High-frequency technology

Higher education teachers: Vidmar Matjaž

Subject description

Prerequisits:

General knowledge of the following:

• Fundamentals of electrical engineering 1,2
• Solid-state devices
• Electrodynamics
• Antennas and wave propagation

Content (Syllabus outline):

High-frequency semiconductor devices: diodes and transistors. Different semiconductors, band-gap and carrier mobility. Amplifier operating point, classes A,B,C. S-parameters. Amplifier stability. Amplifier thermal noise. Noise figure. Noise measurements. Amplifier saturation, definition of P1dB. Inter-modulation distortion, IMD intercept point. Non-linear high-frequency circuits: mixer and limiter. Lumped LC and cavity electrical filters. Piezoelectric mechanical resonators, quartz crystals and SAW devices. Electrical oscillators. Short-term and long-term stability. Oscillator phase noise. Frequency synthesizers. Phase-locked loops, loop stability and phase noise. Implementation of radio transmitters. Basic designs of radio receivers: homodyne, heterodyne and zero intermediate-frequency designs. Carrier and clock recovery in radio receivers.

Objectives and competences:

Learning specific circuit components and systems for high frequencies. Learning specific methods of measurements, analysis and synthesis of high-frequency circuits. Learning fundamental system knowledge of radio communications.

Intended learning outcomes:

Knowledge and understanding:

• Operation, design and measurements of radio-link components.

Learning and teaching methods:

Lectures to explain the theoretical background and laboratory experiments to practically confirm the theory in the spirit of team work.

Study materials

1. Kostevc, D., Poglavja iz mikrovalov, Založba FE in FRI, Ljubljana, 2005
2. Vidmar, M., Radiokomunikacije, Založba FE in FRI, Ljubljana, 2005
3. Vidmar, M., Laboratorijske vaje iz Radiokomunikacij, Založba FE in FRI, Ljubljana, 2000
4. http://antena.fe.uni-lj.si/literatura/