Parametric analysis of a double shaft batch-type paddle mixer: A DEM study

The Discrete Element Method (DEM) in combination with an One Factor At a Time (OFAT) experimental simulation plan were employed to investigate the effect of a selection of factors on the mixing performance of a double shaft, batch-type paddle mixer. Most influential factors on the mixing performance of the paddle mixer are desired for...

A Highly-Linear Low-Power Down-Conversion Receiver for Digital Transmitter’s Error Detection

Wireless data traffic is projected to steadily increase in the near future, necessitating the demand for transceivers with higher linearity and efficiency. Digital power amplifiers have the potential to achieve these higher efficiency demands while digital pre-distortion can be used to improve their linearity. Digital pre-distortion requires a...

5G mm-Wave Downconverter: Architecture for the Antenna Dome System

The commercialization of millimeter wave frequencies for the 5G New Radio standard requires time and cost -effective testing equipment. The over-the-air measurement setup developed at the TU Delft (ADome) is able to reduce measurement time, by positioning multiple fixed sensing nodes around the antenna-under-test. To expand the system...

Design of Current-Mode RF/mm-wave Front-Ends

This thesis investigates the performance limits and design challenges of two current-mode front-end concepts that target WiFi and mm-wave 5G applications, respectively. The first concept is a power amplifier (PA), which operates at 2.4GHz and is driven by a direct-digital RF modulator (DDRM). A design for the PA, which also includes a parallel...

Design and implementation of a Low Power Mixer-first Receiver for IEEE 802.11ah standard

IoT refers to a network of connected devices that exchange data for different applications using different wireless standards such as Cellular, ZigBee, Bluetooth, Mesh Networks, and the widely used WiFi. For IoT applications that do not require high data rates but require long-range data transmission and low power operation, a sub 1GHz WiFi...

Design of Frequency locked loop and Receiver front-end for Burst-Chirp UWB Radar Transceiver for Vital Signs and Occupancy Sensing by monitoring the respiration and heartbeat rate

While there are many technologies and electronic systems used to detect the human vital signs by monitoring the heart beat rate & respiration rate, all these systems rely on physical contact with the human body. Furthermore, each measuring system can only be used for a single person thus increasing the cost and complexity of integrated...

Multi-band/Multi-Mode RF Front-end Receiver for Basestation Applications

In the last couple of years, mobile telephony has truly become global, with more than 4 billion users worldwide nowadays (compared to less than 1bn ten years ago). This has represented a boost not just for the mobile phones industry, but also for that of wireless infrastructure. Larger-scale production and increased competition have transformed...

60GHz front-end receiver chain in 90nm CMOS technology

Operation at millimeter-wave frequency, where up to 7GHz of unlicensed bandwidth is available in the 60GHz band, provides an opportunity to meet the higher data rate demands of wireless users. Advancements in silicon technology permit one to consider exploiting the 60GHz band for commercial applications (e.g., short range, wireless HDTV...

Design of LNA+Mixer for Multi-Band WCDMA

A small, low-cost, single-chip multi-band WCDMA/GSM transceiver solution is needed to address the high growth segment of 3G enabled smart phone ICs, while still keeping compatibility with widely deployed 2G GSM networks. In this thesis, an inductor-less LNA+mixer combination for multi-band WCDMA is presented. By designing the mixer for high IIP2...

FMCW radar receiver front-end design

The main focus of this thesis is the design a receiver frontend for FMCW radar applications. In these systems, the increasing requirements on detection resolution,points towards the use of higher frequencies. In view of this, frequencies at W-band are very attractive due to the otential of high spatial resolution, while chip size and antennas...

Modeling and optimization of Nb tuning circuits for Nb/AlOx/Nb SIS mixers in the 600-720 GHz range

This thesis describes the development, modeling, and optimization of Nb superconducting microstrip tuning circuits for Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor mixers. The ultimate goal is to extend the quantum limited noise performance of Nb/AlOx/Nb SIS mixers to above the Nb gap frequency (680 GHz). The mixers are intended to be used in the...