2-Bit, 1–4 GHz Reconfigurable Frequency Measurement Device

Abstract

A Reconfigurable Frequency Measurement (RFM) device operating from 1 to 4 GHz has been designed, simulated, fabricated and tested. The RFM device can identify an unknown signal by assigning it to one of the four sub-bands defined by a switched circuit. The 2-bit design is formed by switching between two branches, where each branch corresponds to one bit. The RFM device is made using PIN diodes and other surface mounted components, integrated on the same dielectric substrate in microstrip technology. Simulated and measured results are shown with a very good agreement.

Integrated microwave frequency discriminator with rat-race 3dB hybrids

“…They can be used where precision is not a main requirement but size of device is the more important parameter. Increasing the measurement accuracy using single-function discriminators very similar to those described in 11 was obtained in multi-channel devices containing several delay lines with different electrical lengths 13,14,15 . The so-called quadrature microwave frequency discriminators (QMFD) 1-6, 7, 8 have a higher resolution of frequency measurement, but also a greater complexity of their structures.…”

A comparison between 4-bit fixed and reconfigurable microwave discriminators for frequency identification

“…This device has a two port configuration, which is able to produce 4 bits for frequency identification by switching between a set of 4 delay lines [7]. A 2-bit reconfigurable MD can also be found in [8]. The 4-bit reconfigurable MD is designed based on a reference line (l 0 ) with a length of λ g /2, four delay lines (l 1 , l 2 , l 3 and l 4 ) with a length of λ g , 3λ g /2, 2λ g and 5λ g /2 respectively, where λ g is the guided wavelength at 2.5 GHz.…”

“…DISCRIMINATOR DESIGNS Table 1 summarizes the comparison between fixed and reconfigurable MD designs. Considering complete receiver architectures, the fixed MD consumes more power compared to the reconfigurable MD design, due to the fact that the fixed MD requires four times more electronic components for its implementation [8]. On the other hand, the reconfigurable MD requires time to switch through all four delay lines before providing the final readout, the switching speed of the PIN diodes used is of 10ns, time that will be needed to switch from one state to another on the reconfigurable MD design.…”

“…Since considering full receiver architectures, the reconfigurable MD requires only one quarter of the total of electronic components used in the fixed MD. This allows generating light and compact Reconfigurable Frequency Measurement (RFM) receivers, with low power consumption [7,8] and reduced size.…”

Four‐bit reconfigurable discriminator for frequency identification receivers: A building block approach

“…Recently, reconfigurable frequency measurement (RFM) design was developed to reduce power consumption and size of conventional IFM receivers by using a reconfigurable discriminator (RD). In Espinosa-Espinosa et al [2014a], a two bit design has been implemented. In Espinosa-Espinosa et al…”