Essentials of RF Front-end Design and Testing

Book excerpt: Essentials of RF Front-end Design and Testing Highly comprehensive text delivering the RF system essentials required to understand, develop, and evaluate the performance of RF wireless systems Essentials of RF Front-end Design and Testing: A Practical Guide for Wireless Systems is a system-oriented book which provides several wireless communication disciplines in one volume. The book covers a wide range of topics, including antenna fundamentals, phased array antenna and MIMOs that are crucial for the latest 5G mmWave and future 6G wireless systems, high-frequency transmission lines, RF building blocks that are necessary to understand how various RF subsystems are interrelated and implemented in wireless systems, and test setups for conducted and Over-The-Air (OTA) transmitter and receiver tests. The text enables readers to understand, develop, and evaluate the performance of RF wireless systems. The text focuses on RF system performance and testing rather than mathematical proofs, which are available in the provided references. Although the book is intended for testing and building RF system prototypes, it has the sufficient theoretical background needed for RF systems design and testing. Each chapter includes learning objectives, review questions, and references. Sample topics covered in the book include: An overview of cellular phone systems, 5G NR wireless technology, MIMO technology, terahertz communications for 6G wireless technology, and modulation and multiplexing Analog and digital modulation techniques, including AM, SSB, FM, FSK, PSK, QAM, SSFH, DSSS, and OFDM High-frequency transmission lines, S-parameters, low-noise amplifier, RF mixers, filters, power amplifiers, frequency synthesizers, circulators/isolators, directional couplers, RF switches, and RF phase shifters Antenna basics, including antenna gain, radiation pattern, input impedance, polarization, and antenna noise temperature; microstrip antenna, antenna array, propagation path loss, compact antenna test range (CATR), and test setups for antenna measurements. Basics of MIMO and beamforming technology, including analog, digital, and hybrid beamforming Test setups for characterizing the key RF performance parameters of 5G New Radio base station transmitters and receivers. Essentials of RF Front-end Design and Testing: A Practical Guide for Wireless Systems is a highly comprehensive resource on the subject and is intended for graduate engineers and technologists involved in designing, developing, and testing wireless systems, along with undergraduate/graduate students, enhancing their learning experience of RF subsystems/systems characterization.