to the design of miniaturized passive microwave filters with improved characteristics. For this, the concept of artificial right-handed and left-handed transmission lines are applied to the signal interference filtering topology, which results in a compact circuit size and good out-of-band performance. In particular, for a further size reduction, such filter is implemented in the forms of multilayered structure by using liquid crystal polymer (LCP) technology. Additionally, another two types of miniaturized bandpass filters using stepped impedance resonators are demonstrated, which are implemented based on different fabrication processes (i.e. LCP bonded multilayer PCB technology and a standard planar PCB technology). Among their main features, the compact size, wide passband, broad stopband with multiple transmission zeros and circuit simplicity are highlighted. For all the proposed design techniques and filtering structures, exhaustive theoretical analyses are done, and design equations and guide rules are provided. Furthermore, all the proposed schemes and/or ideas have been experimentally validated through the design, implementation and measurement of different filters. The fabrication processes of multilayer technology utilized: liquid crystal polymer (LCP) technology and liquid crystal polymer (LCP) bonded multilayer printed circuit board (PCB) technology, are also demonstrated for reference. All of the results achieved in this dissertation make the proposed filters very attractive for their use in modern wireless communication systems

Modeling EMI Resulting from a Signal Via Transition Through Power/Ground Layers

Signal transitioning through layers on vias are very common in multi-layer printed circuit board (PCB) design. For a signal via transitioning through the internal power and ground planes, the return current must switch from one reference plane to another reference plane. The discontinuity of the return current at the via excites the power and ground planes, and results in noise on the power bus that can lead to signal integrity, as well as EMI problems. Numerical methods, such as the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD), Moment of Methods (MoM), and partial element equivalent circuit (PEEC) method, were employed herein to study this problem. The modeled results are supported by measurements. In addition, a common EMI mitigation approach of adding a decoupling capacitor was investigated with the FDTD method

RF energy harvesting solutions for electromagnetic harsh environments: from industrial plants to wearable/implantable devices

The presented Thesis describes the design of RF-energy harvesting systems with applications on different environments, from the biomedical side to the industrial one, tackling the common thread problem which is the design of complete energy autonomous tags each of them with its dedicated purpose. This Thesis gathers a work of three years in the field of energy harvesting system design, a combination of full-wave electromagnetic designs to optimize not only the antenna performance but also to fulfill the requirements given by each case study such as dimensions, insensitivity from the surrounding environment, flexibility and compliance with regulations. The research activity has been based on the development of highly-demanded ideas and real-case necessities which are in line with the environment in which modern IoT applications can really make a positive contribution. The Thesis is organized as follows: the first application, described in Chapter 2, regards the design and experimental validations of a rotation-insensitive WPT system for implantable devices. Chapter 3 presents the design of a wearable energy autonomous detector to identify the presence of ethanol on the body surface. Chapter 4 describes investigations in the use of Bessel Beam launchers for creating a highly-focused energy harvesting link for wearable applications. Reduced dimensions, high focusing and decoupling from the human body are the key points to be addressed during the full-wave design and nonlinear optimization of the receiver antenna. Finally, Chapter 5 presents an energy autonomous system exploiting LoRa (Long Range) nodes for tracking trailers in industrial plants. The novelty behind this design lies on the aim of obtaining a perfectly scalable system that exploits not only EH basic operating system but embeds a seamless solution for collecting a certain amount of power that varies with respect the received power level on the antenna, without the need of additional off-the-shelf components

Development of lumped element kinetic inductance detectors for mm-wave astronomy at the IRAM 30 m telescope

This thesis studies the development of LEKID arrays for the use in a mm-wave camera for the IRAM 30m telescope. This includes the design and fabrication of the superconducting microresonators, the modeling and optimization of the mm-wave coupling to the detector and the characterization of the arrays at low temperatures. The results obtained brought IRAM to test a prototype instrument at the telescope, where first astronomical results have been achieved, which are also presented in this work

NASA Tech Briefs, June 1992

Topics covered include: New Product Ideas; Electronic Components and Circuits; Electronic Systems; Physical Sciences; Materials; Computer Programs; Mechanics; Machinery; Fabrication Technology; Mathematics and Information Sciences; Life Sciences

Remotely interrogated MEMS pressure sensor

This thesis considers the design and implementation of passive wireless microwave readable pressure sensors on a single chip. Two novel-all passive devices are considered for wireless pressure operation. The first device consists of a tuned circuit operating at 10 GHz fabricated on SiO2 membrane, supported on a silicon wafer. A pressure difference across the membrane causes it to deflect so that a passive resonant circuit detunes. The circuit is remotely interrogated to read off the sensor data. The chip area is 20 mm2 and the membrane area is 2mm2 with thickness of 4 µm. Two on chip passive resonant circuits were investigated: a meandered dipole and a zigzag antenna. Both have a physical length of 4.25 mm. the sensors show a shift in their resonant frequency in response to changing pressure of 10.28-10.27 GHz for the meandered dipole, and 9.61-9.58 GHz for the zigzag antenna. The sensitivities of the meandered dipole and zigzag sensors are 12.5 kHz and 16 kHz mbar, respectively. The second device is a pressure sensor on CMOS chip. The sensing element is capacitor array covering an area of 2 mm2 on a membrane. This sensor is coupled with a dipole antenna operating at 8.77 GHz. The post processing of the CMOS chip is carried out only in three steps, and the sensor on its own shows a sensitivity of 0.47fF/mbar and wireless sensitivity of 27 kHz/mbar. The MIM capacitors on membrane can be used to detune the resonant frequency of an antenna

Superinductance and fluctuating two-level systems: Loss and noise in disordered and non-disordered superconducting quantum devices

In this thesis, we first demonstrate that a disordered superconductor with high kinetic inductance can realise a microwave low-loss, non-dissipative circuit element with impedance greater than the quantum resistance. This element, known as a superinductor, can suppress the fluctuations of charge in a quantum circuit.For this purpose, we fabricated and characterised 20 nm thick, 40 nm wide niobium-nitride nanowires and determined the impedance to 6.795 kΩ. We demonstrate internal quality factors Qi = 2.5e4 in nanowire resonators at single photon excitation, which is significantly higher than values reported in devices with similar materials and geometries. Moreover, we show that the dominant dissipation in our nanowires is not an intrinsic property of the disordered films, but can instead be fully understood within the framework of two-level systems.To further characterise these losses, we then explore the geometrical scaling, toward nanowire dimensions, of dielectric losses in superconducting microwave resonators fabricated with the same techniques and from the same NbN thin-film as the nanowire superinductors. For this purpose, we perform an experimental and numerical study of dielectric loss at low temperatures. Using 3D finite-element simulation of the Maxwell--London equations, we compute the geometric filling factors of the lossy regions in our resonator structures and fit the experimental data to determine the intrinsic loss tangents of its interfaces and dielectrics. Finally, we study the effect of two-level systems on the performance of various superconducting quantum circuits. For this purpose, we measure coherence-time fluctuations in qubits and frequency fluctuations in resonators. In all devices, through statistical analysis, we identify the signature of individual Lorentzian fluctuators in the noise. We find that fluctuations in qubit relaxation are local to the qubit and are caused by instabilities of near-resonant two-level-systems. Furthermore, when examining the low-frequency noise of three different types of superconducting resonator - one NbN nanowire, one Al coplanar waveguide, and one Al 3D cavity - we observe a similar power-law dependence of the Lorentzian switching time and amplitude on the circulating power in the resonators, suggesting a common noise mechanism in the three different types of devices