Next Generation Antennas, Power Amplifiers and Microwave

Assistant Professor Yuanxun Ethan Wang
UCLA Electrical Engineering

Wednesday, March 5, 2008 at 1:00PM

54-134 Engineering IV Building
Refreshments Served

Abstract: Traditionally operating as standalone building blocks in analogue fashions, microwave components and devices are becoming ever more like systems attributing to the maturing of integration technologies and the infusion of system-level design concepts. Such systems often involve digital tuning, sampling, switching and multiplexing to analogue microwave units including antennas and power amplifiers for system level benefits. New wave phenomena and circuit behaviors may emerge under those non-traditional operating conditions. Exploring these phenomena and discovering their underlying physics may further lead to new engineering applications that are beyond the existing knowledge scope and surpassing conventional limits. In this talk, the primary focus will be on a couple of resonant RF systems operating under time-varying or high speed switching conditions. The first example is a power amplifier system that leverages on the dynamic load characteristics of a switched RF resonator for improved power efficiency performance under complex modulations. The second example is a switched-mode electrically small antenna system that can radiate short pulses in a manner that surpass the conventional small antenna efficiency bandwidth limit. These concepts may reform the future generation of microwave antennas, power amplifiers and microwave systems. Several additional projects carrying similar features will also be briefly introduced.

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