Design of a multi-band RF front-end between 2-12 GHz.

Abstract: The state-of-the-art standard for short range wireless data transmission is the Ultra Wide Band radio (UWB) standard. UWB provides the maximum data rate of 480 Mbit/s. However, for some data transmission applications this is far from sufficient. Since there already are a lot of research and development activities in wireless technology, the demands on even higher data rates is considered as necessary. The research group of Communication Electronics at ITN has a new concept to design a radio frequency front-end for wireless and high-speed data transmission using a multi-band technique. With help of this technique wideband signals can be transferred simultaneously and then be divided into multiple of sub-bands for down conversion. Compare to other technologies such as Bluetooth and WLAN, only a single narrow band is used, which gives much lower data rate. The assignment is to design one wide-band frequency demultiplexer with eleven sub-bands, 200 MHz each. The principle of the frequency demultiplexer is based on the properties of quarter-wavelength at a certain frequency. This was done with help of input matching networks using microstrip lines. The theoretical maximum data rate is calculated to 6.42 Gbit/s.