NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

EXAMINATION FOR
(Semester I: AY 2018/2019)

EE3104C – INTRODUCTION TO MICROWAVE SYSTEMS AND CIRCUITS

November 2018 Time Allowed: 2 Hours

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES:

1. Please write your student number only. Do not write your name.

2. This paper contains FOUR (4) questions and comprises FIVE (5) printed pages including
this cover.

3. Attempt all questions.

4. The free-space parameters may be presumed to have the following values:

εo = 8.85 x 10–12 F/m
μo = 4 x 10–7 H/m
ηo = 120 Ω.

5. k = 1.380 × 10−23 J/K is Boltzmann’s constant

6. This is a CLOSED BOOK examination but you are allowed to bring into the examination
hall a single A4-size sheet of paper filled on both sides with information of your choice.
You may refer to this during the examination.

7. Smith Charts are available on request.

8. All symbols not specifically defined in this examination paper have their normally accepted
meanings.
 EE3104C Introduction to Microwave Systems and Circuits / Page 2

Q.1 (a) Find the following quantities for the transmission line circuit in Fig. Q1(a):

(1) The load reflection coefficient.

(2) The SWR on the line.
(3) The input impedance of the line.
(4) The (overall) input power, Pin, at z = -l and load power PL. Show that
transmission line is lossless.

(10 marks)
Fig. Q.1(a)

(b) A four-port network has the scattering matrix shown below:

0.05∠10° 0 0 0.95∠ 40°

0 0.65∠45° 0.75∠ 45° 0
0 0.75∠ 45° 0.65∠45° 0
0.95∠ 40° 0 0 0.05∠10°

(1) Is this network lossless?

(2) Is this network reciprocal?
(3) What is the return loss at port 1 when all other ports are terminated with matched
load?
(4) What is the insertion loss between port 1 and port 4, when all other ports are
terminated with matched loads?
(5) If port 3 and 4 are connected directly, find the resulting insertion loss between
ports 1 and 2.

(10 marks)

(c) Describe a microstrip antenna configuration. Provide your reasons why microstrip
patch antennas are widely used in mobile communications.

(5 marks)
 EE3104C Introduction to Microwave Systems and Circuits / Page 3

Q.2 (a) A receiver front-end circuit in shown in Fig. Q.2(a), where the bandwidth of the
system is 5 MHz and the system is at room temperature.

(1) Find the noise figure of the overall system.

(2) What is the resulting signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio at the output, if the input signal
power level is -80 dBm?
(3) Is this the best way to arrange all the components to give a better noise figure?
Provide your reasons.
(12 marks)

Fig. Q.2(a)

(b) The AC equivalent circuit of the single-ended diode mixer is shown in Fig. Q.2(b),
where IF and LO input voltages are represented as two series-connected voltage sources.
Let the IF input voltage be a cosine wave of vIF(t)=VIF cosωIFt, and vLO(t)=VLO cosωLOt.

(1) Derive the total diode current using the small-signal approximation.
(2) Explain how a upper sideband up-converting single-ended mixer works to obtain
the RF output current as iRF(t) = (G’d /2)VIFVLO cosωRFt

Fig. Q.2(b)
(13 marks)
 EE3104C Introduction to Microwave Systems and Circuits / Page 4

Q3. Tesla’s AutoPilot technology uses an automative radar to enable the car to “see” its
surroundings. A recent design uses a monostatic radar by Bosch consisting of four
horizontally spaced antennas operating in the 77 GHz band for long-distance detection.
The combined antennas have a gain of 20 dB and a total transmit power of 4 W.
(a) The radar system requires a minimum received power Pr,min= -100 dBm. Assuming
that there are no other objects nearby, what is the smallest radar cross-section (RCS)
that is detectable at a range of 100 m?
(9 marks)
(b) The radar can also be used to detect the relative speed of nearby objects. If the
smallest frequency shift that the radar system can detect is 200 Hz, what is the minimum
speed that the radar system can measure?
(5 marks)
(b) If the antennas are spaced 1 cm apart, what should the phase between the antennas
be to point the beam at an angle of θ = 20 degrees?
(5 marks)
(c) Name one advantage and one disadvantage of using a radar instead of a camera in a
self-driving car.
(6 marks)
 EE3104C Introduction to Microwave Systems and Circuits / Page 5

Q4. (a) The “backscattering” technique for RFID communication works by changing the
RFID tag’s radar cross-section (RCS). To communicate bit “0”, the tag reflects the
incident signal with a RCS of σ0 and the signal is received with power Pr0. To
communicate bit “1”, the tag changes its RCS to σ1 and the signal is received with power
Pr1. One way to define the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is Pr1/Pr0 because it measures
how well a “1” can be distinguished from a “0”.
(1) The antenna designer needs to know how much the RCS should change. If the
system requires an SNR of 8 dB, what is the required RCS ratio σ1/σ0?
(4 marks)
(2) Due to the design of the antenna, the gain of the antenna changes from 2 dB
when communicating “0” to 3 dB when communicating “1”. What is the RCS ratio
σ1/σ0 required to obtain an SNR of 8 dB?
(5 marks)

(b) Answer the following questions and provide a one sentence explanation.
(1) There are many people in a coffee shop connected to the same Wi- Fi router. A
new user connects to the router and starts transmitting data. Does the data rate
experienced by the others change?
(4 marks)
(2) There are many people on a train connected to the same GSM base station. A
new user connects to the base station and starts transmitting data. Does the data
rate experienced by the others change?
(4 marks)

(b) For each of the following questions, select the correct bolded choice.
(1) Does a Zigbee or Bluetooth network have a larger range?
(2 marks)
(2) Does a CDMA or Wi-Fi device have a higher power consumption?
(2 marks)
(3) Does a GSM or Bluetooth network support a larger number of devices?
(2 marks)
(4) Does a mobile device need a larger antenna for near-field communication or
for Wi-Fi?
(2 marks)

END OF PAPER