- Docente: Alessandro Lipparini
- Credits: 6
- SSD: ING-INF/02
- Language: Italian
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LS) in Telecommunications Engineering (cod. 0231)
Learning outcomes
Knowledge of the principles of performance and design of microwave components and circuits used in radio-frequency systems. Knowledge of the development of high-frequency circuit technology. Ability to model components and circuits by traditional methods, as well as by more advanced techniques based on the numerical solution of electromagnetic equations. Knowledge of the principles of neural network modelling. Ability to apply these techniques to computer-aided design. Specific knowledge of the principal passive subsystems used in modern telecommunications systems working at RF and microwave frequencies.
Course contents
Microwaves and their use in telecommunications systems. The front-end.
Development of high-frequency circuits and outline of their building technologies. Planar structures. Hybrid circuits on dielectric substrate and monolithic circuits on silicon or gallium arsenide substrates.
Approaches to the simulation: circuit analysis and electromagnetic analysis. Decomposition of circuits into components and of components into basic structures. The modelling problem.
Examples of wave-guiding structures: stripline (homogeneous dielectric) and microstrip (non-homogeneous dielectric). Their characterization in TEM and quasi-TEM regimes, respectively. Calculation of the capacitance model: the subsection method. Evaluation of Green's function.
Simulation of planar wave-guiding structures at high frequencies: the Spectral Domain Approach (SDA).
Applications: directional couplers, filters, resonators and their use in technical applications.
Discontinuities. Equivalent circuits and their identification: static and dynamic methods. The mode-matching method.
Electromagnetic analysis: advantages and problems. Finite-Difference Method in the time domain (FD-TD). Finite-Element Method (FEM). Application to high frequency components and comparison with the results of circuit analysis.
Artificial neural networks and their training.
Readings/Bibliography
Vittorio Rizzoli and Alessandro Lipparini, 'Propagazione Elettromagnetica guidata', Esculapio-Progetto Leonardo, 2002.
Richard C. Booton Jr., 'Computational Methods for Electromagnetics and Microwaves', John Wiley & Sons, 1992.
Daniel G. Swanson Jr. and Wolfgang J. R. Hoefer, 'Microwave Circuit Modeling Using Electromagnetic Field Simulation', Artech House, 2003.
Robert E. Collin, 'Foundations for Microwave Engineering, John Wiley & Sons-IEEE Press, 2000.
Teaching methods
The classroom lectures are devoted to the detailed treatment of the simulation of high-frequency components and circuits. The training hours are devoted to the devolpment of application examples.
Assessment methods
Discussion aimed at establishing the student's understanding of the treated methodologies as well as of his/her ability to apply them to practical engineering problems.
Teaching tools
For many of the topics treated in the Course, a textbook or teacher's notes are available. For the remaining topics, schemes of the lectures as well as all related figures are distruibuted.
Office hours
See the website of Alessandro Lipparini