Matching Items (16)
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Electrical Engineering
Description
This thesis presents three novel studies. The first two works focus on galvanically isolated chip-to-chip communication, and the third research studies class-E pulse-width modulated power amplifiers. First, a common-mode resilient CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) galvanically isolated Radio Frequency (RF) chip-to-chip communication system is presented utilizing laterally resonant coupled circuits to increases maximum common-mode transient immunity and the isolation capability of galvanic isolators in a low-cost standard CMOS solution beyond the limits provided from the vertical coupling. The design provides the highest reported CMTI (common-mode transient immunity) of more than 600 kV/µs, 5 kVpk isolation, and a chip area of 0.95 mm2. In the second work, a bi-directional ultra-wideband transformer-coupled galvanic isolator is reported for the first time. The proposed design merges the functionality of two isolated channels into one magnetically coupled communication, enabling up to 50% form-factor and assembly cost reduction while achieving a simultaneously robust and state-of-art performance. This work achieves simultaneous robust, wideband, and energy-efficient performance of 300 Mb/s data rate, isolation of 7.8 kVrms, and power consumption and propagation delay of 200 pJ/b and 5 ns, respectively, in only 0.8 mm2 area. The third works studies class-E pulse-width modulated (PWM) Power amplifiers (PAs). For the first time, it presents a design technique to significantly extend the Power back-off (PBO) dynamic range of PWM PAs over the prior art. A proof-of-concept watt-level class-E PA is designed using a GaN HEMT and exhibits more than 6dB dynamic range for a 50 to 30 percent duty cycle variation. Moreover, in this work, the effects of non-idealities on performance and design of class-E power amplifiers for variable supply on and pulse-width operations are characterized and studied, including the effect of non-linear parasitic capacitances and its exploitation for enhancement of average efficiency and self-heating effects in class-E SMPAs using a new over dry-ice measurement technique was presented for this first time. The non-ideality study allows for capturing a full view of the design requirement and considerations of class-E power amplifiers and provides a window to the phenomena that lead to a mismatch between the ideal and actual performance of class-E power amplifiers and their root causes.
ContributorsJavidahmadabadi, Mahdi (Author) / Kitchen, Jennifer N (Thesis advisor) / Aberle, James (Committee member) / Bakkaloglu, Bertan (Committee member) / Burton, Richard (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
This work focuses on the analysis and design of large-scale millimeter-wave andterahertz (mmWave/THz) beamforming apertures (e.g., reconfigurable reflective surfaces–
RRSs). As such, the small wavelengths and ample bandwidths of these frequencies enable
the development of high-spatial-resolution imaging and high-throughput wireless
communication systems that leverage electrically large apertures to form high-gain
steerable beams.
For the rigorous evaluation of these systems’ performance in realistic application
scenarios, full-wave simulations are needed to capture all the exhibited electromagnetic
phenomena. However, the small wavelengths of mmWave/THz bands lead to enormous
meshes in conventional full-wave simulators. Thus, a novel numerical decomposition
technique is presented, which decomposes the full-wave models in smaller domains with
less meshed elements, enabling their computationally efficient analysis. Thereafter, this
method is leveraged to study a novel radar configuration that employs a rotating linear
antenna with beam steering capabilities to form 3D images. This imaging process requires
fewer elements to carry out high-spatial-resolution imaging compared to traditional 2D
phased arrays, constituting a perfect candidate in low-profile, low-cost applications.
Afterward, a high-yield nanofabrication technique for mmWave/THz graphene
switches is presented. The measured graphene sheet impedances are incorporated into
equivalent circuit models of coplanar switches to identify the optimum mmWave/THz
switch topology that would enable the development of large-scale RRSs.ii
Thereon, the process of integrating the optimized graphene switches into largescale mmWave/THz RRSs is detailed. The resulting RRSs enable dynamic beam steering
achieving 4-bits of phase quantization –for the first time in the known literature–
eliminating the parasitic lobes and increasing the aperture efficiency. Furthermore, the
devised multi-bit configurations use a single switch-per-bit topology retaining low system
complexity and RF losses. Finally, single-bit RRSs are modified to offer single-lobe
patterns by employing a surface randomization technique. This approach allows for the use
of low-complexity single-bit configurations to suppress the undesired quantization lobes
without residing to the use of sophisticated multi-bit topologies.
The presented concepts pave the road toward the implementation and proliferation
of large-scale reconfigurable beamforming apertures that can serve both as mmWave/THz
imagers and as relays or base stations in future wireless communication applications.
ContributorsTheofanopoulos, Panagiotis (Author) / Trichopoulos, Georgios (Thesis advisor) / Balanis, Constantine (Committee member) / Aberle, James (Committee member) / Bliss, Dan (Committee member) / Groppi, Christopher (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
This Creative Project was carried out in coordination with the capstone project, Around the Corner Imaging with Terahertz Waves. This capstone project deals with a system designed to implement Around the Corner, or Non Line-of-Sight (NLoS) Imaging. This document discusses the creation of a GUI using MATLAB to control the Terahertz Imaging system. The GUI was developed in response to a need for synchronization, ease of operation, easy parameter modification, and data management. Along the way, many design decisions were made ranging from choosing a software platform to determining how variables should be passed. These decisions and considerations are discussed in this document. The resulting GUI has measured up to the design criteria and will be able to be used by anyone wishing to use the Terahertz Imaging System for further research in the field of Around the Corner or NLoS Imaging.
ContributorsWood, Jacob Cannon (Author) / Trichopoulos, Georgios (Thesis director) / Aberle, James (Committee member) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
In 1946 Felix Bloch first demonstrated the phenomenon of nuclear magnetic resonance using continuous-wave signal generation and acquisition. Shortly after in 1966, Richard R. Ernst demonstrated the breakthrough that nuclear magnetic resonance needed to develop into magnetic resonance imaging: the application of Fourier transforms for sensitive pulsed imaging. Upon this discovery, the world of research began to develop high power radio amplifiers and fast radio switches for pulsed experimentation. Consequently, continuous-wave imaging placed on the backburner.Although high power pulses are dominant in clinical imaging, there are unique advantages to low power, continuous-wave pulse sequences that transmit and receive signals simultaneously. Primarily, tissues or materials with short T2 time constants can be imaged and the peak radio power required is drastically reduced.
The fundamental problem with this lies in its nature; the transmitter leaks a strong leakage signal into the receiver, thus saturating the receiver and the intended nuclear magnetic resonance signal is lost noise.
Demonstrated in this dissertation is a multichannel standalone simultaneous transmit and receive (STAR) system with remote user-control that enables continuous- wave full-duplex imaging. STAR calibrates cancellation signals through vector modulators that match the leakage signal of each receiver in amplitude but opposite in phase, therefore destructively interfering the leakage signals. STAR does not require specific imaging coils or console inputs for calibration. It was designed to be general- purpose, therefore integrating into any imaging system. To begin, the user uses an Android tablet to tune STAR to match the Larmor frequency in the bore. Then, the user tells STAR to begin calibration. After self-calibrating, the user may fine-tune the calibration state of the system before enabling a low-power mode for system electronics and imaging may commence. STAR was demonstrated to isolate two receiver coils upwards of 70 dB from the transmit coil and is readily upgradable to enable the use of four receive coils.
Some primary concerns of STAR are the removal of transceivers for multichannel operation, digital circuit noise, external noise, calibration speed, upgradability, and the isolation introduced; all of which are addressed in the proceeding thesis.
ContributorsColwell, Zachary Allen (Author) / Sohn, Sung-Min (Thesis advisor) / Trichopoulos, Georgios (Thesis advisor) / Aberle, James (Committee member) / Sadleir, Rosalind (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
This research explores the potential use of microwave energy to detect various substances in water, with a focus on water quality assessment and pathogen detection applications. There are many non-thermal effects of microwaves on microorganisms and their resonant frequencies could be used to identify and possibly destroy harmful pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses, without heating the water. A wide range of materials, including living organisms like Daphnia and Moina, plants, sand, plastic, and salt, were subjected to microwave measurements to assess their influence on the transmission (S21) measurements. The measurements of the living organisms did not display distinctive resonant frequencies and variations in water volume may be the source of the small measurement differences. Conversely, sand and plastic pellets affected the measurements differently, with their arrangement within the test tube emerging as a significant factor. This study also explores the impact of salinity on measurements, revealing a clear pattern that can be modeled as a series RLC resonator. Although unique resonant frequencies for the tested organisms were not identified, the presented system demonstrates the potential for detecting contaminants based on variations in measurements. Future research may extend this work to include a broader array of organisms and enhance measurement precision.
ContributorsChild, Carson (Author) / Aberle, James (Thesis director) / Blain Christen, Jennifer (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2023-12
Description
Recent advancements in communication standards, such as 5G demand transmitter hardware to support high data rates with high energy efficiency. With the revolution of communication standards, modulation schemes have become more complex and require high peak-to-average (PAPR) signals. In wireless transceiver hardware, the power amplifier (PA) consumes most of the transceiver’s DC power and is typically the bottleneck for transmitter linearity. Therefore, the transmitter’s performance directly depends on the PA. To support high PAPR signals, the PA must operate efficiently at its saturated and backoff output power. Maintaining high efficiency at both peak and backoff output power is challenging. One effective technique for addressing this problem is load modulation. Some of the prominent load-modulated PA architectures are outphasing PAs, load-modulated balanced amplifiers (LMBA), envelope elimination and restoration (EER), envelope tracking (ET), Doherty power amplifiers (DPA), and polar transmitters. Amongst them, the DPA is the most popular for infrastructure applications due to its simpler architecture compared to other techniques and linearizability with digital pre-distortion (DPD). Another crucial characteristic of progressing communication standards is wide signal bandwidths. High-efficiency power amplifiers like class J/F/F-1 and load-modulated PAs like the DPA exhibit narrowband performance because the amplifiers require precise output impedance terminations. Therefore, it is equally essential to develop adaptable PA solutions to process radio frequency (RF) signals with wide bandwidths. To support modern and future cellular infrastructure, RF PAs need to be innovated to increase the backoff power efficiency by two times or more and support ten times or more wider bandwidths than current state-of-the-art PAs. This work presents five RF PA analyses and implementations to support future wireless communications transmitter hardware. Chapter 2 presents an optimized output-matching network analysis and design to achieve extended output power backoff of the DPA. Chapters 3 and 4 unveil two bandwidth enhancement techniques for the DPA while maintaining extended output power backoff. Chapter 5 exhibits a dual-band hybrid mode PA design targeted for wideband applications. Chapter 6 presents a built-in self-test circuit integrated into a PA for output impedance monitoring. This can alleviate the PA performance degradation due to the variation in the PA's output load over frequency, process, and aging. All RF PAs in this dissertation are implemented using Gallium Nitride (GaN)-based high electron mobility transistors (HEMT), and the realized designs validate the proposed PAs' theories/architectures.
ContributorsRoychowdhury, Debatrayee (Author) / Kitchen, Jennifer (Thesis advisor) / Bakkaloglu, Bertan (Committee member) / Ozev, Sule (Committee member) / Aberle, James (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024