In this dissertation, different from the conventional PIFA structure, the novel internal loop and slot antennas suitable for multiband mobile phone application are proposed. The loop antennas here use the technique of meandering the loop pattern to control the frequency ratio of the three resonant loop modes, and then the multiband operation can be obtained. For the slot antenna, different from the conventional slot antenna operating in a half-wavelength, the monopole slots antenna operating in it¡¦s quarter-wavelength mode are proposed. By properly adjusting the position of the monopole slot and the tuning stub of the microstrip feedline, the monopole slot antenna can achieve the multiband operation with a small occupied area in the mobile phone. In addition, the user¡¦s hand and head effects on the loop antenna are also studied. The obtained results indicate that, when the user¡¦s hand and head is close to or cover a certain portion of the antenna, large decrease in the antenna¡¦s radiation efficiency and great distortion in the antenna¡¦s radiation pattern will occur for all the three excited resonant modes of the loop antenna, no matter the unbalanced or balanced modes. Further, the efficiency drops caused by the user¡¦s hand and head over the GSM900 band are much larger than that over the GSM1800/1900 bands.

Two novel internal WWAN antennas having multi-band operation capability and suitable to be embedded in the laptop computers are proposed. The first antenna is a penta-band printed monopole slot antenna, which can cover GSM850/900/1800/1900/UMTS operation. The second antenna is a penta-band printed dual-loop antenna. The antenna can cover GSM850/900/1800/1900/UMTS operation and occupies a small size. The effects of the environment and the user¡¦s hand on the internal laptop computer antenna are also studied. Take the first antenna as an example; the obtained results show that the effects of the internal environment of the laptop computer are mostly on the antenna¡¦s impedance matching, which however can be improved by adjusting the parameters of the antenna. On the other hand, since the user¡¦s hands are lossy materials, a decrease in the antenna¡¦s radiation efficiency is observed when the user¡¦s hand is in the vicinity of the internal antenna.

A measurement method for characterizing RFID chip has been proposed that can measure the approximate Read/Write threshold power and impedance of RFID strap with minimum operating procedures; furthermore, the complicated RF facilities are not required. Obtaining the specifications of RFID strap allows designers to estimate maximum read range of designed RFID tag in advance. Therefore, the implemented cost and design cycle times can be reduced substantially. For the verification of the final match condition of assembled RFID tag, a direct measurement technique has been developed, which not only can verify the final impedance match condition of the assembled RFID tags, but can also be used to identify the resistance and reactance mismatch condition between the RFID chip and antenna. The measurement data obtained from the verification method can also be used to estimate the assembly error introduced by different mounting methods. The use of the corrected circuit model of the RFID chip impedance, which includes the assembly error, helps improve the accuracy of the RFID tag design. In the RFID metal tag design, a series of low profile and miniature RFID tags, which is directly attached on metallic objects, has been developed. A series of low cost and easily produced RFID tag antenna structures also has been realized for RFID application on hanging metallic tag, which makes the RFID solution well suited for metallic tag of labeling system that requires integration of RFID technology. The attached RFID metal tag and the metallic RFID hanging tag cover most of the RFID application on steel products in the steel industry.

The objective of this thesis research is to optimize network throughput and fairness, and enhance bandwidth utilization in wireless mobile multi-hop relay (MMR) networks. To enhance bandwidth utilization, we propose an adaptive OFDMA frame structure which is used by the base station and the non-transparent relay stations. To optimize throughput and fairness, we develop an adaptive OFDMA allocation algorithm by using the proposed adaptive OFDMA frame. The effectiveness of the proposed schemes has been verified by numeric simulations. Providing ubiquitous coverage with wireless metropolitan area networks (WMANs) can be costly, especially in sparsely populated areas. In this scenario, cheaper relay stations (RSs) can be used to provide coverage instead of expensive base stations (BSs). The RS extends the coverage area of traditional BSs. This sort of network is known as a wireless MMR network. This thesis focuses on MMR networks that use orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and time division duplex (TDD) as a multiple access scheme and a duplex communication technique (e.g., WiMAX). The use of OFDMA resources (e.g., OFDMA symbols and subcarriers) and how they are shared in current schemes can reduce system capacity and network throughput in certain scenarios. To increase the capacity of the MMR network, we propose a new protocol that uses an adaptive OFDMA frame structure for BSs and RSs. We also propose adaptive OFDMA resource allocation for subscriber stations (SSs) within a BS or RS. We derive the maximum OFDMA resources that RSs can be assigned and synchronize access zones and relay zones between a superior station and its subordinate RSs. This is bounded by three properties defined in this thesis: a data relay property, a maximum balance property, and a relay zone limitation property. Finally, we propose max-min and proportional fairness schemes that use the proposed adaptive frame structure. The proposed scheme is the first approach that incorporates the adaptive technique for wireless MMR networks. We evaluate our scheme using simulations and numerical analysis. Results show that our technique improves resource allocation in wireless MMR networks. Further, in asymmetric distributions of SSs between access zones and relay zones, the proposed OFDMA allocation scheme performs two times better than the non-adaptive allocation scheme in terms of average max-min fairness and 70% better in terms of average throughput.

<p>In today's GSM system there is a complex resource situation when it comes to the scarce TDMA channels in the air interface, the time slots. There are both voice call services that use one or a half time slot and there are packet data users, that may share time slots with other packet data users, and they can use multiple channels at the same time. Allocating time to users is a crucial part in the system and it may affect the performance for the end user substantially.</p><p>In the future there may be more types of services than just voice and packet data and that these services may have specific demands on their channels, time slots. That means they would not be able to use just any of the available channels. The way to "give" services channels is what is called channel allocation. In this thesis four different services and three different principles for channel allocation is implemented in a Matlab simulator and simulated. The thesis goal is to determine which principle is best for which mix of services.</p><p>The principles that have been investigated are Flexible Algorithm that lets all services use all channels, Fix Dedication Algorithm where all channels are dedicated to a service and only can be used by that one and finally Soft Dedication Algorithm where all channels are dedicated to a service but may be used by other services when it is not needed by the preferred one.</p><p>The conclusion is, simplified, that the Soft Dedication Algorithm generates low blocking rates, high bandwidth and that it is a quite robust principle although the borrowing user may be preempted. It may not always be the best one but over all it is the one to prefer.</p> / <p>Detta examensarbete är utfört på uppdrag av och i samarbete med Ericsson och rör kanal- och resurshantering i GSM-systemet.</p><p>Ett ständigt problem vid trådlös och mobil kommunikation är den begränsade mängd frekvenser som finns tillgängliga i radiogränssnittet och hur pass nära två radioresursers frekvenser kan ligga varandra. I GSM används TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) för att få plats med många användare på ett smalt frekvensband. TDMA innebär förenklat att tiden delas upp i åtta tidsluckor och att varje användare får tillgång till en av radioresurserna under en sådan tidslucka (kanal). Detta gäller både i upp- och nedlänk.</p><p>I nuläget finns två tjänster, paketdata och tal, som använder tidsluckorna på olika sätt. En talanvändare använder en eller en halv lucka själv medan paketdataanvändare kan dela på en eller flera luckor. Det finns alltså en mängd olika sätt att allokera, "dela ut", dessa luckor till ett givet antal användare. I nuläget har man en väl fungerande algoritm för detta men man tror att det i framtiden kommer att finnas fler tjänster med mer specifika krav på sina tidsluckor (kanaler) och att man då inte längre kan använda samma princip för kanalallokeringen.</p><p>I detta exjobb har tre nya, enkla och renodlade principer för kanalallokering undersökts för fyra fiktiva tjänster. Det tre principerna är Flexible Algorithm, där alla tjänster tillåts använda alla kanaler, Fix Dedication Algorithm, där alla kanaler är dedicerade till någon tjänst och endast kan användas av just denna tjänst; och slutligen Soft Dedication Algorithm som fungerar liknande den föregående men här kan tjänster "låna" kanaler av andra tjänster så längs som de är lediga. I Soft Dedication Algorithm kan en eventuell "låntagare" bli avbruten om en användare av rätt tjänst inte hittar en ledig kanal.</p><p>Utvärdering har skett genom att simulera systemet i en, delvis egengjord, Matlabsimulator.</p><p>Resultaten visar, förenklat, att Soft Dedication Algorithm är den bästa vad gäller låg blockering, kanalutnyttjande och även bandbredder. Den är även förhållandevis robust mot variationer i last.</p>

A distinctive field in the coatings industry is the coating of porous media, with broad applications in paper, apparel, textile, electronics, bioengineering, filtration and energy sector. A primary industrial scale process that can be used to coat porous media in a fast and flexible manner is slot die extrusion. A major concern when coating porous media with a wetting fluid is fluid penetration into the substrate. Although some level of penetration is desirable to obtain specific material properties, inadequate or excessive fluid penetration can negatively affect the strength, functionality or performance of the resulting material. In spite of its apparent industrial importance, limited modeling and experimental work has been conducted to study fluid penetration into porous media during fabrication. The effects of processing parameters on the penetration depth, the effects of penetration on material quality, and the method to predict and control the penetration depth are not well understood. This dissertation is composed of two parts. Part I is an applied study for coating onto porous media. This part focuses on the first objective of this dissertation which is to elucidate clearly the feasibility, advantages and disadvantages of the direct coating method as a potential fabrication route for membrane electrode assembly (MEA). MEA samples are fabricated using both traditional and the direct coating methods. Then, the quality and performance of the MEA samples are examined. Experimental results in Part I demonstrate that it is feasible to fabricate MEAs using the direct coating method. However, Nafion® solution penetrates into the catalyst layer during the coating process and causes lower performance of fuel cells, which is the motivation for Part II of this thesis. The objective of Part II is to fundamentally understand the fluid penetration process and predict the penetration depth when directly coating porous media, using a comprehensive approach. A series of computational and analytical models are developed to predict the penetration depth for both Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids with or without capillary pressure. Finally the accuracy of developed models are validated through experiments. The relative error between the predicted and experimentally measured penetration depth is generally lower than 20%.

Free liquid-jet impingement is well researched due to its high heat transfer ability and ease of implementation. This study considers both the steady state and transient heating of a patterned plate under slot-free-liquid jet impingement. The primary working fluid was water (H2O) and the plate material considered was silicon. Calculations were done for Reynolds number (Re) ranging from 500 to 1000 and indentation depths from 0.000125 to 0.0005 m for three different surface configurations. The effect of using different plate materials and R-134a as the working fluid were explored for the rectangular step case. The distributions of the local and average heat-transfer coefficient and the local and average Nusselt number were calculated for each case. A numerical model based in the FIDAP computer code was created to solve the conjugate heat transfer problem. The model used was developed for Cartesian coordinates for both steady state and transient conditions. Results show that the addition of surface geometry alters the fluid flow and heat transfer values. The highest heat-transfer coefficients occur at points where the fluid flow interacts with the surface geometry. The lowest heat-transfer coefficients are found in the indentations between the changes in geometry. The jet velocity has a large impact on the heat transfer values for all cases, with increasing jet velocity showing increased local heat-transfer coefficients and Nusselt number. It is observed that increasing the indentation depth for the rectangular and sinusoidal surfaces leads to a decrease in local heat transfer whereas for triangular patterns, a higher depth results in higher heat-transfer coefficient. The transient analysis showed that changing surface geometry had little effect on the time required to reach steady state. The selection of plate material has an impact on both the final maximum temperatures and the time required to reach steady state, with both traits being tied to the thermal diffusivity (α) of the material.

The focus of this dissertation is on the development and circuit modeling of planar series-fed, linear- and circular-polarized microstrip aperture-coupled antennas and N-element arrays operating in C-band. These arrays were designed to be used as part of airborne or land-based frequency-hopped communication systems. One of the main objectives of this work was to maintain a constant beam angle over the frequency band of operation. In order to achieve constant beam pointing versus frequency, an anti-symmetric series-fed approach using lumped-element circuit models was developed. This series feed architecture also balances the power radiated by each element in the N-element arrays. The proposed series-fed approach was used in the development of four-element series-fed aperture-coupled arrays with 15% 10 dB impedance bandwidth centered at 5 GHz and a gain of 11.5 dB, to construct an omni-directional radiator. Omni-directional radiators with pattern frequency stability are desired in a multitude of applications; from defense in tactical communications, information gathering, and detection of signal of interest to being part of sensors in medical applications. A hexagonal assembly of six series-fed microstrip aperture-coupled four-element arrays was used to achieve the omni-directional radiation with 0.6 dB peak to peak difference across 360˚ broadside pattern and 0.6 dB gain variation at the specific azimuth angle across 15% impedance bandwidth. Given that each of these six arrays can be individually controlled, this configuration allows for individual pattern control and reconfiguration of the omni-directional pattern with increased gain at specific azimuth angles and the ability to form a directional pattern by employing a fewer number of arrays. Incorporating a beam-forming network or power distribution network is also possible. Wide 3 dB circular polarization (CP) bandwidth was achieved without external couplers and via only a single feed with a unique Z-slot aperture-coupled microstrip antenna. A single RHCP Z-slot aperture-coupled antenna has ∼10% CP and 10 dB impedance bandwidth. The series-fed network consisting of lumped elements, open-circuited stubs and transmission lines was subsequently developed to maintain more than 5% CP and 10% 10 dB impedance bandwidth in the series-fed four-element Z-slot aperture-coupled CP array that could also be used for-omni-directional radiation.

A novel approach to miniaturizing an 802.11b WLAN card using folded-flex ultra-thin substrates is presented. A 73 percent reduction in size was realized using hybrid circuits on FR4 and polyimide. There is even more potential for further reduction if more copper layers are used. The miniaturized 802.11b WLAN cards were used to design 802.11b wireless sensor nodes. A research test-bed was setup to study how 802.11b networked sensor nodes could operate in the field. There are many applications for such sensor networks like habitat monitoring, object tracking, seismic detection, military surveillance, or fire detection to name a few. This investigation focuses on the requirements, design, and performance of a miniaturized 802.11b wireless LAN sensor node that is reliable, can be deployed in large-scale, and has the endurance long-lived for surveillance applications. An aperture coupled microstrip antenna is investigated for 2.44 GHz wireless local area networks (WLAN) which has the advantages of being low-profile and compact. The most important parameters for antenna optimization have been determined through extensive simulation using Ansoft's HFSS and experimental verification. As a result, an omnidirectional antenna with a size of 36.2 mm x 32 mm x 4.75 mm has been realized using Rogers 5880 duroid (permittivity = 2.20 ; loss tangent = 0.0004) with 4.4 dBi of gain, > 80 MHz, and a return loss > -32 dB. These types of performance characteristics make the antenna highly desirable for both 802.11b and Bluetooth applications.

In today's GSM system there is a complex resource situation when it comes to the scarce TDMA channels in the air interface, the time slots. There are both voice call services that use one or a half time slot and there are packet data users, that may share time slots with other packet data users, and they can use multiple channels at the same time. Allocating time to users is a crucial part in the system and it may affect the performance for the end user substantially. In the future there may be more types of services than just voice and packet data and that these services may have specific demands on their channels, time slots. That means they would not be able to use just any of the available channels. The way to "give" services channels is what is called channel allocation. In this thesis four different services and three different principles for channel allocation is implemented in a Matlab simulator and simulated. The thesis goal is to determine which principle is best for which mix of services. The principles that have been investigated are Flexible Algorithm that lets all services use all channels, Fix Dedication Algorithm where all channels are dedicated to a service and only can be used by that one and finally Soft Dedication Algorithm where all channels are dedicated to a service but may be used by other services when it is not needed by the preferred one. The conclusion is, simplified, that the Soft Dedication Algorithm generates low blocking rates, high bandwidth and that it is a quite robust principle although the borrowing user may be preempted. It may not always be the best one but over all it is the one to prefer. / Detta examensarbete är utfört på uppdrag av och i samarbete med Ericsson och rör kanal- och resurshantering i GSM-systemet. Ett ständigt problem vid trådlös och mobil kommunikation är den begränsade mängd frekvenser som finns tillgängliga i radiogränssnittet och hur pass nära två radioresursers frekvenser kan ligga varandra. I GSM används TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) för att få plats med många användare på ett smalt frekvensband. TDMA innebär förenklat att tiden delas upp i åtta tidsluckor och att varje användare får tillgång till en av radioresurserna under en sådan tidslucka (kanal). Detta gäller både i upp- och nedlänk. I nuläget finns två tjänster, paketdata och tal, som använder tidsluckorna på olika sätt. En talanvändare använder en eller en halv lucka själv medan paketdataanvändare kan dela på en eller flera luckor. Det finns alltså en mängd olika sätt att allokera, "dela ut", dessa luckor till ett givet antal användare. I nuläget har man en väl fungerande algoritm för detta men man tror att det i framtiden kommer att finnas fler tjänster med mer specifika krav på sina tidsluckor (kanaler) och att man då inte längre kan använda samma princip för kanalallokeringen. I detta exjobb har tre nya, enkla och renodlade principer för kanalallokering undersökts för fyra fiktiva tjänster. Det tre principerna är Flexible Algorithm, där alla tjänster tillåts använda alla kanaler, Fix Dedication Algorithm, där alla kanaler är dedicerade till någon tjänst och endast kan användas av just denna tjänst; och slutligen Soft Dedication Algorithm som fungerar liknande den föregående men här kan tjänster "låna" kanaler av andra tjänster så längs som de är lediga. I Soft Dedication Algorithm kan en eventuell "låntagare" bli avbruten om en användare av rätt tjänst inte hittar en ledig kanal. Utvärdering har skett genom att simulera systemet i en, delvis egengjord, Matlabsimulator. Resultaten visar, förenklat, att Soft Dedication Algorithm är den bästa vad gäller låg blockering, kanalutnyttjande och även bandbredder. Den är även förhållandevis robust mot variationer i last.