Publication: Contributions to the development of microwave active circuits: metamaterial dual-band active filters and broadband differential low-noise amplifier
Loading...
Identifiers
Publication date
2011-06
Defense date
2011-06-17
Authors
Tutors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Impact
Export
Abstract
New telecommunication systems require electronic components with increasing performance. Microwave active circuits are not an exception. In fact, these active devices (such as amplifiers, active filters, oscillators, mixers, switches, modulators, etc.) are a key part of any modern communication device and, in many cases, the components that greatly limit the overall system performance. During the last decades, engineers have been improving the performance and operation capabilities of such active components, in order to satisfy the new requirements that novel communication services were demanding. This development has taken place in two distinct lines of action. The first line deals with the optimization of the fabrication process of the transistors, which are the basic components in most active circuits. This physical improvement usually translates into higher transconductance, lower noise gure or operation at higher frequencies. The other line is related with the circuit topology in which the transistor is embedded. This second aspect handles the interaction of the transistor with other additional components or transmission lines and provides the desired operation (e.g., amplification, oscillation, etc.). This thesis is more related with the last aspect, in which the use of novel active circuit topologies is investigated. Two main research lines are presented. In the first line, novel dual-band active filter topologies are proposed. This multiband response is achieved by the use of metamaterial structures. In the second one, the use of differential low noise amplifiers is proposed for the design of active antenna arrays. The intended application is the development of a broadband active antenna array demonstrator for radio-astronomy applications.
Description
Keywords
Microwave active filters, Metamaterials, Active filters, Amplifiers