Radio Frequency & Microwave Communications Laboratory

RF and Antenna Laboratories

The radio frequency and antenna laboratories at the Space Science Center include a wide variety of facilities, such as an RF Laboratory, a Model Shop, an Instrument Shop, a Roof-top Range, 2 anechoic chambers, a Free Space Range (Far Field Range) and related equipment and instrumentation. The RF Laboratory will house the bulk of the measurement capabilities for system and antenna measurement. The RF laboratories support wireless technologies by supporting areas that are key to wireless: antennas, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), low noise receivers, high dynamic range front ends, adaptive demodulators, low noise local oscillators, embedded processors for receiver control, computer-controlled testing, built-in-test-equipment (bite), digital demodulation and data formatting, local area network (LAN) design using wireless links, development of control software for remote RF system control over LANs and others.

Antenna Design and Characterization

The research infrastructure we plan to develop will allow us to make a variety of measurements of RF systems. Primary among these measurements will be the characterization of RF devices, namely antennas (both classical and novel), feeds and RF MEMS integrated systems. We have the fortunate circumstance of having/developing both the fabrication facilities to build antennas and the characterization facilities to analyze their performance (anechoic chambers).

Wireless Technologies

The proposed program will support wireless technologies at the RF systems level by supporting areas that are key to wireless communication, specifically antennas, low noise receivers, high dynamic range front ends, adaptive demodulators, low noise local oscillators, embedded processors for receiver control, computer-controlled testing (automated test equipment), implementation of built-in-test-equipment (bite), digital demodulation and data formatting, local area network (LAN) design using wireless links (WLAN), and development of control software for remote RF system control over LANs and WLANs. We have the capability to develop and test prototype systems in each of these areas.