ECEG 497/697
Wireless System Design

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Bucknell University Course Catalog Description

"Introduction to hardware aspects of wireless communication systems, including RF circuit design, transmitter and receiver architecture, antennas, and radio wave propagation."

Detailed Description

More specifically, this course introduces students to the analysis and design of wireless communication circuits, antennas, and other RF (radio frequency) hardware - the primary "physical layer" building blocks of cell phones, wireless modems, IoT devices, communication and control links (like Bluetooth), radar, and all of the other radio/wireless devices that are intertwined with our modern lives. Coursework draws heavily on previous study in circuit theory, electronics, and electromagnetics. Signal processing aspects such as advanced modulation techniques and error-correction schemes, while important, receive minimal treatment, although the fundamentals of modulation and related bandwidth requirements are covered.

The material for the course is drawn from the following topics. Not all topics are covered thoroughly, but most are at least to a small degree. Topic coverage is partly driven by student interest.

• Electromagnetic spectrum usage by various radio/wireless services
• Transmitter and receiver circuits, including filters and frequency mixers
• RF amplifier performance characterization
• S parameters
• RF signal generation
• System noise performance characterization
• Impedance matching
• Transmission lines and connectors
• "Wire" antennas, such as dipoles, inverted-F antennas, helices, and Yagi-Uda arrays
• "Aperture" antennas, such as horn antennas and reflectors ("dishes")
• Microstrip patch antennas
• Phased array antennas
• Radio wave propagation (atmospheric and ionospheric)
• Radio wave reflections, fading, and multipath effects
• Sources of noise and interference

The course also provides the opportunity to work with RF devices and test and measurement equipment. The commercial antenna analysis software package EZNEC is introduced as well.

Co-Requisite

ECEG 390 is a concurrent prerequisite, which means that it must be completed either prior to or while the student is enrolled in ECEG 497. Other courses or previous experience may be substituted for ECEG 390 with permission of the instructor.

Class Meetings

The lecture portion of this course is scheduled to meet 4:00–4:50 pm Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in Academic East 225.

There is no formally scheduled lab session; however, frequent use of lab facilities will be required to complete the mini-projects. Instructor availability for help with project assignments will be announced via the course web site.

Course Outcomes

A student who successfully completes this course should be able to:

1. Design lumped-element impedance matching networks using L, T, and pi configurations.
2. Recognize and analyze basic receiver and transmitter system architectures.
3. Predict the frequency translation properties and image response of a frequency mixer circuit.
4. Calculate the S parameters of a given linear two-port network.
5. Calculate system noise figure given the gain and noise figures of individual system stages.
6. Understand the relationship between minimum detectable signal (MDS), third-order intercept (TOI or IP3), and spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of an amplifier or receiver system.
7. Use a Smith chart to plot impedances and to perform basic transmission line and matching network calculations.
8. Manually and/or numerically calculate important performance characteristics of commonly used antenna types.