Ultra-Flexible Radios for Networks of Avian RF Tags

本研究的目的是开发多功能鸟类跟踪标签的无线电。 每个无线电标签将支持地理定位、飞行中遥测和联网。 该方法是开发一种无源混频器优先的无线电架构，通过“透明前端”将高度灵活的基带电路连接到天线。“最先进的无线电提供可编程增益、带宽和中心频率，但具有固定的天线接口，大大降低了其灵活性。 求婚的人？透明前端？允许高度可控的基带电路和可变的、控制不良的天线之间的直接交互。 因此，无线电的所有重要属性都是可编程的，包括先前固定的属性，如阻抗匹配，允许动态重新配置。 此外，这种灵活性在功耗或性能方面几乎没有成本。 通过开发透明前端设计的理论和实践方面，该项目将完成从固定的单功能无线电到完全灵活的多功能收发器的几十年趋势。由于透明前端无线电提高了性能，同时降低了成本和尺寸，它们可能会在各种科学和商业应用中得到使用。该项目还提供了一个无线技术的不同方面的展示，将用于教育示范。 通过允许RF标签和商业手持设备之间的连接，该项目还将为野外鸟类学的公民科学增加一个新的维度。该研究计划将支持研究生研究和本科生设计项目以及K-12学生的推广活动。

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.