A compact double-sided MIMO antenna with an improved isolation for UWB applications

This paper presents compact size 4 × 4 cm² MIMO antenna for UWB applications. The proposed antenna consists of four symmetric circular elements printed on low cost FR4 substrate with partial slotted ground plane. The two sides of the substrate are symmetric and each side is consisting of two radiators with the partial ground planes associated to the two other elements mounted on the other side. The two elements of the front side are orthogonal to the two other elements of the back side in order to increase the isolation between elements. For further reduction in the mutual coupling between elements, decoupling structures are presented in the top and bottom layers of the substrate. The simulated and measured results are investigated to study the effectiveness of the MIMO-UWB antenna. The results demonstrate the satisfactory performance of MIMO-UWB antenna, which has a return loss less than −10 dB from approximately 3.1 GHz to more than 11 GHz with an insertion loss lower than −20 dB through the achieved frequency band, and a correlation less than 0.002. Moreover, the proposed MIMO model exhibits a nearly omni-directional radiation pattern with almost constant gain of average value 3.28 dBi.     

Broadband proximity fed ring microstrip antenna arrays

Various gap-coupled array configurations of ring microstrip antennas and rectangular slot cut ring microstrip antennas with proximity fed slot cut ring microstrip antenna for larger bandwidth and gain are proposed. The rectangular slot in ring patch reduces its orthogonal TM₀₁ and TM₀₂ mode resonance frequencies and along with TM₁₀ modes of fed and parasitic ring patches, yields broadband response. The gap-coupled configuration with ring patch and slot cut ring patch yields bandwidth of nearly 430 MHz with broadside radiation pattern and peak gain of more than 9 dBi. By gap-coupling ring patches along all the edges of proximity fed pair of slot cut ring patch, a 3 × 3 ring microstrip antenna array is realized. It yields bandwidth of more than 460 MHz with peak gain of more than 10 dBi. To further improve upon the bandwidth, a 3 × 3 array of ring patches in which rectangular slot is first cut on the edges of ring patch which are gap-coupled along x-axis and further cut inside the patches which are gap-coupled along x and diagonal axes, is proposed. Both of these configurations yield bandwidth of more than 500 MHz (>45%) with a peak gain of around 10 dBi.     

A miniaturized Vivaldi antenna by loading with parasitic patch and lumped resistor

A miniaturized Vivaldi antenna is presented in the paper. On the basis of original antenna, the miniaturized Vivaldi antenna applies parasitic patch and lumped resistor to improve impedance characteristics. The proposed load can expand the lower operating frequency to 1.96 GHz without changing antenna dimensions. The size of antenna is set as 43 × 40 mm². This size is about 0.28λ_L × 0.26λ_L, where λ_L is the free space wavelength at 1.96 GHz. The loaded Vivaldi antenna is fabricated and measured. The simulated and measured results clarify the viability and effectiveness of the proposed design. The measured impedance bandwidth (VSWR ≤ 2) is from 2 GHz to more than 18 GHz. In addition, the measured radiation patterns and a peak gain between −1 and 9 dB can be obtained in the band of 2–18 GHz.     

Design and analysis of implantable CPW fed bowtie antenna for ISM band applications

A novel implantable coplanar waveguide (CPW) fed crossed bowtie antenna is proposed for short-range biomedical applications. The antenna is designed to resonate at 2.45 GHz, one of the industrial-scientific-medical (ISM) bands. It is investigated by use of the method of moments design equations and its simulation software (IE3D version 15). The size of the antenna is 371.8 mm³ (26 mm × 22 mm × 0.65 mm). The simulated and analyzed return losses are −23 and −25 dB at the resonant frequency of 2.45 GHz. We have analyzed some more performances of the proposed antenna and the results show that the proposed antenna is a perfect candidate for implantation. The proposed antenna has substantial merits like low profile, miniaturization, lower return loss and better impedance matching with high gain over other implanted antennas.     

Wideband directional antenna system with different polarizations for wireless communication system

A novel directional antenna system with different polarizations is proposed for wireless communication system application in this paper. The proposed antenna employs modified E-shaped rectangular patch for vertical polarization and crossed dipoles for ±45° slant polarization. The vertically polarized (VP) element is formed by inserting a pair of wide slits at the boundary of rectangular patch with edge folded. The VP element is fed by using an L-probe feed, designed to work at the frequency range of 773–1013 MHz for GSM900 and other wireless communication systems such as GSM850 and LTE700 bands. Dual slant polarized (SP) elements are formed with two orthogonally situated dipoles with corner cut and slots on the patch, which yields a wide impedance bandwidth of 55.5% covering the frequency bands for 3G and LTE communication systems. A wideband diplexer is used to connect VP element and +45° SP element, forming a compact structure. Simulated and measured results show that peak gains of 8.0 dBi for VP element and 9.5 dBi for ±45° SP element, an isolation better than 26 dB over the working frequency bands are achieved. The cross-polarization levels in the azimuth plane for triple polarization states are lower than −14 dB.     

A background digital calibration of split-capacitor 16-bit SAR ADC with sub-binary architecture

The paper introduces a sub-binary architecture in 16-bit split-capacitor successive-approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). The redundancy in sub-binary capacitors array provides ways to correct the dynamic errors in conversion procedure with a smaller overall conversion time. So the redundancy can be used to solve the mismatch or parasitic problems in split-capacitor CDAC SAR. A background digital calibration method with perturbation is utilized to calibrate the conversion errors. The behavioral simulation and measured results show that the 16-bit SAR ADC performance can be improved after the digital calibration. The prototype was fabricated in 0.18 μm CMOS process. The INL are −6/7.813 LSB, the DNL are −0.925/1.313 before calibration. After calibration, the INL are −0.813/0.938, the DNL are −0.625/0.688. The measured ENOB is 11.42 bit and SFDR is 79.95 dB before calibration, while the ENOB is 14.46 bit and SFDR is 95.65 dB after calibration.     

A novel single feed frequency and polarization reconfigurable microstrip patch antenna

In this paper, a novel single feed frequency and polarization reconfigurable microstrip patch antenna is presented. This antenna mainly comprises of a corner truncated square patch with a rectangular ring slot, eight PIN diodes and six conductive pads. Four PIN diodes are placed symmetrically in the rectangular ring slot to bridge the gap and to switch the frequency between WLAN bands resonating at 5.2G Hz and 5.8G Hz. Four PIN diodes connect the corner truncated square patch to parasitic triangular conductors. PIN diodes are used to switch the polarization between linear, right hand circular and left hand circular at each frequency. When compared to conventional patch, the proposed design provides a size reduction of 12% at 5.2G Hz, and 30% at 5.8G Hz. The simulated reflection coefficient and radiation patterns are presented and compared with the experimental data. This antenna finds applications for modern wireless communication system.     

Miniaturization of microstrip loop antenna for wireless applications based on metamaterial metasurface

The metamaterial and fractal techniques are two main methods for antenna miniaturization and in this paper, we have modeled an especial shape of the antenna based on loop formation with metamaterial load for this aim. The metamaterial layer is made by multi parallel rings and the result shows that the final antenna size reduced drastically while the frequency shifts from 7 to 4 GHz. The antenna has Omni-directional pattern with the gain of 3.5 dBi, so the size is reduced around 40%for 4.5 GHz and another resonance is made at 2.5 GHz with a return lossless than −6 dB with more than 60% frequency shift. The reflection and transmission have been utilized for showing the left hand characteristic based on two port periodic simulations in HFSS full wave software. We show that how the metamaterial load can provide the circular polarization (CP) by controlling the current distribution. We also presented that by making slots we obtained the better Axial Ratio (AR) and miniaturized the antenna with reconfigurable qualification. As a result of fact, we show that by using metasurface we able to miniaturized the antenna and simultaneously achieved the circular polarization.     

Corrugated SIW K band horn antenna

In the recent years, the strong demand for high performance, low cost and high gain antennas for telecommunication, surveillance, and imaging applications has rapidly grown at microwave and higher frequencies. High speed wireless links require modular, compact size and high directivity with low cross polarization antennas. To demonstrate the proposed concepts and design features, in this paper, a substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) feeding technique has been created having well behaved gain and suitable −10 dB bandwidth from 23.8 GHz to 25.7 GHz (roughly 2 GHz bandwidth), while the impedance bandwidth for VSWR < 2.5 is nearly 3 GHz. The simulated antenna attains 12.5 ± 1 dB gain over majority of K band with an occupied size of 82 mm × 40 mm × 2.54 mm and has roughly 95% radiation efficiency. The proposed antenna is an excellent candidate for integrated low cost K band and even higher frequency systems. The simulations are done by two full wave packages i.e. ANSYS HFSS and CST MWS that associated with finite element method (FEM) and finite difference time domain (FDTD), respectively. The results show good agreements between these two methods.     

Design of a novel bandwidth-enhanced double-slot TSA and analysis according to the microwave network theory

In this paper, a novel bandwidth-enhanced ultra-wideband (UWB) tapered slot antenna with Y-shaped corrugated edges, is proposed. In the double-slot structure, the two slots are separated by a V-shaped metal surface with straight edges, which is beneficial to improve the directivity of the antenna. Meanwhile, an exponential Y-shaped corrugated edge is designed. This novel corrugated edge can not only improve the impedance bandwidth, but also enhance the gain of the antenna. Additionally, according to the theory of microwave network, this paper analyzes the reason of bandwidth enhancement realized by double-slot structure. The proposed antenna provides 167% fractional bandwidth from 2.5 GHz to 28 GHz. The gain of the proposed antenna is more than 10 dB from 3.5 GHz to 25 GHz, and more than 8 dB at the whole operating band.     

A new wideband planar antenna with band-notch functionality at GPS,Bluetooth and WiFi bands for integration in portable wireless systems

Empirical results are presented for a novel miniature planar antenna that operates over a wide bandwidth (500 MHz to 3.05G Hz). The antenna consists of dual-square radiating patches separated by two narrow vertical stubs to reject interferences from GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi bands. Radiating patches and stubs are surrounded by a ground-plane conductor, and the antenna is fed through a common coplanar waveguide transmission line (CPW-TL). The two vertical stubs generate pass-band resonances enabling wideband operation across the following communications standards: cellular, APMS, JCDMA, GSM, DCS, PCS, KPCS, IMT-2000, WCDMA, UMTS and WiMAX. Embedded in the ground-plane conductor is an H-shaped dielectric slit, which has been rotated by 90°, whose function is to reject interferences from GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi bands. Measurements results confirm the antenna exhibits notched characteristics at frequency bands of GPS (1574.4–1576.4 MHz), Bluetooth (2402–2480 MHz) and WiFi (2412–2483.5 MHz). The impedance bandwidth of the antenna is 2.55G Hz for VSWR < 2, which corresponds to a fractional bandwidth of 143.66%. Measured results also confirm that the antenna radiates omnidirectionally in the E-plane with appreciable gain performance over its operating frequency range. The antenna has dimensions of 15 × 15 × 0.8 mm³.     

An antipodal Vivaldi antenna with band-notched characteristics for ultra-wideband applications

An antipodal Vivaldi antenna (AVA) with band-notched characteristics is proposed in this paper for ultra-wideband (UWB) applications. For UWB systems, there will be some interference from the narrow band systems. The proposed antenna adopts resonant parallel strip (RPS) to reject an unwanted narrow band. It is easy to tune the RPS to eliminate the interference band. To validate this approach, a printed AVA with RPS is simulated and fabricated. From 2 to 9 GHz, the proposed antenna shows a good result with approximate 2:1 VSWR, an average gain of 6.5 dB, and stable radiation patterns except the notched band. At the center frequency of the notched band, the measured results show that the VSWR is more than 8:1, the realized gain is less than −10 dB and a messy radiation pattern is achieved. The simulated and measured results are in good agreement.     

A compact broadband MMIC sub-harmonic mixer using quasi-lumped transmission lines

A compact broadband monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) sub-harmonic mixer using an OMMIC 70 nm GaAs mHEMT technology is demonstrated for 60 GHz down-converter applications. The present mixer employs an anti-parallel diode pair (APDP) to fulfill a sub-harmonic mixing mechanism. Quasi-lumped components are employed to broaden the operational bandwidth and minimize the chip size to 1.5×0.77 mm². The conversion gain is optimized by a quasi-lumped 90° phase shift stub. Experimental results show that from 50 GHz to 70 GHz, the conversion gain varies between −12.1 dB and −15.2 dB with a LO power level of 10 dBm and 1 GHz IF. The LO-to-RF, LO-to-IF and RF-to-IF isolations are found to be greater than 19.5 dB, 21.3 dB and 25.8 dB, respectively. The second harmonic component of the LO signal is suppressed. The proposed mixer has an input 1 dB compression point of -2 dBm and exhibits outstanding figure-of-merits.     

A quadrature RC-oscillator with capacitive coupling

In this paper the capacitive coupling in quadrature RC-oscillators is investigated. The capacitive coupling has the advantages of being noiseless with a small area penalty and without increasing the power dissipation. The results show that a phase error below 1° and an amplitude mismatch lower than 1% are obtained with a coupling capacitance about 20% of the oscillator׳s capacitance value. Due to this kind of coupling, the phase-noise improves by 3 dB (to −115.1 dBc/Hz @ 10 MHz) and the increase of power requirement is only marginal leading to a figure-of-merit of −154.8 dBc/Hz. This is comparable to the best state-of-the-art RC-oscillators, yet the dissipated power is about four times less. We present calculations of frequency, phase error and amplitude mismatch that are validated by simulations. The theory shows that phase error is proportional to the amplitude mismatch, indicating that an automatic phase error minimization based on the amplitude mismatches is possible. The measurements on a 2.4 GHz voltage-controlled quadrature RC-oscillator with capacitive coupling fabricated in 130 nm CMOS circuit prototypes validate the theory.     

A wideband RF receiver with extended statistical element selection based harmonic rejection calibration

In this paper we present a wideband harmonic rejection (HR) RF receiver design. Both gain mismatch and phase mismatch of the HR mixer have been calibrated using a design and calibration method called extended statistical element selection to achieve best-in-class HR ratio (HRR) performance. The achieved concurrent 3rd order HRR and 5th order HRR are greater than 80 dB and 70 dB, respectively, after calibration. The even order HRR is also calibrated to greater than 80 dB. A single calibration performed at 750 MHz was further observed to be effective over more than two octaves of bandwidth with greater than 70 dB HRR. The receiver was manufactured in 65 nm CMOS technology. Input RF frequency range was 0.15–1 GHz and the receiver consumes 64 mW at 1 GHz. Noise figure is 3.2 dB and out-of-band IIP3 is −7 dBm at a total gain of 48 dB.     

Research on dual-polarized circular waveguide antenna fed by L-shaped probes

This paper researched a kind of dual-polarized and cylindrical waveguide antenna fed by two L-shaped probes at the antenna bottom. The designed antenna was composed of two orthogonal L-shaped coaxial probes and a cylindrical waveguide cavity. The two orthogonal field structures were excited and the dual-polarized radiation mode was formed. The feeding cables of two polarization ports went through the bottom of the cylindrical cavity and were connected with the microwave adaptors. The bottom feeding structure was suitable to constitute a planar antenna array. The electromagnetic simulation and optimization design of the proposed antenna were carried out by using the full wave electromagnetic simulation technique, and the simulation results showed that the isolation between two polarization ports were more than 20 dB within the frequency range of 4.8–5.4 GHz. At the center frequency, the cross-polarization levels of radiation pattern were lower than −21 dB at the boresights and the beam width of radiation patterns at E-plane and H-plane were more than 70° for two polarization ports. The designed antenna in this paper was fabricated and measured. The measurement results indicated that the designed antenna achieved anticipated radiation performances and design effectiveness of the dual-polarized antenna in this paper was proved. The dual-polarized and cylindrical waveguide antenna is suitable for some application fields such as dual-polarized array radar. The research results in this paper can provide a technical basis for the practical engineering application.     

Low power dissipation SiGe HBT dual-band variable gain amplifier

A dual-band variable gain amplifier operating at 0.9 GHz and 2.4 GHz was designed based on high performance RF SiGe HBT for large amount of signals transmission and analysis. Current steering was adopted in gain-control circuit to get variable trans-conductance and then variable gain. Emitter degeneration and current reuse were considered in amplifying stage for low noise figure and low power dissipation respectively. A single-path circuit resonating at two frequency points simultaneously was designed for input impedance matching. PCB layout parasitic effects, especially the via parasitic inductor, were analyzed theoretically and experimentally and accounted for using electro-magnetic (EM) simulation. The measurement results show that a dynamic gain control of 26 dB/16 dB in a control voltage range of 0.0–1.4 V has been achieved at 0.9/2.4 GHz respectively. Both S₁₁ and S₂₂ are below than –10 dB in all the control voltage range. Noise figures at both 0.9 GHz and 2.4 GHz are lower than 5 dB. Total power dissipation of the dual-band VGA is about 16.5 mW at 3 V supply.     

A RF front-end for DVB-SH based on current conveyors

Inductors are used extensively in Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits to design matching networks, load circuits of voltage controlled oscillators, filters, mixers and many other RF circuits. However, on-chip inductors are large and cannot be ported easily from one process to the next. Due to modern CMOS scaling, inductorless RF design is rapidly becoming possible. In this paper a new methodology for designing the RF frontend necessary for the DVB-SH in a 90 nm CMOS technology based on the use current conveyors (CC) is presented. The RF frontend scheme is composed of a second generation CC (CCII) LNA with asymmetric input and output, an asymmetric to differential converter, and a passive differential mixer followed by two CCII transimpedance amplifiers to obtain a high gain conversion. Measurements show a conversion gain of 20.8 dB, a 14.5 dB noise figure, an input return loss (S11) of −14.3 dB and an output compression point of −3.9 dBm. This combination draws 28.4 mW from a ±1.2 V supply.     

Design of ultra-low voltage integrated CMOS based LNA and mixer for ZigBee application

This work describes the design and implementation of an ultra-low voltage, ultra-low power fully differential low noise amplifier (LNA) integrated with a down-conversion mixer for 2.4 GHz ZigBee application. An inductive-degenerated cascoded LNA is adapted and integrated with a double-balanced mixer which is targeted for low-power application. The proposed design has been extracted and simulated in a 0.13 μm standard CMOS technology. With a power consumption of 905 μW at a voltage headroom of 0.5 V, the proposed LNA-mixer integration reaches out to an integrated noise figure (NF) of 7.2 dB, a gain of 22.3 dB, 1 dB compression point (P1 dB) of −22.3 dBm and input-referred third-order intercept point (IIP3) of −10.8 dBm.     

A hybrid ring coupler quasi-optical antenna-mixer

This paper proposes a hybrid ring coupler quasi-optical antenna-mixer for mitigating local oscillator retransmission. By demonstrating at K-band, the antenna element consists of back-to-back aperture coupled inverted square patch antenna to couple the RF signal at 18.8 GHz to the sigma port of a hybrid ring mixer while the LO signal at 17.5 GHz is coupled to the delta port. The HSCH-9101 Schottky diodes are used to transform the RF signal to the intermediate frequency signal at 1.3 GHz. The results show that the RF/LO isolation is better than 29 dB at 18.19 GHz, and the isotropic conversion loss of the down converted signal is better than 16 dB at 19.25 GHz. The application of the interest is an inverse measurement technique for dielectric property determination.