Technical Program
- Short Courses

SC1-E Reconfigurable Synthesized Transmission Line - a New Ultra-Low-Cost Phase Control Unit for Phased Arrays

Room

Room E

Date and Time

2018/11/6 (Tue) 10:00-13:00 (Half day)

Organizer

Tzyh-Ghuang Ma (National Taiwan Univ. of Science and Technology, Taiwan)

Sponsorship

Financially sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (partially).

Abstract

Over the past two decades, synthesized (or artificial) transmission lines (STLs) have emerged as a promising candidate for a variety of microwave applications using PCB as well as integrated circuit (IC) technologies. Conventionally, STLs with slow-wave property are deemed as a powerful technique for circuit size miniaturization, while those with right-/left-handed properties are a perfect tool for fulfilling multiband designs with non-integer frequency ratio between bands.

Over the past ten years, this topic has further been explored in depth by the short course organizer. The results, disclosed in his recent Wiley-IEEE press book, reveal that STLs can function more than one may expect if its phase can be properly controlled. A series of heterogeneous integrated phased arrays with dramatically different electrical properties in separate frequency bands are fulfilled.

Recently, the organizer's group further explored the reconfigurability of STL by introducing varactor diodes as control unit to fully exploit its phase response at single/multiple frequency bands, which turned out to result in a breakthrough in developing low-cost phase control unit for future phased antenna arrays. It can function as an on-off switch, a n-bit digital phase shifter, or even a continuous (analog) phase tuning element. When compared with commercial off-the-shelf phase shifters, this new sort of phase control unit provides similar power handling capability and hence linearity with negligible dc power consumption; yet, its cost is a hundred times less than the commercial ones, indeed an impressive cost reduction.

The recent progress of this sort of phase control unit, namely the phase reconfigurable synthesized transmission line (PRSTL), will be introduced in details.

Lecturer

Tzyh-Ghuang Ma (National Taiwan Univ. of Science and Technology, Taiwan)
Huy Nam Chu (National Taiwan Univ. of Science and Technology, Taiwan)

Course Syllabus

Objectives and Outcomes

Objective
- To provide a comprehensive understanding of the evolution of multi-functional synthesized transmission lines
- To provide a clear picture of design principles of phase reconfigurable synthesized transmission lines
- To provide the techniques to implement this simple yet low-cost solution as a replacement of commercial phase shifters in modern phased arrays

Outcomes
- To impact future 5G antenna array and microwave component designs with this new break-through

SC2-E Ultra High Resolution Millimeterwave and Microwave Photonics Radars

Room

Room E

Date and Time

2018/11/6 (Tue) 14:00-17:00 (Half day)

Organizer

Zhongxia Simon He (Chalmers Univ. of Technology, Sweden)
Antonella Bogoni (National Inter-Univ. Consortium for Telecommunications, Italy)

Abstract

Range accuracy of traditional FMCW radar is proportional to the bandwidth of the frequency sweep, for instance, several millimeter (mm-wave) range accuracy is expected for a 20 GHz bandwidth FMCW system. With the advance of digital signal processing and semiconductor processing, other radar topologies can be implemented at millimeterwave band (60-200GHz). Using novel topologies such as OFDM radar a range accuracy of several micrometer can be achieved at W-band carrier frequency. This course would introduce several non-FMCW radar topologies, including OFDM radar, DSSS (direct sequence spectrum spread) radar and exhibit system demonstration of mm-wave radar with micrometer accuracy. Several industry applications will be mentioned in the course as well.

Taking advantages of microwave photonic, advanced distributed antenna system (DAS) can be built which may enhance the resolution of radar system.

Lecturer

Zhongxia Simon He (Chalmers Univ. of Technology, Sweden)
Antonella Bogoni (National Inter-Univ. Consortium for Telecommunications, Italy)
Serafino Giovanni (National Inter-Univ. Consortium for Telecommunications, Italy)

Course Syllabus

Objectives and Outcomes

- Understanding of FMCW range accuracy limitation and approach of performance improvement
- Understanding of operational principle of OFDM radar
- Understand the expected performance and limitation using different radar topologies
- Microwave photonics and advanced DAS radar system

SC-K Practical Evaluation of MIMO Antenna

Room

Room K

Date and Time

2018/11/6 (Tue) 10:00-17:00 (Full day)

Organizers

Ryo Yamaguchi (SoftBank Corp., Japan)

Abstract

MIMO technology has been introduced to various wireless systems due to its capabilities of enhancing the data-rate without expanding the frequency bandwidth. Since the MIMO has been mainly studied in a viewpoint of the signal processing, some of the initial works have neglected the realistic characteristics of the antenna and microwave circuits that are essential for the wireless systems. In contrast, understanding MIMO theory is somewhat difficult for the antenna / microwave engineers, and this results misuse of the equation of the correlation coefficient for example.

This short course aims to provide knowledge and know-how of MIMO antenna evaluation, i.e. a) impact of antenna performance on MIMO system, b) MIMO simulation considering antenna characteristics, and c) MIMO experiment using realistic antennas. Furthermore, the state-of-the-art studies on the MIMO antenna is presented for understanding how this knowledge is actually used.

This course will give an opportunity for antenna / microwave engineers to start or extend the research and development related to MIMO antenna systems.

Lecturer

Naoki Honma (Iwate Univ., Japan)

Course Syllabus

Objectives and Outcomes

The attendees can understand three important things, i.e. a) impact of antenna performance on MIMO system, b) MIMO simulation considering antenna characteristics, and c) MIMO experiment using realistic antennas.

Also, this course will give an opportunity for antenna / microwave engineers to start or extend the research and development related to MIMO antenna system.

SC-103 Bits2Waves - Building a 16 QAM Radio by Hand in One Day

Attention

Pre-registration is required for this short course.
Please see the detail information:
http://rickettslab.org/bits2waves/apmc2018/
Contact address: apmc2018@rickettslab.org

Room

Room 103

Date and Time

2018/11/6 (Tue) 10:00-17:00 (Full day)

Organizers

David S. Ricketts (North Carolina State Univ., USA)

Abstract

Bits2Waves is a 1-day experience on building your own modern, digital radio. You will learn how modern radios work, from communication theory to fabricating microwave PCBS to measurements with our mini-VNA. You will design, construct, measure, and demonstrate a 16 QAM wireless transmitter at 950 MHz. The participants will design a Wilkinson combiner, a branchline coupler, a double balanced mixer, a power amplifier and an antenna in the morning by forming teams of 5 people (one circuit element each). During the afternoon, participants will fabricate their designs and test each component, and then their complete radio. A 16QAM baseband I and Q signal will be provided as well as a 10 dBm 950 MHz LO. Using a receiver provided by the organizers, the participants will test their full radio, including optimizing eye diagrams and error-vector-magnitude (EVM) of their radio. For more information please visit http://rickettslab.org/bits2waves/apmc2018/. All materials are provided, including design software. Participants must bring their own 64 bit laptop.

Lecturer

David S. Ricketts (North Carolina State University, USA)

Course Syllabus