Award Abstract # 0925670
Ultra-Flexible Radios for Networks of Avian RF Tags

NSF Org: ECCS
Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems
Recipient: CORNELL UNIVERSITY
Initial Amendment Date: September 8, 2009
Latest Amendment Date: September 8, 2009
Award Number: 0925670
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: George Haddad
ECCS
 Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems
ENG
 Directorate for Engineering
Start Date: September 1, 2009
End Date: August 31, 2013 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $330,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $330,000.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2009 = $330,000.00
History of Investigator:
  • Alyosha Molnar (Principal Investigator)
    am699@cornell.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Cornell University
341 PINE TREE RD
ITHACA
NY  US  14850-2820
(607)255-5014
Sponsor Congressional District: 19
Primary Place of Performance: Cornell University
341 PINE TREE RD
ITHACA
NY  US  14850-2820
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
19
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): G56PUALJ3KT5
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): CCSS-Comms Circuits & Sens Sys
Primary Program Source: 01000910DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 0000, 109E, OTHR
Program Element Code(s): 756400
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.041

ABSTRACT

The objective of this research is to develop radios for multi-function bird tracking tags. Each radio tag will support geo-localization, in-flight telemetry and networking. The approach is to develop a passive-mixer-first radio architecture that connects highly flexible baseband circuitry to the antenna through a "transparent front-end."

State-of-the-art radios provide programmable gain, bandwidth, and center frequency, but have fixed antenna interfaces, dramatically reducing their flexibility. The proposed ?transparent front-end? allows direct interaction between highly controllable baseband circuitry and variable, poorly controlled antennas. Thus, all important properties of the radio are made programmable, including previously fixed properties such as impedance matching, allowing on-the-fly reconfiguration. Furthermore, this flexibility comes with little or no cost in terms of power consumption or performance. By developing the theoretical and practical aspects of the design of transparent front-ends, this project will complete a multi-decade trend from fixed, single function radios to fully flexible multi-function transceivers.

Because transparent front-end radios enhance performance while reducing cost and size, they are likely to find use in a variety of scientific and commercial applications. The project also provides a showcase of different aspects of wireless technology which will be used in educational demonstrations. By permitting link-ups between RF tags and commercial handheld devices, this project will also add a new dimension to citizen science in field ornithology. The research program will support graduate research and undergraduate design projects and outreach activities to K-12 students.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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B. Johnson, D. DeTomaso, and A. Molnar "A Low-Power Orthogonal Current-Reuse Amplifier for Parallel Sensing Applications" IEEE European Solid-State Circuits Conference , 2010 , p.317
C. Andrews and A.C. Molnar "A Passive Mixer-First Receiver with Digitally Controlled and Widely Tunable RF Interface" IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits , v.45 , 2010
C. Andrews and A.C. Molnar "Implications of Passive Mixer Transparency for Impedance Matching and Noise Figure in Passive Mixer-First Receivers" IEEE Trans. Circuits and Systems I , v.99 , 2010
Caroline Andrews, Alyosha Molnar "A passive-mixer-first receiver with baseband-controlled RF impedance matching, < 6dB NF, and < 27dBm wideband IIP3" International Solid State Circuits Conference , 2010 , p.46
Caroline Andrews, Alyosha Molnar "A Passive-Mixer-First Receiver with Digitally-Controlled and Widely Tunable RF Interface" IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits , v.45 , 2010
Caroline Andrews, Alyosha Molnar "Implications of passive mixer transparency for impedance matching and noise figure in passive mixer-first receivers" IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. I , v.57 , 2010 , p.3092
Caroline Andrews, Luke Diamente, Dong Yang, Ben Johnson, and Alyosha Molnar "A Wideband Receiver with Resonant Multi-phase LO and Current Reuse Harmonic Rejection Baseband" IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits , v.48 , 2013

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