A systematic comparison between several pairs of contact materials based on an innovative methodology early developed at NOVA MEMS is hereby presented. The technique exploits a commercial nanoindenter coupled with electrical measurements, and test vehicles specially designed to investigate the underlying physics driving the surface-related failure modes. The study provides a comprehensive understa

This article aims to provide readers with a physical understanding of the propagation channel that is complementary to mathematical channel modeling. It presents an analysis of the directional propagation channel based on radiophotos. Radiophotos are graphical objects where directions of arrival are superimposed on three-dimensional (3D) panoramic photographs. The interaction between electro magne

To protect a worst-case user, Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS) transmits inflated integrity information for protection level computation. In this work, a novel user-based technique for autonomous protection level computation is proposed. Its quality is examined over Key Performance Indicators tests for integrity and availability using real European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Servic

In this work we assess the feasibility of fabricating a matrix of antennas for the millimeter (mm)-wave band using the ?Multi Chip Module ? Deposited (MCM-D)? process. The main focus of the design is to minimize the cross coupling between the antennas fabricated on the common substrate. We investigate the use of a virtual cavity formed by metalized vias in order to reduce the cross coupling to the

The design of a 61.44 GHz integrated Phase-locked loop (PLL) on a 180 GHz BiCMOS technology is presented. The PLL was optimized for a very fast settling time of 4 µs as required by the system specifications. Because the receiver is using a carrier recovery circuit that can follow the slow changes of the carrier such as phase noise, the sensitivity of the bit error rate to phase noise at the receiv

In evaluating the potential of a given integrated-circuit technology, the negative conductance approach is used to estimate a maximum frequency limit for the ability of Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor (HBT) cross-coupled architecture to function as an oscillator at high frequencies. In this paper, the simple low-frequency estimation of the negative conductance, commonly used in the literature, i

A 77-GHz?directional folded dipole antenna integrated in an embedded wafer level ball grid array package is presented. For the characterization of the antenna, a frequency multiplier is embedded, which scales the 4.25-GHz input signal up to 76.5 GHz and allows the use of a commercial signal source. The antenna structure is manufactured at the metallic layer, in the fan-out area of the package, and

Two different topologies of radio frequency micro-electro-mechanical system (RF MEMS) series ohmic switches (cantilever and clamped?clamped beams) in coplanar waveguide (CPW) configuration have been characterized by means of DC, environmental, and RF measurements. In particular, on-wafer checks have been followed by RF test after vibration, thermal shocks, and temperature cycles. The devices have