Limitations of current eldercare monitoring systems leave a need for new solutions. A monitoring system based on a frequency modulated continuous wave ultra-wideband short-range radar is proposed for this application. The complete proposed monitoring system is comprised of four blocks: boundary detection, silhouette capture, human identification, and data transmission. This paper develops the RF front end hardware for the silhouette capture subsystem. System requirements are derived for the silhouette capture subsystem. An architecture for the RF front end is designed, and required individual component specifications are determined. Components are selected off the shelf or custom designed for each socket. Full transmitter and receiver level plans are calculated to ensure expected system performance meets system requirements. A component library and full system schematic is created, PCB layout is completed, and PCB files are generated and sent for fabrication. PCB traces and individual components are characterized over frequency, and methods that improve inadequate performance are documented and discussed.

Ultra wideband (UWB) is vastly under consideration of research industry that promises high data rata, low power consumption and economic solution. UWB was in use of military since 1950’s. In 2002 Federal communication commission (FCC) approved the use of 3.1-10.6 GHz band for unlicensed UWB applications. UWB is a suitable choice for sensing and position objects because of high bandwidth and fine time resolution. The goal of this work is to explore the UWB technology in context of distance measurement between two nodes. We have described the characterization; reliability and ranging precision of an impulse UWB based transceiver for both indoor and outdoor environments. This thesis discuss in detail about UWB technology. Chapter 1 discusses about UWB applications, regulation and bandwidth properties. Chapter 2 and 3 discuss about single band and multi band modulation and detection techniques. Chapter 4 gives a complete description how to measure position through ranging and positioning parameters. Finally, to estimate the ranging and positioning, a two way ranging algorithm based on TOA employed as part of this work is described in detail in chapter 5. A theoretical analysis of impulse UWB radio for wireless communication and ranging is provided employing the Shannon Hartley theorem and Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) method.

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O objetivo deste trabalho é desenvolver um modelo conceitual de um sistema transmissor de pulsos eletromagnéticos de banda ultra-larga, capaz de realizar o controle da formação do feixe irradiado de forma totalmente eletrônica. Para isso, é proposto um sistema formado por quatro canais iguais e independentes, sendo que cada um é formado por um controlador de atraso programável, com o qual se pode ajustar a defasagem temporal entre os pulsos de cada canal, um gerador de pulso, capaz de sintetizar a quinta derivada do pulso Gaussiano a partir de uma nova proposta de topologia, e um arranjo de antenas do tipo planar de abertura exponencial conhecida como antena Vivaldi. O sistema proposto é apoiado por modelos matemáticos e simulações elétricas post-layout com variação dos parâmetros por Monte Carlo com os programas LTSpice 4 e Microwind 2.6, utilizando as regras de processo padrão CMOS 180nm e eletromagnética tridimensional com o uso do programa CST Microwave 2011. Os resultados obtidos nas simulações, comparados com propostas anteriores, indicam que realmente houve o controle da formação do feixe irradiado cujo lóbulo principal teve uma magnitude média de 11dBi com uma largura angular do feixe de 33º x 38º e possibilidade de variar os ângulos azimutal e de elevação de -15º a 9º e -18º a 6º, respectivamente, para uma frequência central de 6GHz. O pulso utilizado para estimular as antenas foi o pulso Gaussiano em sua quinta ordem de derivação, que teve como resultados médios de simulação uma amplitude de 90mVpp, uma largura de pulso de 370ps a uma taxa de repetição de 100MHz e uma frequência central de 6GHz. / This work aims to develop a conceptual model of the new Ultra Wide-band fifth-order derivative Gaussian pulse transmitter with Vivaldi antenna array for beamforming using the technique of timed-array. It is proposed a system formed by four equal and independent channels, each of which is formed by a programmable delay controller in which one can adjust the delay time between pulses of each channel, a pulse generator, capable to synthesize the fifth derivative of a Gaussian pulse using a new topology, and a planar Vivaldi antenna. The proposed system was supported by mathematical models and post-layout electrical simulations with parameters variation by Monte Carlo in programs LTSpice 4 and MicroWind 2.6 using the CMOS 180nm Standard process rules and using three-dimensional electromagnetic program CST Microwave 2011. The simulation results indicated that there was indeed control on the beam formation irradiated whose main lobe has an average magnitude of 11dBi with an angular width of the beam 33 x 38 (degrees square) and possibility of varying the angles of azimuth and elevation from -15 to 9 degrees and -18 to 6 degrees, respectively, at a center frequency of 6GHz. The pulse used to stimulate the antennas was the fifth order Gaussian one, which had the average results of a simulation 90mVpp amplitude, a pulse width 370ps to a 100MHz repetition rate and a center frequency of 6 GHz..

O objetivo deste trabalho é desenvolver um modelo conceitual de um sistema transmissor de pulsos eletromagnéticos de banda ultra-larga, capaz de realizar o controle da formação do feixe irradiado de forma totalmente eletrônica. Para isso, é proposto um sistema formado por quatro canais iguais e independentes, sendo que cada um é formado por um controlador de atraso programável, com o qual se pode ajustar a defasagem temporal entre os pulsos de cada canal, um gerador de pulso, capaz de sintetizar a quinta derivada do pulso Gaussiano a partir de uma nova proposta de topologia, e um arranjo de antenas do tipo planar de abertura exponencial conhecida como antena Vivaldi. O sistema proposto é apoiado por modelos matemáticos e simulações elétricas post-layout com variação dos parâmetros por Monte Carlo com os programas LTSpice 4 e Microwind 2.6, utilizando as regras de processo padrão CMOS 180nm e eletromagnética tridimensional com o uso do programa CST Microwave 2011. Os resultados obtidos nas simulações, comparados com propostas anteriores, indicam que realmente houve o controle da formação do feixe irradiado cujo lóbulo principal teve uma magnitude média de 11dBi com uma largura angular do feixe de 33º x 38º e possibilidade de variar os ângulos azimutal e de elevação de -15º a 9º e -18º a 6º, respectivamente, para uma frequência central de 6GHz. O pulso utilizado para estimular as antenas foi o pulso Gaussiano em sua quinta ordem de derivação, que teve como resultados médios de simulação uma amplitude de 90mVpp, uma largura de pulso de 370ps a uma taxa de repetição de 100MHz e uma frequência central de 6GHz. / This work aims to develop a conceptual model of the new Ultra Wide-band fifth-order derivative Gaussian pulse transmitter with Vivaldi antenna array for beamforming using the technique of timed-array. It is proposed a system formed by four equal and independent channels, each of which is formed by a programmable delay controller in which one can adjust the delay time between pulses of each channel, a pulse generator, capable to synthesize the fifth derivative of a Gaussian pulse using a new topology, and a planar Vivaldi antenna. The proposed system was supported by mathematical models and post-layout electrical simulations with parameters variation by Monte Carlo in programs LTSpice 4 and MicroWind 2.6 using the CMOS 180nm Standard process rules and using three-dimensional electromagnetic program CST Microwave 2011. The simulation results indicated that there was indeed control on the beam formation irradiated whose main lobe has an average magnitude of 11dBi with an angular width of the beam 33 x 38 (degrees square) and possibility of varying the angles of azimuth and elevation from -15 to 9 degrees and -18 to 6 degrees, respectively, at a center frequency of 6GHz. The pulse used to stimulate the antennas was the fifth order Gaussian one, which had the average results of a simulation 90mVpp amplitude, a pulse width 370ps to a 100MHz repetition rate and a center frequency of 6 GHz..

La technologie d’identification radiofréquence (RFID) est aujourd’hui une technologie mature qui est amenée à remplacer le code à barre dans un futur proche. Au milieu de toutes les familles de RFID, la technologie RFID sans puce Ultra Large Bande (ULB) est devenue un sujet incontournable. Au cours de cette thèse, nous avons contribué au développement d’un lecteur de tag RFID sans puce ULB en nous basant sur une approche impulsionnelle. Deux prototypes de lecteur ont été développés en suivant les limitations d’émissions de la technologie ULB imposées par les normes. Le premier lecteur a permis principalement de valider le principe de la lecture de tags RFID sans puce en utilisant le temps équivalent. Une deuxième version du lecteur plus aboutis a ensuite été développée. En effet, la précision de lecture a été optimisée grâce à la réduction du bruit d’échantillonnage. Le temps de lecture ainsi que le coût du lecteur ont aussi été des paramètres clés qui ont été drastiquement réduits. Pour cela, un générateur d’impulsion faible bruit bas coût ainsi que des antennes ULB et des cartes de front-end RF ont été conçus et optimisés. Enfin, une technique de lecture des tags basée sur la diversité en polarisation est proposée et validée en pratique. L’objectif étant de permettre la lecture de tag dépolarisant indépendamment de leur orientation. Ce point est un aspect très important pour le développement futur de la technologie RFID sans puce car cela lève des contraintes sur la conception des tags / The RFID technology is in full development, and is intended to substitute barcode in the next future. Between all the RFID families, the UWB chipless RFID technology is a major topic nowadays. With this thesis we focus on development of UWB chipless RFID readers, based on IR-UWB approach.The international regulations that limit the UWB emission are taken into consideration, and two reader prototypes developed. The first was as a concept car, and therefore used as proof of concept. The second version represents a full optimized reader in all the key aspects. Between them, the reading precision, through sampling noise reduction, the reading time, and cost effectiveness. As part of reader development, a low noise and low cost UWB pulse generator prototype was realized, along with UWB antennas, and RF front-end boards. As prospective, a reading technique based on polarization diversity is shown, with the aim of reading cross-polarized tags independently from their orientation. This approach is valuable because does not give any constraint at the tag design level

Ultra-wideband (UWB) is a wireless system which transmits signals across a much wider frequency spectrum than traditional wireless systems. The impulse radio (IR) UWB technique uses ultra-short duration pulses of nanoseconds or less. The objective of this thesis is to provide the design, implementation and testing of the timing recovery between the transmitter and receiver of the recently emerging differential code-shifted reference (DCSR) Impulse radio (IR) ultra-wideband (UWB) system. A new non-coherent energy detection based technique and its algorithm are proposed for timing recovery by means of a phase-locked loop (PLL) circuit. Simulations are presented first to verify the proposed algorithm. Then, it is implemented and tested in the Lattice ECP2 field-programmable gate array (FPGA) evaluation board with VHDL codes (a VHSIC hardware description language). The simulation and implementation results show that the proposed timing recovery scheme can be effectively achieved without much error.

Le développement de l’électronique embarquée et miniaturisée est pleinement d’actualité de nos jours, dans les domaines tels que l’armement, la médecine, et les télécommunications. La miniaturisation des antennes large-bande, opérationnelles sur plus d’une décade, présentent un défi particulier. Ces travaux de thèse proposent de travailler sur la miniaturisation d’une antenne spirale, afin d’en réduire l’encombrement, à savoir son diamètre, tout en conservant au mieux ses caractéristiques de rayonnement et polarisation intrinsèques. Cette recherche sera appliquée à la bande des Très hautes Fréquence (Very High Frequencies – VHF), allant de 30MHz à 300MHz La géométrie inédite proposée consiste à associer à une antenne spirale un ensemble d’anneaux résonnants, dont le diamètre n’excède pas celui de la spirale, et permettant de diminuer la fréquence basse de fonctionnement. Pour un ensemble de cinq anneaux associé à la spirale, la réduction de la fréquence basse de fonctionnement est de plus de 30%. Pour deux antennes spirales de même fréquence basse de fonctionnement, l’antenne miniaturisée a donc un diamètre réduit de 30%, soit une surface réduite de 50%. Les performances de l’état de l’art d’après lesquelles les réductions sur le diamètre des antennes spirales n’excèdent pas 15% sont donc dépassées. De plus, d’après cet état de l’art, les méthodes de réduction appliquées aux antennes large bande dégradent en général le gain et l’axial ratio dans les bandes basses de fréquences de fonctionnement. La méthode proposée permet de conserver l’efficacité de l’antenne, voire de l’augmenter, dans les fréquences proches de la fréquence basse de fonctionnement. Le rayonnement de l’antenne spirale miniaturisée dans la bande passante de l’antenne sans anneaux n’est pour autant pas modifiée. Ces résultats très encourageant ont été confirmés par la mesure d’antennes spirales miniaturisées, réalisées pour un diamètre de 8cm et de 1m : une réduction de 30% du diamètre sans dégradation du rayonnement a été observée. Les mesures ont par ailleurs donné lieu à l’étude de la réalisation d’une antenne en bande VHF, avec pour implication les problématiques de réalisation (masse, encombrement, résistance mécanique) et de mesure (isolation, effets parasites en VHF avec une longueur d’onde de 4m). / Miniaturizing electronic devices is a great challenge in crucial research domain such as defense, medicine, and telecommunications. Wideband antenna miniaturization operating on more than a decade is a particular issue. This thesis presents an original method for miniaturizing a spiral antenna, reducing its diameter while keeping its bandwidth, its radiating performances and its axial ratio characteristics. This method is applied to UHF spiral antenna (from 750MHz) and VHF antenna (from 75MHz). The new geometry adds stacked resonant rings to an Archimedean spiral antenna. Their diameter are the same, hence no rise of the antenna diameter. For a 5-ring spiral antenna, the lowest operating frequency reduction is higher than 30%. That is equivalent to a 30% reduction of the diameter for two antennas sharing the same lowest operating frequency, hence a 50% reduction of the area of the antenna. These reduction factors surpass the reduction factors of the state of art of 15%. Besides, according to the state of art, the miniaturizing techniques imply some degradation of the gain and axial ratio performances at the lowest operating frequencies. The new method improves on the other hand these characteristics at these frequencies. At higher frequencies, the rings do not interfere with the matching of neither the spiral antenna nor its radiation characteristics. These results were validated by fabricated antenna measurements. A 30% reduction of the diameter was obtained on a 5-ring-8cm-large antenna as well as on a 5-ring-1m-large antenna. No impairment was noticed on the radiation of the antennas, even at the lowest operating frequencies. The thesis also discusses the difficulties which came in addition for the fabrication (mass, size and mechanical resistance) and measurement (radiation interferences and measurement isolation – the wavelength being 4m) of the VHF antenna.

Ce travail de thèse présente le développement de phototransistors bipolaires à hétérojonction (HPT) SiGe/Si mis en œuvre dans une technologie de processus 80GHz SiGe bipolaire pour des applications de transmission Radio-sur-Fibre. Le cas particuliers d'un réseau domestique sans fil à infrastructure optique est considéré pour lequel le critère de coût est prépondérant. Le fonctionnement des ce HPT SiGe/Si est étudié sous une longueur d'onde optique de 850 nm en exploitant des fibres optique multimode (MMF) suffisantes pour les besoins de bande passante dans un environnement de réseau domestique. Le HPT SiGe/Si est également développé dans l'objectif de permettre une intégration combiné du photorécepteur et circuit intégré monolithiquement, conduisant à des structures de type Opto-electronic Microwave Monolithically Integrated Circuit (OE-MMIC), visant à poursuivre l'intégration et la réduction des cours. Deux topologies ont été explorées principalement: 1) une topologie avec élargissement de la base et du collecteur (xBC HPT) et 2) une topologie avec élargissement des trois régions de base, émetteur et collecteur simultanément (xEBC HPT). Des variations technologies ont été réalisées et analysées en détail, à la fois en terme de couches verticales que de dessin de masque (layout). Les mesures ont démontré la validité technologique de chacune de ces approches, et permis d'isoler l'impact sur les performances statiques et dynamiques de chacune de ces couches. Une solution de type xEBC se montre ainsi préférable pour le cas de composants de petites dimensions inférieure à 50x50µm², dans la bande du GHz. Les phototransistors sont développés dans une configuration à trois terminaux (3T-HPT). Le type de polarisation de la base du HPT influe également sur la responsivité du phototransistor. Une polarisation de courant constant (CC) démontre une plus grande responsivité par rapport au cas d'une polarisation en tension ( CV). Une analyse détaillée montre aussi les différences de responsivité mesurées en continue et celles mesurées en basse fréquence à 50MHz. La connexion de base permet également de varier l'impédance de charge présentée sur celle-ci. La théorie de l'adaptation des phototransistors est rappelée. L'effet de différentes impédances de base sont étudiées par la simulation et la mesure des circuits réalisés technologiquement. L'intégration du phototransistor au sein d'un circuit élémentaire est enfin explorée. Différentes configurations de paires HPT - HBT sont étudiées, formant des circuits élémentaires. Des caractérisations expérimentales permettent de vérifier l'amélioration apportées par ces topologies par rapport au phototransistor unique. Enfin, un phototransistor SiGe en configuraiton 2T-HPT est utilisé et intégré avec succès pour la première fois au sein d'un module de type Receiving Optical Sub Assembly (ROSA) pour la mise au point d'une transmission Radio-sur-Fibre multiGigabit par seconde pour un réseau domestique / This research is focused on the study of silicon germanium based heterojunction bipolar phototransistors (SiGe HPTs) implemented in an 80GHz SiGe Bipolar process technology. It's application in a radio over fiber system for home area networks are investigated. RoF for Home area networks are envisioned to implemented with a minimal system cost. Operation at 850nm is identified as a critical parameter to achieve this goal. Low cost off the shelf optical components are readily available at this wavelength. The use of multi mode fibers (MMF) as opposed to higher cost single mode fiber (SMF) is sufficient for the bandwidth requirements in a home network environment. A monolithically integrated OE receiver chip would help in the overall reduction of the system cost by having the optical detector in the same chip with the electronic circuits. We have designed and implemented three terminal HPT (3T-HPT) structures. The two main groups of the HPT structures are: 1) HPTs with extended Base and Collector regions (xBC HPT) and 2) HPTs with extended Emitter, Base and Collector regions (xEBC HPT). Variations to improve optical coupling the though optimizations in the vertical stack and lateral size of the HPT. The measurements and characterization showed that all the structures are compatible with the process technology. The type of biasing used in the base of the HPT also influences the HPT performance. A constant current (CC) bias has higher extracted DC responsivity as compared to a constant voltage (CV) bias. The effects of the different passive base loads on the HPT responsivity are studied through simulation and measurement of fabricated circuits. The impedance presented on the base has a great influence on the HPT responsivity. The performance of an HPT as circuit component is studied using different HPT-HBT pair configurations. Tests and measurements verify that improvement in the classical transistor pair configurations are also present in the opto microwave response of the HPT-HBT pair. Finally, SiGe hpt is used in the development of a ROSA module for a radio over fiber systems for home area network