This work presents the design, manufacturing, and testing of three 5-bit K-band Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) phase shifters based on similar architectures (combination of switched line and loaded line) but employing different MEMS switch typologies (cantilevers and air bridges) and RF junctions (SP2T and SP4T). All devices have been monolithically manufactured on 200 µm thick high resistivity silicon substrate (4″) by using the Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) RF MEMS process. The performance of the different devices has been compared in order to identify the best configuration to be implemented in electronically steerable phased array antennas for satellite COTM (communication on the move) terminals. Excellent performances were measured for the dielectric-free pad RF MEMS switches as well as the single bits constituting the phase shifter. The three 5-bit devices show return losses better than 15 dB for all states, with average insertion loss of 3.5 dB for the clamped–clamped, SP2T-based design, 2.2 dB for the cantilever, SP2T-based device and 2.1 dB for the cantilever, SP4 T-based design. A low-cost Surface Mountable Technology (SMT) one-level package has been developed as well to allow the phase shifter integration into phased array antennas by using automatic surface mounting techniques. The design and simulation of the SMT package are also presented together with its measured RF performance.

In this article, a novel motion model-based particle filter implementation is proposed to classify human motion and to estimate key state variables, such as motion type, i.e. running or walking, and the subject's height. Micro-Doppler spectrum is used as the observable information. The system and measurement models of human movements are built using three parameters (relative torso velocity, height of the body, and gait phase). The algorithm developed has been verified on simulated and experimental data.

In this paper, a flexible single fed planar circular polarized slot antenna is proposed for Internet of Things wideband applications. The antenna flexibility is achieved by employing a mechanically bendable liquid crystalline polymer substrate. The overall antenna volume is 50 mm × 42 mm × 0.1 mm. The antenna design uses 45° rotated elliptical ground structure for generating circular polarized radiation over wideband spectrum. Two parametrical analyses targeting the slot ground are introduced in order to achieve the most efficient design. The final antenna design demonstrates a good matching in terms of reflection coefficient (<−10 dB), semi-omnidirectional radiation patterns, average gain of 4 dB, and <3 dB axial ratio over entire frequency band of operation. All antenna parameters are studied in both straight and bent antenna setup scenarios. Good agreement between simulation and measurement results of the antenna parameters are achieved. For both straight and bent antenna scenarios, the antenna receiving functionality in time domain is confirmed by retrieving highly correlated impulse responses.

This paper reports on a microwave heater at 20 GHz for digital microfluidics. It allows rapid heating of nanoliter fluid samples and simultaneous temperature monitoring by correlating the reflection coefficient of the heater with the temperature dependency of the relative permittivity of the lossy fluid under consideration, in this case demineralized water. Microwave heating was performed with power levels of 20 and 23 dBm at the on-wafer probe tips on samples of 500 nL. Temperature measurements were carried out with a miniaturized type K thermocouple, and a platinum resistor to monitor the reference temperature. Microwave and thermal performances have been characterized using multi-physics software, and measurements obtained with a large signal vector network analyzer showed good agreement with simulated data. An average heating rate of 20 °C/s was observed during the first 4 s of the heating process.

This paper proposes a novel wideband to concurrent tri-band frequency reconfigurable microstrip antenna. The frequency reconfiguration is achieved by using a pair of PIN diodes in the antenna feed line to switch the antenna either in wideband mode or in concurrent tri-band mode. In order to improve the bandwidth and gain of the antenna for wideband operation, the properties of J-K inverter and split ring resonators are exploited. To demonstrate the versatility of this concept a prototype is fabricated and tested here. The tested results in wideband mode shows that the proposed antenna operates from 3.58 to –3.82 GHz, which is 4.08 times larger than the bandwidth of a simple microstrip patch antenna. In the concurrent tri-band mode frequency tuning is done by microstrip open stub at 1.5 GHz, 1.9 GHz, and 3.5 GHz. Gain of the proposed antenna is better than 2.7 dB in wideband mode and 2.7 dB in concurrent tri-band mode.

To restrict electromagnetic interference at WiMAX (3.3–3.7 GHz) and wireless local area network (WLAN) (5.15–5.825 GHz) bands operating within ultra wide bandwidth (UWB) band, a novel design of lamp-shaped UWB microstrip antenna with dual band-notched characteristics is presented. The proposed antenna is composed of a lamp-shaped radiating patch with two rectangular ground planes on both the sides of the radiator with the gap of 0.57 mm. To improve impedance mismatch at middle frequencies, two triangular strips one at each of the ground plane are added; whereas a rectangular slot is etched in the radiating patch to remove impedance mismatch at higher frequencies of the UWB band. Furthermore, an L-shaped slot in the radiator and two L-shaped slots in the ground plane are used to restrict electromagnetic interference (EMI) at WiMAX and WLAN bands, respectively, without affecting the electrical performance of the UWB antenna. Effects of the key parameters on the frequency range of the notched bands are also investigated. The proposed design shows a measured impedance bandwidth of 12.5 GHz (2.7–14.4 GHz), with the two band-notched bands of 3.0–3.9 and 4.9–5.8 GHz. The antenna is suitable to be integrated within the portable UWB devices without EMI interference at WiMAX and WLAN bands.

A 160-GHz SiGe-HBT (Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor) down-conversion receiver front-end for use in active millimeter-wave imaging arrays and D-band communication applications is presented. The monolithic front-end consists of a three-stage low-noise amplifier providing 24 dB of gain and a Gilbert-cell mixer capable of operating from a −8-dBm LO signal. A fully differential architecture compatible with balanced on or off-chip antennas is used to avoid the need for on-chip baluns in antenna-integrated applications. The implemented downconversion front-end consumes 50 mA from a 3.3 V supply and requires a 0.1 mm2 die area (excl. pads) per channel. With a 160-GHz input signal and an Intermediate Frequency (IF) of 1 GHz, the implemented front-end yields a 25-dB conversion gain, a −30-dBm input compression point, and a 9-dB/7-dB (with/without auxiliary on-chip input balun) system noise figure.

Electromagnetic waves in the microwave and millimeter-wave frequency range are used in non-destructive testing and structural health monitoring applications to detect material defects such as delaminations, cracks, or inclusions. This work presents a sensing concept based on guided electromagnetic waves (GEW), in which the waveguide forms a union with the structure to be inspected. Exploiting ultra-wideband signals a surface defect in the area under the waveguide can be detected and accurately localized. This paper presents numerical and experimental GEW results for a straight waveguide focusing on the detection of through holes and cracks with different orientation. It was found that the numerical model qualitatively replicates the experimental S-parameter measurements for holes of different diameters. A parametric numerical study indicates that the crack parameters such as its orientation and width has a significant influence on the interaction of the incident wave with the structural defect. On top, a numerical study is performed for complex-shaped rectangular waveguides including several waveguide bends. Besides a successful damage detection, the damage position can also be precisely determined with a maximum localization error of less than 3%.

A fully integrated transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) front-end chipset, produced in 0.25 µm SiGe:C bipolar and complementary metal oxide semiconductor (BiCMOS) technology, is presented. The front-end is intended for high-speed wireless communication in the unlicensed ISM band of 9 GHz around 60 GHz. The TXand RX features a modified heterodyne topology with a sliding intermediate frequency. The TX features a 12 GHz in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) mixer, an intermediate frequency (IF) amplifier, a phase-locked loop, a 60 GHz mixer, an image-rejection filter, and a power amplifier. The RX features a low-noise amplifier (LNA), a 60 GHz mixer, a phase-locked loop (PLL), and an IF demodulator. The measured 1-dB compression point at the TX output is 12.6 dBm and the saturated power is 16.2 dBm. The LNA has measured noise figure of 6.5 dB at 60 GHz. Error-free data transmission with a 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) signal and data rate of 3.6 Gbit/s (without coding 4.8 Gbit/s) over 15 m was demonstrated. This is the best reported result regarding both the data rate and transmission distance in SiGe and CMOS without beamforming.

The artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) formed by meta-materials is used in the micro-strip antenna design for microwave sensor applications. The AMC structures with two uniplanar layers, which include modified square split-ring resonator cells, are repeated and formed into a 5 × 3 array. The antenna's operational bandwidth result is significant, and it is in the range of 2.8–10 GHz with a maximum gain of 11.8 dB. Cancer or malignant tumor cells have entirely different electrical properties than healthy breast tissue. Principal component analysis and specific absorption rate (SAR) are used as a parameter to identify cancer or malignant tumor cells in the breast. The SAR values have been calculated for each layer of the 3D breast model. The results show a difference in the SAR values based on the size and tumors' locations.

In this paper, a switchable antenna with capability to operate in ultrawideband (UWB) frequency from 3 to 10.7 GHz with two switchable notch bands of 3.3–3.7 and 3.7–4.2 GHz, is presented for cognitive radio (CR) and multiband orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) applications. The proposed antenna has a simple structure and compact size of 17 × 24 mm2. The antenna in the UWB characteristics is obtained using a circular radiator patch with an embedded T-slot on the patch and a rectangular parasitic element that is attached to the patch. The reconfigurability is also achieved by two L-shaped parasitic elements placed in the left and right of the patch that two ideal switches is inserted over the these elements and the circular patch. The function of the antenna can be changed by tuning status of the switches that make the notch bands in application frequencies. The measurement and simulation results show that the antenna has good characteristics for CR application and MB-OFDM, where the UWB antenna is required for spectrum sensing and the switchable band rejection antenna is used for reconfigurable operation.

This paper presents a planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) for ultra-wide band (UWB) communication, which is printed on a dielectric substrate of FR4-epoxy with 4.4 relative permittivity (ɛr), 2 mm thickness. This antenna is designed to be used in a 2.9–10.7 GHz frequency band, and a very wide bandwidth is realized by the addition of a parasitic element and a J-shaped slot to the PIFA. The effects of varying the parameters of the antenna on the performance have been investigated.

Pulse compression technique allows a radar to achieve the resolution of a short pulse and the energy of a long pulse simultaneously, without the requirement of high-power transmission. Therefore, pulse compression radars have a low probability of intercept capability. The common types of pulse compression signals are frequency modulated waveforms and phase-coded waveforms, which have different properties. The optimum radar signal should have good immunity against deceptive jamming, good Doppler tolerance to detect high-speed targets, and low time-sidelobe level to detect weak targets nearby the strong ones. This paper reviews the current research in the commonly used radar signals, and presents their pros and cons, and compares between them in terms of Doppler tolerance, time-sidelobe level, as well as immunity against jamming in order to provide a reference for the researchers in the field of radar systems and electronic warfare.

Microwave and millimeter-wave reflectometry is one of the potential techniques for the diagnosis and detection of biological abnormalities, such as subcutaneous masses or cancerous tumors in human body. In this paper, a high-quality microwave sensor based on planar misrostrip resonator is designed, fabricated, and successfully tested with different kinds of biological samples. The proposed sensor has unique properties such as small size, simple fabrication, non-contact with a sample, excellent de-coupling from surroundings, and high microwave power is directly coupled into the tissue. Two experiments are performed for the detection of visible and hidden “lipoma” (fat masses), and minimum size of “lipoma” that is diagnosed by the sensor is obtained as well. In this regard, a two-dimensional image of hidden “lipomas” with amplitude contrast about 30 dB and frequency shifts contrast about 60 MHz at a λ/10 (at 13.5 GHz) stand-off distance is provided. Finally, a measurement scenario for the detection of skin cancer based on the artificial model using different layers of raw chicken with different water content is described. Results show that the proposed microscope is easy to fabricate and provide a low-cost solution for fast and accurate skin cancer detection.

This paper presents an overview on novel microwave micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) device concepts developed in our research group during the last 5 years, which are specifically designed for addressing some fundamental problems for reliable device operation and robustness to process parameter variation. In contrast to conventional solutions, the presented device concepts are targeted at eliminating their respective failure modes rather than reducing or controlling them. Novel concepts of MEMS phase shifters, tunable microwave surfaces, reconfigurable leaky-wave antennas, multi-stable switches, and tunable capacitors are presented, featuring the following innovative design elements: dielectric-less actuators to overcome dielectric charging; reversing active/passive functions in MEMS switch actuators to improve recovery from contact stiction; symmetrical anti-parallel metallization for full stress-control and temperature compensation of composite dielectric/metal layers for free-standing structures; monocrystalline silicon as structural material for superior mechanical performance; and eliminating thin metallic bridges for high–power handling. This paper summarizes the design, fabrication, and measurement of devices featuring these concepts, enhanced by new characterization data, and discusses them in the context of the conventional MEMS device design.

Antenna on chip (AoC) and antenna in package (AiP) solutions for millimeter-wave (mmWave) applications and their characterization are presented in this paper. Antenna integration on low resistivity (LR) and high resistivity (HR) silicon substrate are expected. And, in a packaging approach, the combination of antenna on silicon with a material, which has the effect of a “lens”, allowing increasing gain is presented. In a second part, to satisfy beamforming capabilities, a hybrid integration of the antenna on silicon and glass substrates is proposed.

This paper presents the design of an elliptical shape ultra-wide band antenna for imaging of wood. The antenna is constructed comprising an elliptical shape of patch loaded by a stub to resonate at lower bands, strip loading at the back, and chamfered ground. Despite having miniaturized dimensions of 20 mm × 20 mm, the proposed antenna shows better results compared to recent studies. The simulation results depict a good ultra-wide bandwidth from 2.68 to 16 GHz, and 18.2–20 GHz. Besides, the proposed antenna has two low-frequency bands at 0.89–0.92 and 1.52–1.62 GHz, maximum gain of 5.48 dB, and maximum directivity of 6.9 dBi. The measurement outcomes are performed in air, plywood, and high-density wood and show a good agreement with the simulated results done using electromagnetic simulator CST. In addition to that, the measurement results of S-parameters, transmitted and received signals show a good agreement with the simulated results. Besides, the measured results illustrate a good isolation and uniform illumination among arrays as well as the received signals' shapes do not change in different environments, but only the amplitude. Hence, the proposed antenna seems to be adequate for microwave imaging of wood.

This paper presents a fully-integrated direct-conversion fundamentally-operated mixer-first quadrature receiver module with a tunable LO in the 219–266 GHz band. It has been implemented in a 0.13-μm SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor technology. It includes an on-chip LO path driven externally from the printed circuit board (PCB) connector level at 13.6–16.7 GHz. A hybrid coupler generates the quadrature LO signal, which drives a pair of double-balanced fundamentally-operated down-conversion mixers, whose RF ports are connected to a wideband lens-integrated on-chip ring antenna. The chip-on-lens assembly is placed in the recess of a high-speed PCB and wire-bonded. To compensate the inductive behavior of the wire-bond interconnection between the chip and the PCB at the high-speed IF outputs, an on-board 8-section step-impedance low-pass filter has been implemented. The module shows a 47 GHz 3-dB radio frequency/local oscillator operation bandwidth (BW), a peak conversion gain of 7.8 dB, a single-side-band noise figure of 11.3 dB, and a 3-dB IF BW of 13 GHz. The in-phase and quadrature amplitude imbalance stays below 1.58 dB for the 210–280 GHz band. The down-conversion and the baseband stages consume together 75.5 mW, while the LO path 378 mW. The maximum data-rate achieved with this receiver in combination with the transmitter presented in [1–3] is 60 Gbps for quadrature phase shift keying modulation.

With quad-band-notched characteristic, a compact ultrawideband (UWB) multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna is introduced in the paper. The UWB–MIMO system has two similar monopole elements and occupies 30 × 45 mm2. By inserting two L-shaped slots, CSRR and C-shaped stubs, four notched bands are achieved (3.25–3.9, 5.11–5.35, 5.5–6.06, and 7.18–7.88 GHz) to filter WiMAX, lower WLAN, upper WLAN, and X-band. Meanwhile, the isolation is obviously enhanced with three metal strips on the ground plane. Results indicate that the antenna covers UWB frequency band of 3.1 – 10.6 GHz except four rejected bands, isolation of better than −18 dB, envelope correlation coefficient of <0.02, and good radiation pattern, thus making it useful for UWB systems.

Designing miniaturized multiband antennas to cover both the 5G new radio frequencies (FR1 and FR2) simultaneously is a challenge for wireless communication researchers. This paper presents two antenna designs : a dual-band printed antenna of size 18 × 16 × 0.285 mm3 operating at FR1–5.8 GHz and FR2–28 GHz and a triple-band printed antenna with dimensions 30 × 25 × 0.543 mm3 operating at FR1–3.5 GHz and 5.8 GHz (sub-6 GHz microwave frequency bands) and FR2–28 GHz (mm-wave frequency band). The final projected triple-band antenna has a compact size with an impedance bandwidth of 12.71%, 11.32%, and 18.3% at 3.5 GHz, 5.8 GHz, and 28 GHz, respectively with the corresponding gain of 1.86 dB, 2.55 dB, and 4.41 dB. The measured radiation characteristics of the fabricated prototypes show that the proposed designs are suitable for trendy 5G-RFID and mobile Internet of things (IoT) applications.