Tunable harmonic re-radiator for sensing applications

Author

Aguilar, Suzette M. ; Weller, Thomas M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Univ. of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

fYear

2009

fDate

7-12 June 2009

Firstpage

1565

Lastpage

1568

Abstract

A tunable harmonic re-radiator using meandered shorted patch antennas is designed for wireless sensing applications. The device operates by receiving an interrogation signal and re-transmitting the (modulated) second harmonic. Tunability is achieved by integrating a varactor diode into the input matching network, providing the means for modulating the retransmitted harmonic. Special emphasis has been placed on developing electrically small antennas to significantly reduce the overall footprint without compromising efficiency. The re-radiator measures 22 mm times 8.8 mm and has a measured conversion efficiency of 1.3% at a doubler input power of only 18 muW.

Keywords

electric sensing devices; microstrip antennas; modulation; receiving antennas; signal processing; transmitting antennas; tuning; varactors; electrically small antennas; input matching network; interrogation signal; meandered shorted patch antenna; power 18 muW; retransmitted harmonic modulation; tunable harmonic reradiator; varactor diode; wireless sensing application; Antenna measurements; Application software; Frequency; Patch antennas; Receiving antennas; Schottky diodes; Transmitting antennas; Tunable circuits and devices; Varactors; Wireless sensor networks; Wireless sensors; conversion efficiency; harmonic re-radiator; meandered shorted patch antenna;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest, 2009. MTT '09. IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Boston, MA

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2803-8

Electronic_ISBN

0149-645X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2009.5166009

Filename

5166009