En los últimos años los telescopios submarinos de neutrinos han cobrado una mayor importancia ya que consisten en un nuevo y único instrumento para observar el Universo. Los neutrinos son partículas sin carga e interactúan muy débilmente con la materia que les rodean, pueden escaparse fácilmente de la fuente que los ha producidos y llegar a La Tierra sin ser desviada por los campo magnético y sin interactuar con otras partículas. Esto implica que los neutrinos pueden traer informaciones astrofísicas que otros mensajeros no pueden aportar y abrir una potencial ventana hacia el Universo. Por otro lado, su baja interacción con la materia impone la necesidad de construir un detector de grandes dimensiones del orden de 1 km3 utilizando volumen de agua o hielo y con muchos sensores ópticos para detectar esta interacción de neutrino de alta energía. Un método para detectar neutrinos es a través de la luz Cherenkov emitida por el muon generado después de una interacción de neutrino. Esta partícula, al atravesar el detector con una velocidad superior a la luz en el medio, genera una débil luz azulada llamada radiación de Cherenkov que es detectada por una red de sensores ópticos (fotomultiplicadores). El tiempo de llegada de la luz a los fotomultiplicadores puede ser utilizado para reconstruir la traza del muon y consecuentemente del neutrino que lo ha producido. La precisión en la reconstrucción de la traza del muon depende de la precisión en la medida del tiempo de llegada de la luz y en la precisión en de la posición de los sensores ópticos en el detector. Por esta razón, en telescopios submarinos es necesario un sistema de posicionamiento acústico (APS) capaz de monitorizar el movimiento de los sensores ópticos con una precisión de ~10 cm. Los estudios realizados están enmarcados dentro de las actividades de calibración de posicionamiento acústico en dos colaboraciones europeas para el diseño, construcción y operación de telescopios submarinos de neutrinos en el Mediter / Larosa ., G. (2012). Design and Development of an acoustic positioning system for a cubic kilometre underwater neutrino telescope [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/16877

Electronics are normally designed to operate at temperatures less than 125 oC. For high temperature applications, the use of those normal electronics becomes challenging and sometimes impractical. Conventionally, many industries tried to push the maximum operating temperature of electronics by either using passive/active cooling systems or tolerating degraded performance. Recently, there has been a demand for more robust electronics that can operate at higher temperature without sacrificing the performance or the use of any weighty, power hungry, complex cooling systems. One of the major industries that need electronics operating at high temperature is the oil and gas industry. Electronics have been used within the field in many areas, such as well logging downhole telemetry systems, power networks, sensors, and actuators. In the past, the industry has managed to use the existing electronics at temperatures up to 150 oC. However, declining reserves of easily accessible natural resources have motivated the oil and gas industry to drill deeper. The main challenge at deep wells for downhole electronics is the high temperatures as the pressures are handled mechanically. The temperature in deep basins can exceed 210 oC. In addition, existing well logging telemetry systems achieve low data transmission rates of less than 2.0 Mbps at depth of 7.0 Km which do not meet the growing demand for higher data rates due to higher resolution sensors, faster logging speeds, and additional tools available for a single wireline cable. The main issues limiting the speed of the systems are the bandwidth of multi-conductor copper cable and the low speed communication system connecting the tools with the telemetry modem. The next generation of the well logging telemetry system replaces the multi-conductor wireline between the surface and the downhole with an optical fiber cable and uses a coaxial cable to connect tools with the optical node in downhole to meet the growing needs for higher data rates. However, the downhole communication system between the tools and the optical modulator remains the bottleneck for the system. The downhole system is required to provide full duplex and simultaneous communications between multiple downhole tools and the surface with high data rates and able to operate reliably at temperatures up to 230 oC. In this dissertation, a downhole communication system based on radio frequency (RF) transmission is investigated. The major contributions of our research lie in five areas. First, we proposed and designed a downhole communication system that employs RF systems to provide high speed communications between the downhole tools and the surface. The system supports up to six tools and utilizes frequency division multiple access to provide full duplex and simultaneous communications between downhole tools and the surface data acquisition system. The system achieves 20 Mbps per tool for uplink and 6 Mbps per tool for downlink with bit error rate (BER) less than 10-6. Second, a RF front-end of transceiver operating at ambient temperatures up to 230 oC is designed and prototyped using Gallium Nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) devices. Measurement results of the transceiver's front end are reported in this dissertation. To our knowledge, this is the first RF transceiver that operates at this high temperature. Third, current-voltage and S-parameters characterizations of the GaN HEMT at ambient temperatures of 250 oC are conducted. An analytic model that accurately predicts the behavior of the drain-source resistor (RDS) of the GaN transistor at temperature up to 250 oC is developed based on these characterizations. The model is verified by the analysis and the performance of the resistive mixer. Fourth, a passive upconversion mixer operating at temperatures of 250 oC is designed and prototyped. The designed mixer has conversion loss (CL) of 6.5 dB at 25 oC under local oscillator (LO) power of 2.5 dBm and less than 0.75 dB CL variation at 250 oC under the optimum biasing condition. Fifth, an active downconversion mixer operating at temperatures up to 250 oC is designed and prototyped. The proposed mixer adopts a common source topology for a reliable thermal connection to the transistor source plate. The designed active mixer has conversion gain (CG) of 12 dB at 25 oC under LO power of 2.5 dBm and less than 3.0 dB CG variation at 250 oC. Finally, a novel high temperature negative adaptive bias voltage circuit for a GaN based RF block is proposed. The proposed design comprises an oscillator, voltage doubler, and temperature dependent bias controller. The voltage offset and temperature coefficient of the generated bias voltage can be adjusted by the bias controller to match the optimum biasing voltage required by a RF building block. The bias controller is designed using a Silicon Carbide (SiC) bipolar junction transistor. / PHD / A downhole communication system provides two-way communications for multiple tools located in a deep oil well. The main challenge for the downhole communication system as the oil wells get deeper is the high ambient temperatures as the pressures can be handled mechanically. The temperature in deep basins can exceed 210 °C. Cooling and heat extraction techniques with fans are impractical for downhole systems due to increased weight, power, and system complexity. In addition, the current downhole communication systems have low transmission speed, which do not meet the growing demand for higher data rates due to higher resolution sensors, faster logging speeds, and additional tools available for a single wireline cable. In this work, a downhole communication system based on radio frequency (RF) transmission is designed. The system supports up to six tools and provides high speed simultaneous communications which enable more sensors to be integrated in each tool. A high temperature RF front-end of the transceiver which will be connected to each tool is designed and prototyped using Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductor technology. GaN technology is selected due its ability to operate at harsh environment. The measurement results show a reliable performance for the RF front-end at temperatures up to 230 °C. To our knowledge, this is the first RF front-end that operates at 230 °C reported in the open literature. The proposed downhole communication system will enhance the speed and reliability of the oil and gas operations. This also will enable the industry to observe the wells and act in real time which in turns save operation time and bring a significant cost reduction in oil and gas operations. Most importantly, the proposed system will enable the industry to explore deeper untapped wells and add more features to the tools which were not possible before due to speed and high temperature limitations.

The oil and gas industry, aerospace, and automotive industries are constantly pushing technology beyond their current operational boundaries, spurring the need for extreme environment electronics. The oil and gas industry, in particular, is the oldest and largest market for high-temperature electronics, where the operating environment can extend up to 260 degrees Celsius. The electronics currently employed in this field are only rated to 200 degrees Celsius, but with the rise of wideband gap technologies, this could be extended to 250 degrees Celsius or more without the needed for active or passive cooling. This reduces the complexity, weight, and cost of the system while improving reliability. In addition, current downhole telemetry data rates are insufficient for supporting more sophisticated and higher resolution well-logging sensors. Increasing the data rates can also save the industry significant amount of time by decreasing the amount of well-logging excersions and by increasing the logging speed. Previous work done by this research group saw the prototyping of a high bit rate transceiver operating at 230 MHz - 300 MHz and 230 degrees Celsius; however, at these frequencies, the system could not meet size requirements. Thus, a new high-temperature high data rate transceiver design using the 2.4 GHz - 2.5 GHz ISM band is proposed to miniaturize the design and to allow for IC implementation. The transceiver was designed to meet the minimum specifications necessary to give designers flexibility between power consumption and performance. The performance of the design is simulated using AWR design environment software, which shows the system can support a downlink data rate up to 68 Mbps and an uplink data rate up to 170 Mbps across 10 channels. The effects temperature has on the system performance is also evaluated in the simulation. / Master of Science / The oil and gas industry is currently the largest and oldest market for high-temperature electronics. One of the major applications within this industry for high-temperature electronics is known as well-logging, during which a suite of sensors and systems is lowered into a well to survey the health and geology of the well. Among these sensors and systems, the communication system is one of the most crucial components as it relays real-time data back to the surface during the well-logging operation. Current high-temperature communication systems are capable of operating up to 200 ℃, meeting the operating requirements of current wells. As these wells deplete, however, new wells must be explored, and higher operating temperatures are expected. In addition, the communication systems currently employed fail to meet increasing data rate demands due to the growing complexity of the sensors. Recent developments in semiconductor technologies have given rise to devices, which can increase the operating temperature of electronics up to 250 ℃ while meeting demands for high data rate communication systems. Previous work has leveraged these devices to prototype such a system; however, the proof-of-concept failed to meet size and weight restrictions of practical systems. Therefore, a new system design for a high-temperature high data rate communication system is proposed. The system operates at 2.4 – 2.5 GHz to miniaturize the circuits and make chip implementation possible. The impacts of temperature on the system are investigated and the system performance is simulated within its intended operating temperature range. Developments from this research can be extended to the automotive and aerospace industries, where demand for high-temperature electronics is growing.

Yes / Matching the antenna’s impedance to the RF-front-end of a wireless communications system is challenging as the impedance varies with its surround environment. Autonomously matching the antenna to the RF-front-end is therefore essential to optimize power transfer and thereby maintain the antenna’s radiation efficiency. This paper presents a theoretical technique for automatically tuning an LC impedance matching network that compensates antenna mismatch presented to the RF-front-end. The proposed technique converges to a matching point without the need of complex mathematical modelling of the system comprising of non-linear control elements. Digital circuitry is used to implement the required matching circuit. Reliable convergence is achieved within the tuning range of the LC-network using control-loops that can independently control the LC impedance. An algorithm based on the proposed technique was used to verify its effectiveness with various antenna loads. Mismatch error of the technique is less than 0.2%. The technique enables speedy convergence (< 5 µs) and is highly accurate for autonomous adaptive antenna matching networks. / This work is partially supported by RTI2018-095499-B-C31, Funded by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Gobierno de España (MCIU/AEI/FEDER,UE), and innovation programme under grant agreement H2020-MSCA-ITN-2016 SECRET-722424 and the financial support from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under grant EP/E022936/1.

L'Internet des objets (IoT) est annoncé comme la prochaine grande révolution technologique où des milliards d'appareils s'interconnecteront en utilisant les technologies d’Internet et permettront aux utilisateurs d'interagir avec le monde physique, permettant Smart Home, Smart Cities, tout intelligent. Les réseaux de capteurs sans fil (WSN) sont cruciales pour tourner la vision de l'IoT dans une réalité, mais pour que cela devienne réalité, beaucoup de ces dispositifs doivent être autonomes en énergie. Par conséquent, un défi majeur est de fournir une durée de vie de plusieurs années tout en alimentant les nœuds par batteries ou en utilisant l'énergie récoltée. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) a montré une efficacité énergétique et une robustesse supérieures à celles d'autres protocoles WSN bien connus, ce qui fait BLE un candidat solide pour la mise en œuvre dans des scénarios IoT. En outre, BLE est présent dans presque tous les smartphones, ce qui en fait une télécommande universelle omniprésente pour les maisons intelligentes, les bâtiments ou les villes. Néanmoins, l'amélioration de la performance BLE pour les cas typiques d'utilisation de l'IoT, où la durée de vie de la batterie de nombreuses années, est toujours nécessaire.Dans ce travail, nous avons évalué les performances de BLE en termes de latence et de consommation d'énergie sur la base de modèles analytiques afin d'optimiser ses performances et d'obtenir son niveau maximal d'efficacité énergétique sans modification de la spécification en premier lieu. À cette fin, nous avons proposé une classification des scénarios ainsi que des modes de fonctionnement pour chaque scénario. L'efficacité énergétique est atteinte pour chaque mode de fonctionnement en optimisant les paramètres qui sont affectés aux nœuds BLE pendant la phase de découverte du voisin. Cette optimisation des paramètres a été réalisée à partir d'un modèle énergétique extrait de l'état de la technique. Le modèle, à son tour, a été optimisé pour obtenir une latence et une consommation d'énergie quel que soit le comportement des nœuds à différents niveaux: application et communication. Puisqu'un nœud peut être le périphérique central à un niveau, alors qu'il peut être le périphérique à l'autre niveau en même temps, ce qui affecte la performance finale des nœuds.En outre, un nouveau modèle d'estimation de la durée de vie de la batterie a été présenté pour montrer l'impact réel de l'optimisation de la consommation énergétique sur la durée de vie des nœuds, de façon rapide (en termes de temps de simulation) et réaliste (en tenant compte des données empiriques). Les résultats de performance ont été obtenus dans notre simulateur Matlab basé sur le paradigme OOP, à travers l'utilisation de plusieurs cas de test IoT. En outre, le modèle de latence utilisé pour notre étude a été validé expérimentalement ainsi que l'optimisation des paramètres proposée, montrant une grande précision.Après avoir obtenu les meilleures performances possibles de BLE sans modification de la spécification, nous avons évalué les performances du protocole en implémentant le concept de Wake-Up radio (WuR), qui est un récepteur d’ultra-faible consommation et qui est en charge de détecter le canal de communication, en attente d'un signal adressé au nœud, puis réveiller la radio principale. Ainsi, la radio principale, qui consomme beaucoup plus d'énergie, peut rester en mode veille pendant de longues périodes et passer en mode actif uniquement pour la réception de paquets, économisant ainsi une quantité d'énergie considérable. Nous avons démontré que la durée de vie de BLE peut être significativement augmentée en implémentant une WuR et nous proposons une modification du protocole afin de rendre ce protocole compatible avec un mode de fonctionnement qui inclut une WuR. Pour cela, nous avons étudié l'état de l'art de la WuR et évalué la durée de vie des périphériques BLE lorsqu'une WuR sélectionnée est implémentée du côté master. / The Internet of Things (IoT) is announced as the next big technological revolution where billions of devices will interconnect using Internet technologies and let users interact with the physical world, allowing Smart Home, Smart Cities, smart everything. Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) are crucial for turning the vision of IoT into a reality, but for this to come true, many of these devices need to be autonomous in energy. Hence, one major challenge is to provide multi-year lifetime while powered on batteries or using harvested energy. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has shown higher energy efficiency and robustness than other well known WSN protocols, making it a strong candidate for implementation in IoT scenarios. Additionally, BLE is present in almost every smartphone, turning it into perfect ubiquitous remote control for smart homes, buildings or cities. Nevertheless, BLE performance improvement for typical IoT use cases, where battery lifetime should reach many years, is still necessary.In this work we evaluated BLE performance in terms of latency and energy consumption based on analytical models in order to optimize its performance and obtain its maximum level of energy efficiency without modification of the specification in a first place. For this purpose, we proposed a scenarios classification as well as modes of operation for each scenario. Energy efficiency is achieved for each mode of operation by optimizing the parameters that are assigned to the BLE nodes during the neighbor discovery phase. This optimization of the parameters was made based on an energy model extracted from the state of the art. The model, in turn, has been optimized to obtain latency and energy consumption regardless of the behavior of the nodes at different levels: application and communication. Since a node can be the central device at one level, while it can be the peripheral device at the other level at the same time, which affects the final performance of the nodes.In addition, a novel battery lifetime estimation model was presented to show the actual impact that energy consumption optimization have on nodes lifetime in a fast (in terms of simulation time) and realistic way (by taking into account empirical data). Performance results were obtained in our Matlab based simulator based on OOP paradigm, through the use of several IoT test cases. In addition, the latency model used for our investigation was experimentally validated as well as the proposed parameter optimization, showing a high accuracy.After obtaining the best performance possible of BLE without modification of the specification, we evaluated the protocol performance when implementing the concept of Wake-Up radio, which is an ultra low power receiver in charge on sensing the communication channel, waiting for a signal addressed to the node and then wake the main radio up. Thus, the main radio which consumes higher energy, can remain in sleep mode for long periods of time and switch to an active mode only for packet reception, therefore saving considerable amount of energy. We demonstrated that BLE lifetime can be significantly increased by implementing a Wake-Up radio and we propose a modification of the protocol in order to render this protocol compatible with an operating mode which includes a Wake-Up radio. For this, we studied the Wake-Up radio state of the art and evaluated BLE devices lifetime when a selected Wake-Up radio is implemented at the master side.

This thesis project was carried out at the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) department at Ericsson AB. One of the department’s goals is to seek a possible replacement to the box test instruments by utilizing PCI extension for instrumentation (PXI) modules. The main objective of this project is to evaluate how different PXI modules work during testing of a radio base station (RBS), in terms of performance, test time, and cost. A downlink decoder was implemented in LabVIEW with an extension called MathScript and several software test solutions were examined to measure error vector magnitude (EVM), frequency error, and power, and to perform parallel measurements in a multiple radio access technology (multi-RAT) test configuration. Moreover, several uplink tests were performed to decide if PXI modules are a suitable substitute for the previous box based test instruments. The findings from this study show that PXI modules can replace the previous box based test instruments. However it was concluded that not all areas can be covered and not all discrete test instrument can (yet) be replaced. Future work should complete the downlink decoder implementation in the field programmable gate array (FPGA) level in order to further improve the performance further. Future work should also examine if it is possible to replace all of the discrete test instruments with PXI modules. / Detta examensarbete utfördes på elektromagnetisk kompatibilitet (EMC) avdelningen på Ericsson AB. Ett utav avdelningens mål är att hitta en möjlig ersättare till de tidigare boxbaserade testinstrumenten genom PCI extension for instrumentation (PXI) moduler. Huvudmålet i detta projekt är att utvärdera hur olika PXI-moduler fungerar i basstationstester med hänsyn till prestanda, testtid och kostnad. En avkodare i nerlänk har implementerats i LabVIEW med hjälp av MathScript och flera mjukvarutestlösningar har undersökts för att mäta error vector magnitude (EVM), frekvensfel och effekt, samt att utföra parallella mätningar i en multipel radioteknik (multi-RAT) testkonfiguration. Dessutom har flera upplänkstester utförts för att avgöra om PXI-moduler är en lämplig ersättare till de tidigare boxbaserade testinstrumenten. Resultaten från denna studie visar att PXI-moduler kan ersätta tidigare boxbaserade testinstrumenten, men dessa resultat visar även att inte alla områden kan täckas och inte alla diskreta testinstrument kan ersättas (ännu). Framtida arbete ska slutföra implementationen av avkodare i nerlänk i fältprogrammerbar grindmatris (FPGA)-nivå för att förbättra prestandan ytterligare. Framtida arbete bör även undersöka om det är möjligt att ersätta alla diskreta testinstrument med PXI-moduler.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1998 / Town & Country Resort Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / FQPSK is the abbreviation for Feher Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (FQPSK) patented systems [1]. Digcom, Inc. licensed FQPSK products demonstrated significant spectral saving and RF power efficient robust BER performance advantages. These bit rate agile modems and Non Linearly Amplified (NLA) transceivers, DSP and hardware implementations, and in some instances “software-radios” (20kb/s to more than 100Mb/s) and RF frequency agile (from 150MHz to more than 40GHz) developments and systems have recently been demonstrated and deployed. The spectral efficiency, i.e., data throughput capability of the 1st generation of FQPSK, as demonstrated in initial Advanced Range Telemetry (ARTM) flight tests, approximately doubles while 2nd generation “FQPSK-2” systems have the potential to quadruple the spectral efficiency of operational PCM/FM telemetry systems and be backward compatible with the 1st generation of FQPSK technologies. It is also demonstrated that the spectral efficiency advantage of FQPSK over that of NLA power efficient GMSK, OQPSK and QPSK modulated transceivers is in the 50% to 300% range and that the potential spectral efficiency advantage of FQPSK-2 over GMSK [1] is in the 200% to 500% range. Based on extensive multi-year studies of alternative solutions for spectral and RF power efficient, robust BER performance systems, several commercial US and international organizations, AIAA, CCSDS, NASA, ESA, CCSDS and various programs of the US Department of Defense (DoD) concluded that FQPSK offers the most spectrally efficient high performance-high speed proven technology solutions and recommended FQPSK standardization for several data links. Initial DoD-ARTM Program Office Air-to-Ground L-band and S-band jet airborne telemetry Test and Evaluation (T&E) data, obtained during the summer of 1998 are briefly highlighted. These include simultaneosly tested FQPSK and PCM/FM. In these tests the following ARTM objectives have been demonstrated: (a) FQPSK approximately doubles the spectral efficiency of currently operational PCM/FM; (b) The Data Link Performance of these two systems is comparable. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) draft modulation standard recommended to the DoD, NASA and CCSDS, was approved by the AIAA [23]. The AIAA standard recommends “that FQPSK modulation be immediately adopted as the interim increment–1 standard.”

Thesis (PhD (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A monostatic baseband radar is required with the capability of detecting close range targets that appear at distances comparable to the system’s resolution, without compromising the radar’s maximum range. The application in borehole radar imposes further constraints associated with the physical limitations and variable electromagnetic environment of different borehole diameters and conditions. This dissertation discusses the complete design process of the analog section of a monostatic radar that successfully addresses these issues. The proposed transceiver employs a series duplexing arrangement consisting of an antenna, transmitter, receiver and an isolation switch. An exponentially decaying tail is observed in the current flowing on a borehole radar antenna when excited by pulse waveforms. The characteristics of this tail depend strongly on the borehole environment. A measurement technique is developed that accurately quantifies this exponential decay by digitizing a logarithmic representation of the antenna current while it is operating in various boreholes. Transmitters are then designed to drive these antennas with waveforms that prevent the formation of current tails. This is achieved through the use of pole-zero networks or alternatively by generating certain asymmetric, bipolar waveforms. The transmitters are simultaneously designed to have an output impedance approximating a short circuit after the transient is generated. In the series configuration proposed here, the duplexing of the antenna between transmitter and receiver is then reduced to simply isolating the receiver during transmit-mode. The switch responsible for this isolation disconnects the receiver and presents a short circuit between antenna and transmitter during transmit-mode, while connecting the receiver terminals between the antenna and the short circuited transmitter terminals in receive-mode. The required close-in performance of the transceiver dictates that the transition between these two states of the isolation switch occur in a time similar to the duration of the transmitter waveform. The switching artefacts generated by the switch are consequently similar to the radar data signal. The isolation switch employs an innovative configuration (using both transistors and diodes) which accepts a single control signal and causes the switching artefacts to be generated as a common mode signal, while a differential path is created for the radar data signal which is being switched. This leads to effective suppression of the switching signal in the signal passed to the receiver. Dissipative filtering is advocated as a fundamental design principle for high fidelity receivers and it is shown how it can be applied by using constant impedance equalizers and diplexers as basic building blocks. This principle is used as the basis for the design of this transceiver's receivers, which incorporate both standard gain blocks and operational amplifiers. A complete borehole radar system, based on the transceiver developed here, was built and tested; resulting in the first known practical monostatic borehole radar system. Data obtained in field trials are presented and suggest that the monostatic system compares well with current state of the art bi-static systems. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die behoefte is geïdentifiseer vir 'n monostatiese basisbandradar wat oor die vermoë beskik om nabygeleë teikens op 'n afstand soortgelyk aan die resolusie van die stelsel waar te neem, sonder om die maksimum bereik van die stelsel in te kort. Die toepassing daarvan in 'n boorgatradarstelsel lei tot verdere vereistes vanweë die fisiese beperkings en veranderende elektromagnetiese omgewing van boorgate met verskillende deursnitte en toestande. Hierdie proefskrif is gemoeid met die volledige ontwerpsprosedure van die analoog gedeelte van 'n monostatiese radar wat al hierdie kwessies aanspreek. 'n Serie verbinding van antenne, sender, ontvanger en isolasieskakelaar word ingespan vir hierdie ontwerp. Eksponensieel wegsterwende stertjies word waargeneem in die antennestroom van 'n boorgatradarantenne wanneer dit aangedryf word deur puls golfvorms. 'n Meettegniek word ontwikkel wat hierdie eksponensiële verslapping noukeurig kan monitor deur 'n logaritmiese voorstelling van die antennastroom te versyfer terwyl dit ontplooi word in verskillende boorgate. Senders word dan ontwikkel om hierdie antennes aan te dryf met golfvorms wat juis die vorming van hierdie stertjies voorkom. Dit word bewerkstellig deur die gebruik van pool-zero netwerke of andersins deur die opwek van sekere asimmetriese, bipolêre golfvorms. Die senders se uittree-impedansies moet egter terselfdertyd ontwerp word om 'n kortsluiting te benader sodra die oorgang klaar opgewek is. Met die serie verbinding wat hier gebruik word, raak die vereiste tyddeling van die antenna tussen die sender en ontvanger dan bloot 'n geval van ontvanger-isolasie gedurende uitsaai-modus. Die skakelaar wat verantwoordelik is vir hierdie isolasie ontkoppel die ontvanger en vertoon soos 'n kortsluiting tussen sender en antenne tydens uitsaai-modus, maar verbind weer die terminale van die ontvanger tussen die antenne en kortgeslote senderterminale tydens ontvang-modus. Die vereiste kortafstand vermoë van die stelsel veroorsaak dat die tysduur van die oorgang tussen hierdie twee modusse soortgelyk is aan dié van die sender golfvorm en enige skakelverskynsels wat opgewek word deur die skakelaar is gevolglik soortgelyk aan die radardatasein self. Die isolasieskakelaar gebruik egter 'n innoverende konfigurasie (met transistors sowel as diodes) wat funksioneer met 'n enkele beheersein en die skakelverskynsels as gemene modus seine opwek, terwyl 'n differensiële seinpad geskep word vir die radardatasein wat geskakel word. Die skakelseine word gevolglik effektief onderdruk in die sein wat oorgedra word aan die ontvanger. Die gebruik van verkwistende filters word voorgestel as 'n fundamentele ontwerpsbeginsel vir hoëtrou ontvangers en daar word getoon hoe dit toegepas kan word met konstante impedansie vereffeningsbane en dipleksers. Hierdie beginsel is dan ook gebruik as basis vir die ontwerp van hierdie stelsel se ontvangers, wat gebruik maak van beide standard aanwinsblokke sowel as operasionel versterkers. 'n Volledige boorgatradarstelsel, gebaseer op die stelsel wat hier ontwikkel is, is gebou en getoets. Die gevolg is die eerste bekende, praktiese monostatiese boorgatradarstelsel. Data wat hiermee verwerf is word aangebied en dui daarop dat die monostatiese stelsel baie goed opweeg teen huidige bi-statiese stelsels.

This dissertation reports a high-speed wideband wireless transmission solution for the tight power constraints of cortical interface application. The proposed system deploysImpulse Radio Ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) technique to achieve very high-rate communication. However, impulse radio signals suffer from significant attenuation within the body,and power limitations force the use of very low-power receiver circuits which introduce additional noise and jitter. Moreover, the coils’ self-resonance has to be suppressed to minimize the pulse distortion and inter-symbol interference, adding significant attenuation. To compensate these losses, an Error correction code (ECC) layer is added for functioning reliably to the system. The performance evaluation is made by modeling a pair of physically fabricated coils, and the results show that the ECC is essential to obtain the system’s reliability. Furthermore, the gm/ID methodology, which is based on the complete exploration ofall inversion regions that the transistors are biased, is studied and explored for optimizingthe system at the circuit-level. Specific focuses are on the RF blocks: the low noise am-plifier (LNA) and the injection-locked voltage controlled oscillator (IL-VCO). Through the analytical deduction of the circuit’s features as the function of the gm/ID for each transistor, it is possible to select the optimum operating region for the circuit to achieve the target specification. Other circuit blocks, including the phase shifter, frequency divider,mixer, etc. are also described and analyzed. The prototype is fabricated in a 65-nm CMOS(Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) process.