Short Courses

SC-1 Sunday 08:00-12:00 BCEC Room 50
Advances in the Design of Electrically Small Antennas
Instructor: Steven R. Best, The MITRE Corporation, Burlington, MA

Topics:
• Fundamental Performance Limitations
• Understanding Quality Factor and Bandwidth
• Fundamental Electrically Small Antenna Elements
• The Significance of Antenna Geometry
• Impedance Matching Techniques
• Mutual Coupling between Small Antennas
• The Inverted-L, Inverted-F and PIFA Antennas
• Considerations for RFID Applications
• Recent Advances in Small Antenna Designs

This half day short course is intended to provide microwave professionals and researchers with an understanding of the theoretical and practical limitations associated with designing electrically small antennas for wireless communication systems. The short course will describe numerous techniques that can be used to impedance match and optimize the efficiency and operating bandwidth of the small antenna. The relationships between the small antenna’s physical and electrical properties will be considered in detail. This short course also presents and describes practical approaches for the design of PIFA and RFID antennas in the UHF band. These discussions include an understanding of the basic theory of these designs, equivalent circuit analysis, and ground plane effects. At the conclusion of the course, participants will understand the basic approaches and techniques used to design a number of practical electrically small antennas.

Steven R. Best is a Principal Sensor Systems Engineer with the MITRE Corporation in Bedford, MA. He received the B.Sc.Eng and the Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering in 1983 and 1988 from the University of New Brunswick in Canada. Dr. Best has over 20 years of experience in business management and antenna design engineering in both military and commercial markets. He is the author or co-author of 3 book chapters and over 100 papers in various journal, conference and industry publications. He also presents a three-day antenna design short course and is the author of a CD-ROM series on antenna theory and design. He is a former Distinguished Lecturer for IEEE Antenna and propagation Society (APS), a member of the APS AdCom, the APS Electronic Communications Editor-in-Chief, an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation and Senior Past Chair of the IEEE Boston Section. Dr Best is a Fellow of the IEEE and a member of ACES.Prior to joining MITRE, Dr. Best was with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Hanscom AFB, where his research interests included electrically small antennas, wideband radiating elements, conformal antennas, antenna arrays and communications antennas. Prior to joining AFRL, he was President of Cushcraft Corporation in Manchester, NH from 1997 to 2002. He was Director of Engineering at Cushcraft from 1996 to 1997. Prior to joining Cushcraft, he was co-founder and Vice President and General Manager of Parisi antenna Systems from 1993 through 1996. He was Vice President and General Manager of D&M/Chu Technology, Inc (formerly Chu Associates) from 1990 – 1993. He joined Chu Associates as a Senior Electrical Engineer in 1987.

SC-2 Sunday 13:00-17:00 BCEC Room 50
RFID Transponders and Systems Design
Instructors: Pavel Nikitin and KVS Rao, Intermec Technologies, Everett, WA

Topics:
•History and operating principles
•Forward and reverse links
•Transponder and system characteristics
•Overview of transponders, ICs, readers and printers
•Testing and measurement systems and methods
•Transponder design process and tradeoffs
•Wideband transponder design examples
•System design process and tradeoffs
•Test and measurement system example
•Latest developments in UHF RFID

This half day short course is intended to introduce microwave professionals and researchers to the foundations of UHF RFID technology and to show how this knowledge can be applied to analysis and design of real transponders and systems. The course will provide an RF-centric tutorial overview of RFID systems, including simple models for forward and reverse links, test and measurement solutions, and design basics. The course will include several practical transponder and system design examples for various applications.

Pavel Nikitin is a Lead Engineer working at Intermec Technologies Corporation, Everett, WA, where he is actively involved into the research, design, and development of RFID systems. He is also an Affiliate Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at University of Washington. He has authored over 50 technical publications in journals and conferences and has 18 U.S. patents pending and 1 patent issued. Dr. Nikitin graduated with the B.S. degree in Physics from Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia, in 1995, M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Utah State University, Logan, in 1998, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Pittsburgh, PA, in 2002. His experience includes engineering work at Ansoft and IBM Corporations and postdoctoral research position at the University of Washington. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE.

K. V. S. Rao is a Technologist with the Intermec Technologies Corporation, where he also manages a group in the area of RFID transponder design and development. He co-authored the book “Millimeter-Wave Microstrip and Printed Circuit Antennas” (Norwood, MA: Artech House, 1991) and approximately 40 technical publications in journals and conferences. He has 15 issued U.S. patents in the area of RFID. Dr. Rao received the Ph.D. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India, in 1984. His experience includes faculty position at the Indian Institute of Technology, postdoctoral position at the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada and work at Antenna Research Associates and IBM. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE.

SC-3 Sunday 13:00-17:00 BCEC Room 51
Comparative Study of the State of the Art Short-Range Wireless Networking Standards
Instructor: Shahin Farahani, Freescale Semiconductor, Tempe, AZ

Topics:
• IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee
• Ultra Low Power (ULP) Bluetooth (Wibree)
• IPv6 over IEEE 802.15.4 (6LoWPAN)
• Z-Wave
• WirelessHART
• Ultra Low Power WLAN
• Overview of Other Short-Range Wireless Networking Standards

The area of short range, low data rate wireless networking has become crowded with several standards. Some of these standards are competing for the same market segment, while other standards can be complementary. The goal of this half day short course is to describe the fundamentals and applications of each standard and identify the advantages and disadvantages of each standard for various applications.

Dr. Shahin Farahani has been a system engineer for Freescale semiconductor since 2003, where he and his colleagues are engaged in designing System-on-Chip transceivers for short-range wireless networking. He has received his PhD from Arizona State University and has been selected as the Young Engineer of the Year by IEEE Phoenix section on Feb 2008. Dr. Farahani’s book, entitled “ZigBee Wireless Networks and Transceivers” is a comprehensive resource for wireless sensor networking using ZigBee/IEEE 802.15.4.

SC-4 Monday 08:00-17:00 BCEC Room 52A
Doherty RF Power Amplifiers, Theory and Practice
Instructor: Professor Steve C. Cripps, Cardiff University, UK.
MTT-S Affiliations: MTT-5, IMS2009 TPC

Topics:
• RFPA overview, PA Classes, efficiency tradeoffs
• Introduction to Doherty PA, basic theory
• Advanced DPA theory; matching networks, impedance inversion, bandwidth and linearity issues
• Peaking PA design, "Doughnuts" simulator demonstration
• Variations on classical Doherty PA
• Practical issues

The Doherty PA (DPA) has now reached high volume commercial implementation in the mobile communications sector, where it has allowed significant improvements in efficiency, combined with stringent linearity compliance. For example, 3G basestation PA modules are being shipped which have mean output powers up to 100 Watts (400Watt PEP), which have mean efficiencies of 50% and can be predistorted to give ACP levels of -60dBc. Yet the DPA is still regarded as a "quirky customer", which can frequently display significant performance variations from unit to unit in production. This shortcourse will present new critical look at the basic DPA theory. A new theory will be presented, which is able to predict most of the familiar "quirks" that are widely observed by DPA designers, and offers robust design strategies for eliminating the quirks in the design process, rather than in costly post-assembly alignment procedures. The full day course will include a Doherty PA configuration simulator ("Doughnuts") which illustrates some aspects of the new theory and will be made available to all course participants.

Dr. Steve C. Cripps obtained his Ph.D. degree from Cambridge University, England. He worked for Plessey Research on GaAsFET hybrid circuit development. Later he joined Watkins-Johnson’s solid state division , Palo Alto, CA, and has held Engineering and Management positions at WJ, Loral, and Celeritek. During this period, he designed the industry’s first 2-8 Ghz and 6-18 Ghz 1 watt solid state amplifiers, and in 1983 published a technique for microwave power amplifier design, which has become widely adopted in the industry. In 1990 he became an independent consultant and was active in a variety of commercial RF product developments, including the design of several cellular telephone power amplifier MMIC products. In 1996 he returned to England, where his consulting activities continue to be focused in the RF power amplifier area. He has recently published a second edition of his best-selling book, “RF Power Amplifier Design for Wireless Communications” (Artech House). He is currently vice-chair of the High Power Amplifier subcommittee of the Technical Co-ordination and Technical Program Committees of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society, and writes the regular “Microwave Bytes” column in the IEEE Microwave Magazine. He is the 2008 recipient of the IEEE Microwave Applications Award.

SC-5 Monday 08:00-17:00 BCEC Rooms 50 & 51
Low Phase Noise Oscillators: Theory, Design, and Laboratory
Instructor: Jeremy K.A. Everard, BAE Systems/Royal Academy of Engineering Research, Professor, Department of Electronics, University of York, UK.

Topics:
• Oscillator phase noise theory
• Optimum operating conditions
• Flicker noise measurement and reduction
• Oscillator tuning and the effect on phase noise
• Generic design rules for low noise oscillators
• Oscillator designs: LC, Crystal, SAW, CRO, DRO
• Phase noise measurements: Phase detector and direct digital measurements
• Lab class

Non contact measurement of Q0 and design of the resonator for correct QL/Q0

Simulate and measure the open loop resonator on PCB

Close Oscillator loop, measure phase noise and compare with theory

This full day course will present theory and design lectures in the morning and a lab class in the afternoon. The lectures will present the theory and design rules required to design low noise oscillators operating within 0 to 1dB of the theory. The course will include the latest state of the art techniques and results as well as the material required for a clear understanding of the underlying principles. Detailed design discussions will cover oscillators operating from 10MHz to 10GHz using, LC, Crystal, SAW, Transmission line (including helical, printed helical and coplanar structures), Ceramic transmission line (CRO) and Dielectric (DRO) resonators. Typical performance demonstrated for a 10MHz SC cut crystal oscillator is -121dBc/Hz at 1Hz offset, for a 1.25GHz DRO is -173dBc/Hz at 10kHz offset and for a 4GHz DRO is -153dBc/Hz at 10kHz offset. A battery powered laboratory pack will be provided to enable the delegates to design, simulate, build and measure a 100MHz low noise oscillator. This pack will enable both fixed frequency and tuneable oscillators to be built. The delegates will be provided with a copy of the slides and a disk containing the specific software required for simulation of the resonator and the phase noise. NB: Delegates should bring a laptop to the laboratory class for simulations. The latest test equipment will be provided by Agilent, Rohde & Schwarz and Symmetricom. Delegates can either attend this full day class including the lab or just the morning theory/design class (see separate listing SC-5A); however, the number of delegates attending the full day class is limited.

Dr. Jeremy K. A. Everard currently holds the five year BAE Systems/Royal Academy of Engineering Research Professorship in Low Phase Noise Signal Generation at the University of York, UK. He has been designing low noise oscillators for over 30 year at Marconi Research Laboratories, Philips Research, MA-COM (Tycoelectronics), the Universities of London and York. A brief CV and recent publications are given on his Departmental web pages at: http://www.elec.york.ac.uk/staff/jke1.html . His personal web page is at: http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~jke1/ . His group has now developed a number of designs offering the best performance available in the world. For example our: 10MHz SC cut crystal oscillators demonstrate -121dBc/Hz at 1Hz and -149dBc/Hz at 10Hz and our L band (1.25GHz) DR oscillators demonstrate -173dBc/Hz at 10kHz and -180dbc/Hz at 50kHz offset.

Topics:
• Oscillator phase noise theory
• Optimum operating conditions
• Flicker noise measurement and reduction
• Oscillator tuning and the effect on phase noise
• Generic design rules for low noise oscillators
• Oscillator designs: LC, Crystal, SAW, CRO, DRO
• Phase noise measurements: Phase detector and Direct digital measurements

This half day course will present the theory and design rules required to design low noise oscillators operating within 0 to 1dB of the theory. The course will include the latest state of the art techniques and results as well as the material required for a clear understanding of the underlying principles. Detailed design discussions will cover oscillators operating from 10MHz to 10GHz using, LC, Crystal, SAW, Transmission line (including helical, printed helical and coplanar structures), Ceramic transmission line (CRO) and Dielectric (DRO) resonators. Typical performance demonstrated for a 10MHz SC cut crystal oscillator is -121dBc/Hz at 1Hz offset, for a 1.25GHz DRO is -173dBc/Hz at 10kHz offset and for a 4GHz DRO is -153dBc/Hz at 10kHz offset. The delegates will be provided with a copy of the slides.