Modern Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Systems with DSP Enhancement

This course looks at the economic and technical revolution in the microwave, millimeter-wave and DSP areas. The instructor will discuss applications including satellites and earth terminals, wireless phones and cell sites, antennas and radar systems. Students gain an understanding of satellites, such as Astrolink and Globalstar; along with antenna designs, such as phased arrays, reflectors, lenses and MBAs; beam-forming networks; digital/analog phase and amplitude control devices; and power splitters and combiners. Other topics include SAW filters, MMICs, up/down converters, frequency synthesizers and other components. DSP techniques are discussed in conjunction with these systems, as well as A/Ds, D/As and ASIC concepts. Students learn systems concepts, such as G/T, EIRP, IMs, PIMs, phase/amplitude characteristics, noise figure and channelization. Students also receive an overview of techniques, such as TDMA, FDMA, and CDMA, as well as modulation/coding concepts. The course also examines the economic considerations of these technologies. The instructor in this course demonstrates the use of Matlab and other software tools for analysis, simulation and problem solving. These tools are provided as part of the course fee as an option for student use and will not be part of the course grading criteria.