Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

Wireless communications have been among the fastest-growing technologies in human history with relentless emergence of new sophisticated standards to satisfy the demands for faster data rates of the increasingly hyperconnected world. However, each time a new standard emerges, carriers are forced to build a new dedicated network with considerable cost of ownership. Hence, wireless communications are experiencing an extreme shortening of standards lifecycle and intensification in investment risks. This project aims at the application of the leading edge technology of Software Defined Radios (SDR) for the investigation of new generation of flexible and reconfigurable wireless base stations capable of (i) operating over a wide range of frequency bands, and (ii) transmitting or receiving signals according to dissimilar standards. This new generation of multiband and multi-standard SDR base stations will enable a more unified wireless infrastructure that features an improved integrity, extended networks lifespan and low investments risks. It will also lead to more efficient network utilization by employing intelligent dynamic spectrum allocation. This project will focus on the development of novel multiband and multicarrier (MBMC) transmitters which represent the most challenging design criteria in the successful realization of SDR base stations. Therefore, the first step of the research will be geared towards finding a common innovative MBMC transmitter architecture. The project will also investigate a systematic approach for the design of multiband matching networks and impedance transformers. These will later be applied in the design of MBMC class-AB power amplifiers (PA) using GaN transistor technology. Subsequently, the successful realization of the MBMC class-AB PAs will trigger a more exciting and challenging objective aiming at the development of MBMC Doherty amplifier to improve the efficiency of the SDR base stations. In addition, sources of distortions exhibited by the MBMC transmitters will be analyzed in order to develop novel physical driven behavioural models and predistortion based linearizers in order to meet the stringent linearity requirements imposed by the wireless standards.