Renal Denervation (RDN) has been developed as a potential treatment for hypertension that is resistant to traditional antihypertensive medication. This technique involves the ablation of nerve fibers around the renal artery from inside the blood vessel, which is intended to suppress sympathetic nerve activity and result in an antihypertensive effect. Currently, clinical investigation is underway to evaluate the effectiveness of RDN in treating treatment-resistant hypertension. Although radio frequency (RF) ablation catheters are commonly used, their heating capacity is limited. Microwave catheters are being considered as another option for RDN. We aim to solve the technical challenges of applying microwave catheters to RDN. In this paper, we designed a catheter with a helix structure and a microwave (2.45 GHz) antenna. The antenna is a coaxial slot antenna, the dimensions of which were determined by optimizing the reflection coefficient through simulation. The measured catheter reflection coefficient is -23.6 dB using egg white and -32 dB in the renal artery. The prototype catheter was evaluated by in vitro experiments to validate the simulation. The procedure performed successfully with in vivo experiments involving the ablation of porcine renal arteries. The pathological evaluation confirmed that a large area of the perivascular tissue was ablated (> 5 mm) in a single quadrant without significant damage to the renal artery. Our proposed device allows for control of the ablation position and produces deep nerve ablation without overheating the intima or surrounding blood, suggesting a highly capable new denervation catheter.

A double step attenuation measurement technique using a non-isolating gauge block attenuator (GBA) has been proposed for accurate measurements of radio frequency and microwave high attenuation. For fixed attenuator as a device under test (DUT), a medium value (≤ 60 dB) attenuator is used as the GBA which connected directly between the test ports, then high attenuation of the DUT is measured in two setups as follows. 1) Thru and GBA with normal power level and 2) GBA and DUT with higher power level. This approach removes the need to isolate the GBA, therefore, accurate measurements of high attenuation can be obtained simply over a broad frequency range. For variable or step attenuator as a DUT, one of the attenuation sections of the DUT is applied as the GBA. Detailed analyses and those verification measurements are carried out both for fixed attenuator, as well as for variable attenuator and show good agreement.

Testing the radio frequency compatibility between Cn-band Satellite Navigation and Microwave Landing System (MLS) has included establishing a specific interference model and reporting the effect of such interference. This paper considers two interference scenarios according to the interfered system. By calculating the Power Flux Density (PFD) values, the interference for Cn-band satellite navigation downlink signal from several visible space stations on MLS service is evaluated. Simulation analysis of the interference for MLS DPSK-data word signal and scanning signal on Cn-band satellite navigation signal is based on the Spectral Separation Coefficient (SSC) and equivalent Carrier-to-Noise Ratio methodologies. Ground tests at a particular military airfield equipped with MLS ground stations were successfully carried out, and some measured data verified the theoretical and numerical results. This study will certainly benefit the design of Cn-band satellite navigation signals and guide the interoperability and compatibility research of Cn-band satellite navigation and MLS.

Heterogeneous networks (HetNets) are emerging as an inevitable method to tackle the capacity crunch of the cellular networks. Due to the complicated network environment and a large number of configured parameters, coverage and capacity optimization (CCO) is a challenging issue in heterogeneous cellular networks. By combining the self-optimizing algorithm for radio frequency (RF) parameters with the power control mechanism of small cells, the CCO problem of self-organizing network is addressed in this paper. First, the optimization of RF parameters is solved based on reinforcement learning (RL), where the base station is modeled as an agent that can learn effective strategies to control the tunable parameters by interacting with the surrounding environment. Second, the small cell can autonomously change the state of wireless transmission by comparing its distance from the user equipment with the virtual cell size. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve better performance on user throughput compared to different conventional methods.

Radio frequency energy transfer (RET) technology has been introduced as a promising energy harvesting (EH) method to supply power in both wireless communication (WLC) and power-line communication (PLC) systems. However, current RET modified MAC (medium access control) protocols have been proposed only for WLC systems. Due to the difference in the MAC standard between WLC and PLC systems, these protocols are not suitable for PLC systems. Therefore, how to utilize RET technology to modify the MAC protocol of PLC systems (i.e., IEEE 1901), which can use the radio frequency signal to provide the transmission power and the PLC medium to finish the data transmission, i.e., realizing the ‘cooperative communication’ remains a challenge. To resolve this problem, we propose a RET modified MAC protocol for PLC systems (RET-PLC MAC). Firstly, we improve the standard PLC frame sequence by adding consultation and confirmation frames, so that the station can obtain suitable harvested energy, once it occupied the PLC medium, and the PLC system can be operated in an on-demand and self-sustainable manner. On this basis, we present the working principle of RET-PLC MAC. Then, we establish an analytical model to allow mathematical verification of RET-PLC MAC. A 2-dimension discrete Markov chain model is employed to derive the numerical analysis results of RET-PLC MAC. The impacts of buffer size, traffic rate, deferral counter process of 1901, heterogeneous environment and quality of information (QoI) are comprehensively considered in the modeling process. Moreover, we deduce the optimal results of system throughput and expected QoI. Through extensive simulations, we show the performance of RET-PLC MAC under different system parameters, and verify the corresponding analytical model. Our work provides insights into realizing cooperative communication at PLC's MAC layer.

To increase the number of wireless devices such as mobile or IoT terminals, cryptosystems are essential for secure communications. In this regard, random number generation is crucial because the appropriate function of cryptosystems relies on it to work properly. This paper proposes a true random number generator (TRNG) method capable of working in wireless communication systems. By embedding a TRNG in such systems, no additional analog circuits are required and working conditions can be limited as long as wireless communication systems are functioning properly, making TRNG method cost-effective. We also present some theoretical background and considerations. We next conduct experimental verification, which strongly supports the viability of the proposed method.

Radio signals show small characteristic differences between radio transmitters resulted from their idiosyncratic hardware properties. Based on the parameters estimation of transmitter imperfections, a novel radiometric identification method is presented in this letter. The fingerprint features of the radio are extracted from the mismatches of the modulator and the nonlinearity of the power amplifier, and used to train a support vector machine classifier to identify the class label of a new data. Experiments on real data sets demonstrate the validation of this method.

In this letter, we study a scenario based on decoupled RF energy harvesting networks (DRF-EHNs) that separate energy sources from information sources to overcome the doubly near-far problem and improve harvesting efficiency. We propose an algorithm to maximize energy efficiency (EE) while satisfying constraints on the maximum transmit power of the hybrid access point (H-AP) and power beacon (PB), while further satisfying constraints on the minimum quality of service and minimum amount of harvested power in multi-user Rayleigh fading channel. Using nonlinear fractional programming and Lagrangian dual decomposition, we optimize EE with four optimization arguments: the transmit power from the H-AP and PB, time-splitting ratio, and power-splitting ratio. Numerical results show that the proposed algorithm is more energy-efficient compared to baseline schemes.

Recently, H-bridge pulse width modulation (PWM) micro-stepping motor drivers have been widely used for 3-D printers, robots, and medical instruments. Differently from a simple PWM motor driver circuit, the H-bridge PWM micro-stepping motor driver circuit can generate radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic interference (EMI) noises of up to several hundred MHz frequencies, due to digital interface circuits and a high-performance CPU. For medical instrument systems, the minimization of EMI noises can assure operating safety and greatly reduce the chance of malfunction between instruments. This work proposes a passive-filter configuration-based circuit design for reducing up-to-several-hundred-MHz EMI noises generated from the H-bridge PWM micro-stepping motor driver circuit. More specifically, the proposed RF EMI reduction approach consists of proper passive filter design, shielding in motor wires, and common ground design in the print circuit board. The proposed passive filter configuration design is validated through the overall reduction of EMI noises at RF band. Finally, the proposed EMI reduction approach is tested experientially through a prototype and about 16 dB average reduction of RF EMI noises is demonstrated.

Radio signals show characteristics of minute differences, which result from various idiosyncratic hardware properties between different radio emitters. A robust detector based on exponentially weighted distances is proposed to detect the exact reference instants of the burst communication signals. Based on the exact detection of the reference instant, in which the radio emitter finishes the power-up ramp and enters the first symbol of its preamble, the features of the radio fingerprint can be extracted from the transient signal section and the steady-state signal section for radiometric identification. Experiments on real data sets demonstrate that the proposed method not only has a higher accuracy that outperforms correlation-based detection, but also a better robustness against noise. The comparison results of different detectors for radiometric identification indicate that the proposed detector can improve the classification accuracy of radiometric identification.

Near field communication (NFC) antennas are often lined with magnetic sheets to reduce performance degradation caused by nearby metal objects. Though amorphous sheets have a high permeability and are suitable magnetic sheets for lining, their magnetic loss is also high. Therefore, this paper suggests a technique of suppressing magnetic loss by modifying the shape of the sheet without changing its composition. The utility of the proposed technique was investigated in this study.

With the rapid development of Internet of things (IoT), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has become one of the most significant information technologies in the 21st century. However, more and more privacy threats and security flaws have been emerging in various vital RFID systems. Traditional RFID systems only focus attention on foundational implementation, which lacks privacy protection and effective identity authentication. To solve the privacy protection problem this paper proposes a privacy protection method with a Privacy Enhancement Model for RFID (PEM4RFID). PEM4RFID utilizes a “2+2” identity authentication mechanism, which includes a Two-Factor Authentication Protocol (TFAP) based on “two-way authentication”. Our TFAP employs “hardware information + AES-ECC encryption”, while the ”“two-way authentication” is based on improved Combined Public Key (CPK). Case study shows that our proposed PEM4RFID has characteristics of untraceability and nonrepeatability of instructions, which realizes a good trade-off between privacy and security in RFID systems.

Radio frequency over fiber (RoF) advanced technology is already integrated into current 3G and 4G radio access networks in which the digital unit and remote radio head equipped with nonlinear high power amplifiers (HPAs) are connected through the RoF-based fronthaul links. In this study, we investigated the degradation in the adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) of equipment with the adaptive linearizer RF HPA when both the direct and feedback paths of the transmitting system include RoF links. We show that an ACLR exceeding -57dBc @ 5-MHz offset, which completely satisfies the requirements of the 3GPP technical specifications, can be achieved for a 20-W-class Doherty power amplifier linearized through commercial RoF links. Experiments showed that the achieved ACLR strongly depends on the RoF-link noise figure and that most of the nonlinear distortions caused by RoF can be completely suppressed with the proposed joint linearization approach for simultaneous linearization of RoF and HPA nonlinearities with a single common “joint” linearizer. Experimental results confirm significant ACLR performance enhancements as a result of RoF noise floor reduction, which is achieved under RoF driving conditions optimized together with joint RoF and HPA linearization. Our joint linearization approach via RoF links is confirmed to be applicable for next-generation mobile fronthaul architectures.

In this paper, a threshold-based I-Q diversity combining scheme for ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) readers with a quadrature receiver is proposed in the aspect of improving the tag detection performance. In addition, the performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated as the closed-form expressions. In particular, its statistical characteristics are detailed and its performance is compared to that of conventional schemes over independent and identically distributed Rician fading conditions in terms of average signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), bit error rate (BER), and the average number of required combining process. Numerical results indicate that the proposed scheme enables processing power control through threshold control while meeting the required quality of service compared to conventional schemes.

Parametric resonance based solutions for sub-gigahertz radio frequency transceiver with 0.3V supply voltage are proposed in this paper. As an implementation example, a 0.3V 720µW variation-tolerant injection-locked frequency multiplier is developed in 90nm CMOS. It features a parametric resonance based multi-phase synthesis scheme, thereby achieving the lowest supply voltage with -110dBc@ 600kHz phase noise and 873MHz-1.008GHz locking range in state-of-the-art frequency synthesizers.

This paper introduces a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag for urination detection. The proposed tag is embedded into paper diapers in order to detect the patient's urination immediately. For this tag, we designed an RFID tag antenna at 950MHz, which matches the impedance of the associated integrated circuit (IC) chip. In addition, we calculate the antenna characteristics and measure the reflection coefficient (S11) and radiation pattern of the antenna. The results show that this system can be used to detect urination.

The RFID tag system has received a lot of attention for ubiquitous computing. An RFID tag is attached to an object. With the unique ID of the RFID tag, a user identifies the object provided with the RFID tag and derives appropriate information about the object. One important application in the RFID technology is localizing RFID tags, which can be very useful in acquiring the position information concerning the RFID tags. It can be applied to navigation systems and positional detection systems for mobile robots. This paper proposes a new adaptive multi-range-sensing method for 3D localization of passive RFID tags by using a probabilistic approach. In this method, a mobile object (human, robot, etc.) with an RFID reader estimates the positions of RFID tags with multiple communication ranges dynamically. The effectiveness of the proposed method was demonstrated in experiments.

Radio frequency on free-space optical (RoFSO) technology is regarded as a new universal platform for enabling seamless convergence of fiber and FSO communication networks, thus extending broadband connectivity to underserved areas. In this paper, we investigate the performance to characterize the transmission of code division multiple access (CDMA) based wireless signals over RoFSO system using aperture averaging (AA) technique under strong turbulence conditions. An analytical model including a modified carrier-to-noise-plus- interference ratio (CNIR) form and a novel closed-form expression for the bit-error rate (BER) is derived. Unlike earlier work, our model takes into consideration the effect of using the AA technique modeled by the gamma-gamma distribution, the optical noises, the intermodulation distortion term due to the laser diode non-linearity and the multiple interference access. By investigating the impact of AA on our model in the strong turbulence regime, we show that there is a design trade-off between the receiver lens aperture and the number of users to achieve a required CNIR ensuring a substantial scintillation fade reduction. The presented work can be used as baseline for the design and performance evaluation of the RoFSO system's ability to transmit different broadband wireless services signals over turbulent FSO links in real scenarios.

A low-voltage quadrature up-conversion CMOS mixer for 5-GHz wireless communication applications is designed with a TSMC 0.18-µm process. The fold-switching technique is used to implement the low-voltage double balanced quadrature mixer. A miniature lumped-element microwave broadband rat-race hybrid and RLC shift network are used for the local oscillator and the intermediate frequency port design, respectively. The measured results demonstrate that the mixer can reach a high conversion gain, a low noise figure (NF), and a high linearity. The mixer exhibits improvement in noise, conversion gain, and image rejection. The mixer shows a conversion gain of 16 dB, a noise figure of 12.8 dB, an image rejection of 45 dB, while dissipating 15.5 mW for an operating voltage at 1 V.

The RFID tag system has received attention as an identification source. Each RFID tag is attached to some object. With the unique ID of the RFID tag, a user identifies the object provided with the RFID tag, and derives appropriate information about the object. One of important applications of the RFID technology is the position estimation of RFID tags. It can be very useful to acquire the location information concerning the RFID tags. It can be applied to navigation systems and positional detection systems for robots etc. In this paper, we propose a new position estimation method of RFID tags by using a probabilistic approach. In this method, mobile objects (person and robot, etc.) with RFID readers estimate the positions of RFID tags with multiple communication ranges. We show the effectiveness of the proposed method by computer simulations.