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This paper presents a 2.4 GHz vector modulator fabricated on mechanically flexible, low-cost, environmentally friendly, celluose-based substrate. This circuit can be adopted either as a digitally controlled target for radars' testing, or, more in general, as an I/Q modulator in RF systems. The system is composed by a directional coupler, two mixers and a Wilkinson divider, all of them designed in...
Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming a driving paradigm for the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) evolution. This paradigm is not a revolution, yet is a way to look at, use and evolve existing technologies and apply them to new solutions. Among these technologies, Wireless Power Transmission (WPT) and related ones can be certainly considered enabling for IoT. WPT in fact, on the one hand...
Demonstrated is a novel method to the fabrication of microfluidic devices utilizing a dual-sensor approach. The fabrication incorporates the use of poly(methyl-methacrylate) (PMMA) and inkjet-printing techniques. PMMA, a low-cost, robust material with low dielectric loss, is ideal for sensor fabrication. In addition, inkjet-printing polymer (SU-8) as a bonding layer dramatically improves the bonding...
This paper describes the design, realization and application of a custom temperature sensor devoted to the monitoring of the temperature differential between the leaf and the air. This difference is strictly related to the plant water stress and can be used as an input information for an intelligent and flexible irrigation system. A wireless temperature sensor network can be thought as a Decision...
This paper summarizes the most important technologies, concurrently participating to build the technological platform needed for a realistic implementation of the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm. At the present state of the evolution of IoT, these technologies are mostly: Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID), Green Electronics (GE), Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) and Energy Harvesting (EH). This...
A low-cost and disposable microfluidic-tunable bandstop filter is presented which is fabricated utilizing a novel inkjet-printing based microfluidics platform. The proposed bandstop filter is based on a split-ring-resonator (SRR) unit cell embedded within the ground of a co-planar waveguide (CPW) transmission line. By loading the capacitive gap of the SRR with an array of fluids with different permittivities,...
An original design and prototype for the first-time reported low-cost inkjet printed 1:4 GHz planar, multi-layer transformer is presented. The proposed transformer is a balun and consists of a three-parallel turns center-tapped primary coil and a two turns, including overpasses, secondary coil for conformal and rollable antenna applications. The hosting substrate is Liquid Crystalline Polymer (LCP)...
Vertically-integrated inkjet-printed inductors and transformers are demonstrated for the first time with high levels of performance and repeatability. The inductive components are fabricated using a well-characterized multi-layer inkjet printing process which is substrate independent and has been optimized for the fabrication of RF components. Printed spiral inductors with values of 10 nH and 25 nH...
The design of complex RF devices such as oscillators, amplifiers and mixers requires accurate CAD simulations. Usually these devices are designed by using the “Harmonic Balance” frequency domain technique that calculates the magnitude and phase of voltages (or currents) in a non-linear circuit. The passive part of the sub-system (matching circuits, filters, feeding networks) is simulated exploiting...
The feasibility study of a harmonic RFID chipless sensing tag is presented. The tag sensor is composed by an antenna at f0 = 1.2 GHz, a Schottky diode (HSMS2850), a balanced impedances bridge with a sensing variable element, and a second antenna working at 2f0 = 2.4 GHz. When interrogated with a signal at f0 the tag responds with a signal at 2f0 only when the bridge is unbalanced due to a variation...
The increasing attention of ICT community towards Internet of Things (IoT) is leading to the need of optimizing the management of an amount of information that grows with the addition of more objects connected to the internet. In this paper we will focus on the challenges that this scenario is inspiring and will dare suggest an holistic vision to look for solutions respectful of the environment.
In this paper we propose a novel low-cost interface to address 10 Gb/s 2 km links over SMF using commercially available 10GBASE-LRM transceivers without any additional redesign nor full-blown EDC on the receiver side.
An innovative wearable, partially self-powered, health monitoring and indoor localization shoe-mounted sensor module is presented. The system's novel shoe sole serves the double role of (i) medical-grade temperature probe for human body monitoring and (ii) renewable energy scavenger, which transforms the human motion to electrical energy. Mounted on the shoe is also an NFC reader for proximity-based...
In this work, a new technique to fabricate microwave circuits in paper substrates is adopted. This technique relies on a copper adhesive tape that is shaped by a photo-lithographic process and then transferred to the hosting substrate by means of a sacrificial layer. Microstrip lines in paper substrates have been electromagnetically characterized accounting also for the adhesive layers. Then a simple...
An innovative conception of indoor localization for human beings is proposed. A person, moving within a building can be localized and tracked by using a self-powered RFID system consisting of a nomadic reader interrogating an array of passive tags embedded in the floor tiles. The whole system is based on environmentally friendly technologies: the piezoelectric (PZT) based energy harvesting to power...
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