The ultimate goal of the modern wireless communication industry is the full integration of digital, analog, and radio frequency (RF) functions. The most successful solution for such demands has been complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, thanks to its cost-effective material and great versatility. Power amplifier (PA), the biggest bottleneck to integrate in a single-chip transceiver in wireless communications, significantly influences overall system performance. Recent advanced wireless communication systems demand a power amplifier that can simultaneously support different communication standards. A fully integrated single-chip tunable CMOS power amplifier is the best solution in terms of the cost and level of integration with other functional blocks of an RF transceiver. This work, for the first time, proposes a fully integrated band-switchable RF power amplifier by using a novel approach towards switching the matching networks. In this approach, which is called Bit Optimized Reconfigurable Network (BORN), two matching networks which can be controlled by digital bits will provide three operating frequency bands for the power amplifier. In order to implementing the proposed BORN PA, a robust high-power RF switch is presented by using resistive body floating technique and 6-terminal triple-well NMOS. The proposed BORN PA delivers measured saturated output power (Psat) of 21.25/22.25/ 23.0dBm at 960MHz/1317MHz/1750MHz, respectively. Moreover, the proposed BORN PA provides respective 3-dB bandwidth of 400MHz/425MHz/550MHz, output 1-dB compression point (P1dB) of 19.5dBm/20.0dBm/21.0dBm, and power-added efficiency (PAE) of 9/11/13% at three targeted frequency bands, respectively. The promising results show that the proposed BORN PA can be a practical solution for RF multiband applications in terms of the cost and level of integration with other functional blocks of an RF transceiver.

Master’s thesis describes the design of multi-band microwave transmitters to study the propagation of electromagnetic waves in the atmosphere with the possibility of modulation of the transmitted signal. Based transmitters are synchronized phase lock loop, frequency multipliers, double balanced diode mixers.

Computer Aided Detection (CAD) systems are expecting to gain significant importance in terms of reducing the work load of radiologists and enabling the large screening programs. A large share of CAD systems are based on learning from examples, to enables the decision making between the images with or without disease. Images are simplified to numerical descriptors (features vectors) and the system is trained with these features. The common practical problem with CAD systems is training the system with a data from a specific source and testing it on a data from a different source; the variations between sources usually affect the CAD system function. The possible solutions for this problem are (1) normalizing images to make them look more equal, (2) choosing less variation sensitive features and (3) modifying the classifier so that it classifies the data from different sources more accurately. In this project the effect of image variations on the developed CAD system on chest radio graphs for Tuberculosis is studied at Diagnostic Image Analysis Group. Tuberculosis is one of the major healthcare problems in some parts of the world (1.3 million deaths in 2007) [1]. Although the system has a great performance on the train and test data from the same source, using different sub dataset for training and testing the system does not lead to the same result. To limit the effect of image variation of the CAD systems three different approaches are applied for normalizing the images: (1) Simple normalization, (2) local normalization and (3) multi band local normalization. All three approaches enhance the performance of the system in case of various sub datasets for training and testing purposes. According to the improvement achieved by applying normalization it is suggested as a solution for the stated problem above. Although the outcome of this study has satisfactory result, there is always room for further investigations and studies; in specific testing different approaches for finding less variation sensitive features and modifying the classification procedure to a more variation tolerant process.

In multiband superconductors, different bands at the Fermi surface contribute to the superconductivity with different magnitudes of superconducting gaps on different portions of the Fermi surface. Each band in a multiband superconductor has a condensate with an amplitude and phase that weakly interacts with the other bands’ condensate. The coupling strength between the bands determines whether one or two superconducting transition temperatures are observed, and it is the key to many peculiar properties. In general, if there are two gaps of different magnitude, there are two different length scales associated with the suppression of these gaps in applied magnetic fields, for example. Therefore, effects of multigap superconductivity can be observed in superconducting vortices, which are twirls of supercurrents that are generated when a superconductor is placed in a magnetic field. Furthermore, the two superconducting order parameters in different bands are characterized by a magnitude and phase. In multiband superconductors, there are collective excitations corresponding to fluctuations of the relative phase of two order parameters, so-called the Leggett mode. The first material identified as multiband superconductor is Magnesium Diboride (MgB2) in 2001 with a critical temperature Tc of 39 K. MgB2 is a superconducting material with the highest transition temperature among all conventional BCS superconductors. It has two superconducting gaps \Delta_\pi ~ 2 meV and \Delta_\sigma\ ~ 7 meV and they arise from the existence of two bands \pi and \sigma bands of boron electrons. The discovery of superconductivity in MgB2 renewed interest in the field of multiband superconductivity. MgB2 has attracted many scientists’ attention both for the fundamental importance of understanding the multiband superconductivity and possible applications such as magnets, power cables, bolometers, Josephson junction-based electronic devices, and radio-frequency cavities. Afterward, other materials have been identified as multiband superconductors such as NbSe2, the family of iron-based superconductors, heavy fermion superconductors, multilayer cuprates, borocarbides, etc. This dissertation uses tunneling experiments to highlight multiband superconductivity features in two systems, namely MgB2 thin films and ultrathin films of Pb. Further, we use multiple techniques to study a superconducting material, nitrogen-doped niobium, used for superconducting radio-frequency cavities. For the project on MgB2, MgB2/Native-Oxide/Ag planar junctions are fabricated and characterized down to 2.1 K and in the magnetic field parallel to the sample surface up to 6 Tesla. This work investigates how pairbreaking affects the magnitude and phase of the order parameter in a multiband superconductor. The tunneling spectra are analyzed in the framework of a two-band model developed by our theory collaborator Prof. Alex Gurevich, Old Dominion University. The model allows the extraction of the pair-breaking parameters among other quantities. The analysis shows that the order parameter in the ? band is quickly suppressed in the field, the ? band is cleaner than the ? band. The ratio of pairbreaking parameter in the ? band to the ? band rapidly increases at fields higher than ~0.1 T and then plateau at higher fields. This transition around 0.1 T magnetic field suggests a phase decoupling in the two bands of MgB2. Below the transition, the two bands are phase-locked, so mostly, the superconductivity in the ? band is affected, and after phase decoupling, both bands are affected by the applied field. These results are important for a basic understanding of multiband superconductors and the application implications of this material. This phase decoupling has a new and profound consequence on the superconducting state of a multiband superconductor that has been theoretically predicted and never observed experimentally. For the Pb project, ultrathin films of Pb in ultrahigh vacuum conditions are deposited by e-beam evaporation and characterized with low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/STS). The STM/STS allows measuring the electronic density of states with the highest spatial resolution down to atomic scale. The shape of a superconducting vortex core is determined by the superconducting gap and the Fermi velocity, and the STM allows to map anisotropies of these quantities spatially. The vortex cores of Pb film show a complex shape that evolves from triangular at short distances from the center to a six-fold symmetric star shape farther away from the center. These details are very subtle, and they can be highlighted only if one works within the clean limit (to avoid the averaging effect of the scattering) and by fabricating the heterostructure that pins the vortices spatially. The complex vortex core shape reflects the anisotropy of the two bands that contribute to superconductivity in this material. For the project on Niobium, cold and hot spots from nitrogen-doped Nb cutouts are characterized by low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/STS) combined with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The radiofrequency (RF) measurements of the quality factor and temperature mapping on an N-doped Nb superconducting resonator cavity are carried out at Jefferson Laboratory before cutting out the samples. This work aims to identify possible sources of excess dissipation in hot spots and relate them to the surface chemical composition and superconducting properties. The temperature mapping revealed a strong effect of the cavity cooldown rate on the intensities of hot spots and their spatial distribution, which indicates a significant contribution of trapped vortices to the RF dissipation. SEM images acquired on the cold and hot spots using a secondary electron detector show absence of residual hydride scars and niobium nitrides on their surface. Angle-resolved XPS measurements on the native surface of these samples revealed higher oxidized Nb 3d states on the N-doped Nb cold spots, which is supported by XPS depth profiles done on the samples by Argon ion sputtering. Argon ion sputtering of oxidized Nb removes oxygen preferentially from Nb2O5 and diffuses to bulk, thickening the lower oxidation state layers. The proximity theory framework’s tunneling spectra analysis suggests hot spots have stronger pairbreaking due to a weakly reduced pair potential, a thicker metallic suboxide layer, and a wide distribution of the contact resistance. STM imaging of vortex cores shows a triangular vortex lattice in both samples, and the coherence length is nearly the same in hot and cold spots. The experimental data analysis suggests weakly degraded superconducting properties at the surface of hot spot regions are not the primary sources of RF losses. Instead, they are the regions where vortices nucleate first and get trapped during cooling down. These experimental techniques and findings will be crucial in helping to qualify new recipes for SRF cavity production and to boost their performance. / Physics

Yes / To support various fifth generation (5G) wireless applications, a small, printed bowtie-shaped microstrip antenna with meandered arms is reported in this article. Because it spans the broad legal range, the developed antenna can serve or reject a variety of applications such as wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi), sub-6 GHz, and ultra-wideband (UWB) 5G communications due to its multiband characterization and optimized rejection bands. The antenna is built on an FR-4 substrate and powered via a 50-Ω microstrip feed line linked to the right bowtie’s side. The bowtie’s left side is coupled via a shorting pin to a partial ground at the antenna’s back side. A gradually increasing meandering microstrip line is connected to both sides of the bowtie to enhance the rejection and operating bands. The designed antenna has seven operating frequency bands of (2.43–3.03) GHz, (3.71–4.23) GHz, (4.76–5.38) GHz, (5.83–6.54) GHz, (6.85–7.44) GHz, (7.56–8.01) GHz, and (9.27–13.88) GHz. The simulated scattering parameter S11 reveals six rejection bands with percentage bandwidths of 33.87%, 15.73%, 11.71, 7.63%, 6.99%, and 12.22%, respectively. The maximum gain of the proposed antenna is 4.46 dB. The suggested antenna has been built, and the simulation and measurement results are very similar. The reported antenna is expanded to a four-element design to investigate its MIMO characteristics. / Partially funded by British Council “2019 UK-China-BRI Countries Partnership Initiative” program, with project titled “Adapting to Industry 4.0 oriented International Education and Research Collaboration.

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The objective of this thesis is to introduce novel procedures and guidelines to design bandstop microwave filters for modern terrestrial and satellite wireless communication systems. Among all available microwave filter technologies, planar structures of microstrip and substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) are chosen, due to ease of fabrication, low profile, weight and manufacturing cost. Particularly, SIW structures are more attractive because they have a better insertion loss, quality factor, and power handling capability in comparison to their microstrip counterparts, and can also be easily integrated into other planar circuitries. A comprehensive hybrid analytic-optimization method is developed to synthesize any single-band as well as multi-band bandstop coupling matrix. In this method, the location of reflection zeros (RZs) and the attenuations in stopbands can be determined in advance. Several novel single-band, dual-band, and triple-band bandstop filters are designed using regular and ridged SIW resonators, in-line coupled singlet resonators, cross-coupled resonators, and bandstop stubs. The designed filters have fractional bandwidths up to 23% . Moreover, a tunable ridged SIW bandstop resonator and a tunable CPW resonator, etched into the top plate of the SIW transmission line, are introduced. Combining these two resonators, a dual-band SIW filter is designed that permits one of its stopband to be tuned while another stopband is fixed. All introduced filters in this thesis are verified by commercial electromagnetic software, analytic investigations using Matlab codes, and measurements. / Graduate

One of the main challenges posed by 4G wireless communication systems is achieving flexible, programmable multi-standard radio transceivers with maximum hardware share amongst different standards at a minimum power consumption. Evaluating the feasibility and performance of different multi-standard/multi-band radio solutions at an early stage, i.e. system level, is key for succeeding in surmounting this challenge. This entails for- mulation of the transceiver budget for several RF architectures and frequency plans with different degrees of hardware sharing. This task is complicated by the fact that transceiver blocks can have different implementations that lead to different performances. The tools that are available for use at present have only analysis capabilities or address only one standard and/or receiver architecture at a time.In the belief that a new approach to this problem is necessary, the work that has led to this thesis proposes a novel methodology that automates the design-space explo- ration of integrated multi-standard wireless radio receivers. This methodology has been implemented in a multi-standard RF Transceiver Architecture Comparison Tool, TACT. TACT helps surmounting many of the challenges faced by RF system designers targeting multi-standard/multi-band radio receivers.The goal of the algorithms TACT is built upon is to find a multi-standard receiver frequency plan and budget that meets or exceeds the specifications of the addressed wire- less standards while keeping the requirements of each of the receiver blocks as relaxed as possible. TACT offers RF engineers a deep insight into the receiver behavior at a very early stage of the design flow. It models the impact of critical circuit non-idealities using a high level of abstraction. This reduces the number of design iterations and, thus, the time-to-market of the solution. The reuse of already available intellectual property (IP) blocks is also considered in TACT, what can result in a significant cost reduction of the receiver implementation. A combination of a behavioural-based cooperative multi-agent optimization and deterministic techniques is proposed.The capabilities of the proposed techniques and developed tool are illustrated through case studies addressing different design challenges the design of multi-standard receivers present.The last part of this thesis is devoted to one of the key blocks of any communica- tions receiver: the analog-to-digital converter. This work focuses on modeling and design methodologies for continuous-time ΔΣ modulators. A method to evaluate the stability margin of continuous-time ΔΣ modulators as a function of the timing uncertainty effects is proposed. / QC 20100907 / RaMSiS

The objective of this research is to demonstrate the feasibility of the implementation of low-cost, small-size, and high power RF front ends using CMOS technology which has been known not to be suitable for high-power applications due to its material characteristic. One part of this research focuses on developing GaAs switches for multi band and multi mode high power applications. The development of RF front end switches for high power applications using CMOS technology is very challenging in that the characteristics of CMOS technology such as low breakdown voltages, slow electron mobility and existence of substrate junction diodes are limiting power handling capability of CMOS technology. Various topologies of CMOS switches have been employed in implementing high power RF front end CMOS switches in order to overcome material limitations of CMOS technology in high power applications. Based on measurement data such as power handling capability and S-parameters of fabricated CMOS switches, the feasibility of use of CMOS technology in high power RF antenna switch design has been studied, and novel methods of designing CMOS switches to improve the power handling capability without compensating S-parameter performance are proposed. As a part of this research, multi-band and multi-mode power switches using GaAs technology are fabricated and tested for use of the commercial applications such as handsets covering GSM, PCS/DCS, and UMTS bands. Current commercial RF switch products demand small size, low cost and low voltage control as the number of wireless standards integrated in a single application increases. This research provides a solution for commercial products which can meet all the specifications as well as needs required in the wireless market.

ITC/USA 2013 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Ninth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 21-24, 2013 / Bally's Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV / The flight test mission services need higher data rates due to increased system complexity and the need for more accurate, higher rate, and better data acquisition. The existing L or S band frequency spectrum allocation was a limiting factor to meet this increased data rate requirement. The World Radio-communication Conference (WRC 2007) attributed new additional frequency spectrum allocations in the C band for Aeronautical Mobile Telemetry (AMT). The international flight test community has taken this opportunity to immediately take advantage of the new C-band range 5091-5250MHz. This paper presents the multi-band feed product designed by the RF & Antenna Laboratory of ZODIAC DATA SYSTEMS company. This feed is foreseen to be used in prime focus configuration on any diameter parabola dish providing telemetry and tracking channels in three L, S, and C bands. Here, are described the concept and the technology achieved taking into consideration the performance and industrial constraints. Moreover, this contribution focuses on the electromagnetic simulations of radiating elements, the feed network and RF system integration. This paper is structured as follows: firstly, the objectives and the motivation for developing a prime focus feed which works in L, S, C bands are presented. In particular, the market constraints and approach to find the best solution satisfying the feed RF requirements, and mechanical constraints, such as weight, size and cost, are discussed. The second section describes the 5 step development cycle: principle and technology, design of the telemetry channels and tracking function, cohabitation of the different radiating elements, and problems of the channels isolations. The third section discusses the performance achieved using electromagnetic simulations. The fourth section talks about the integration of RF system feed. The paper concludes by discussing future work using the same concept that is applied to other telecommunication or telemetry frequency bands.