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Immer komplexere und leistungsfähigere Fahrerassistenzsysteme in Fahrzeugen sind auf eine möglichst genaue Erfassung der Umgebung angewiesen. Eine wichtige Sensorklasse stellen dabei die Radarsensoren dar, da diese durch den Dopplereffekt direkt die radiale Geschwindigkeit von Zielobjekten erfassen können. Zukünftige Radare müssen über eine immer bessere Auflösung für die Bestimmung der Entfernungen, der Geschwindigkeiten und der Winkel, unter der Ziele erfasst werden, verfügen. Dies ermöglicht eine Klassifikation von Zielobjekten, beispielsweise die Unterscheidung zwischen Fußgängern und Fahrzeugen. Diese Arbeit stellt optimierte Ansätze der Signalverarbeitung vor, um unter anderem die Geschwindigkeitsauflösung durch eine geschickte Messauswertung zu verbessern, ohne die Messdauer zu verlängern. Weiterhin werden zwei Verfahren betrachtet und verglichen, die den Eindeutigkeitsbereich der Geschwindigkeit bei der Verwendung mehrerer Sendeantennen vergrößern. Eine verbesserte Winkelauflösung wird durch eine gezielte Unterabtastung und anschließende Rekonstruktion erreicht, sodass in der gleichen Entfernung und Geschwindigkeit unterschiedlich starke Ziele getrennt werden können. Zum Schluss werden zwei verschiedene Ansätze zur Unterabtastung in allen Messdimensionen und der anschließenden Rekonstruktion verglichen.

Viele Anwendungen im industriellen Umfeld können durch kostengünstige Radarsensoren, die in Silizium-Germanium hochintegriert sind, erschlossen werden. Ausgehend von den typischen Anforderungen und Randbedingungen wird ein Systemdesign vorgestellt, mit dem ein möglichst leistungsstarker Radarsensor erreicht werden kann. Dabei werden die Erzeugung eines geringen Phasenrauschens bei der Betriebsfrequenz und der systematische Vergleich eines monostatischen und eines bistatischen Radarchips diskutiert. Durch die Integration der Antennen auf den Radarchip ist das gesamte Millimeterwellen-Frontend auf einem MMIC realisiert. Die Chip-integrierten Antennen werden innerhalb der Aufbau- und Verbindungstechnik umfassend erläutert. Als kostengünstige Häusungstechnologie werden QFN-Gehäuse betrachtet. Sowohl für offene als auch teilvergossene QFN-Gehäuse werden einfach umsetzbare Gehäuseanpassungen vorgestellt, die eine sinnvolle Verwendung über 100 GHz ermöglichen. Abschließend wird der modulare Radardemonstrator vorgestellt und u. a. in Feldtests in einer industriellen Tankanlage charakterisiert.

Recent technological developments considerably lowered the barrier for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to be employed in a variety of usage scenarios, comprising live video transmission from otherwise inaccessible vantage points. As an example, in the French-German ANCHORS project several UAS guided by swarm intelligence provide aerial views and environmental data of a disaster site while deploying an ad-hoc communication network for first responders. Since being able to operate in harsh environmental conditions is a key feature, the immunity of the UAS against radio frequency (RF) exposure has been studied. Conventional Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) applied to commercial and industrial electronics is not sufficient since UAS are airborne and can as such move beyond the bounds within which RF exposure is usually limited by regulatory measures. Therefore, the EMC requirements have been complemented by a set of specific RF test frequencies and parameters where strong sources are expected to interfere in the example project test case of an inland port environment. While no essential malfunctions could be observed up to field strengths of 30 V m−1, a sophisticated, more exhaustive approach for testing against potential sources of interference in key scenarios of UAS usage should be derived from our present findings.Recent technological developments considerably lowered the barrier for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to be employed in a variety of usage scenarios, comprising live video transmission from otherwise inaccessible vantage points. As an example, in the French-German ANCHORS project several UAS guided by swarm intelligence provide aerial views and environmental data of a disaster site while deploying an ad-hoc communication network for first responders. Since being able to operate in harsh environmental conditions is a key feature, the immunity of the UAS against radio frequency (RF) exposure has been studied. Conventional Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) applied to commercial and industrial electronics is not sufficient since UAS are airborne and can as such move beyond the bounds within which RF exposure is usually limited by regulatory measures. Therefore, the EMC requirements have been complemented by a set of specific RF test frequencies and parameters where strong sources are expected to interfere in the example project test case of an inland port environment. While no essential malfunctions could be observed up to field strengths of 30 V m−1, a sophisticated, more exhaustive approach for testing against potential sources of interference in key scenarios of UAS usage should be derived from our present findings.

Radio-frequency (RF) scattering parameters (S-parameters) play an important role to characterise RF signal transmission and reflection of active and passive devices such as transmission lines, components, and small-signal amplifiers. Vector network analysers (VNAs) are employed as instrumentation for such measurements. During the last years, the upper frequency limit of this instrumentation has been extended up to several hundreds of GHz for waveguide measurements. Calibration and verification procedures are obligatory prior to the VNA measurement to achieve accurate results and/or to obtain traceability to the International System of Units (SI). Usually, verification is performed by measuring well-matched devices with known S-parameters such as attenuators or short precision waveguide sections (shims). In waveguides, especially above 110 GHz, such devices may not exist and/or are not traceably calibrated. In some cases, e.g. filter networks, the devices under test (DUT) are partly highly reflective. This paper describes the dependency of the S-parameters a) on the calibration procedure, b) on the applied torque to the flange screws during the mating process of the single waveguide elements. It describes further c) how highly-reflective devices (HRD) can be used to verify a calibrated VNA, and d) how a measured attenuation at several hundreds of GHz can be substituted by a well-known coaxial attenuation at 279 MHz, the intermediate frequency (IF) of the VNA, to verify the linearity. This work is a contribution towards traceability and to obtain knowledge about the measurement uncertainty of VNA instrumentation in the millimetre-wave range.

Dried legumes (chickpeas, green peas or lentils) are valuable export commodities in the US Pacific Northwest. A major problem in the marketing of these products is infestation by insect pests. Typically, chemical fumigants are used to disinfest product, but regulatory issues, insect resistance, environmental concerns and the increase of the organic market have forced the industry to explore non-chemical alternatives. One possible alternative is the use of radio frequency (RF) energy to rapidly heat product to insecticidal levels. To determine the potential of RF treatments to control insect pests in dried pulse products, the heat tolerance of the cowpea weevil (Callosobruchus maculatus F.) was evaluated and compared to the tolerance of previously studied insects, and the dielectric properties of both the insect and the products were compared. The most heat tolerant stage of the weevil was found to be the pupal stage, with adults being the most susceptible. Cowpea weevil pupae were fairly heat tolerant; to obtain rapid mortality (exposure

Increasing resolution and accuracy is an important issue in almost any type of radar sensor application. However, both resolution and accuracy are strongly related to the available signal bandwidth and energy that can be used. Nowadays, often several sensors operating in different frequency bands become available on a sensor platform. It is an attractive goal to use the potential of advanced signal modelling and optimization procedures by making proper use of information stemming from different frequency bands at the RF signal level. An important prerequisite for optimal use of signal energy is coherence between all contributing sensors. Coherent multi-sensor platforms are greatly expensive and are thus not available in general. This paper presents an approach for accurately estimating object radar responses using subband measurements at different RF frequencies. An exponential model approach allows to compensate for the lack of mutual coherence between independently operating sensors. Mutual coherence is recovered from the a-priori information that both sensors have common scattering centers in view. Minimizing the total squared deviation between measured data and a full-range exponential signal model leads to more accurate pole angles and pole magnitudes compared to single-band optimization. The model parameters (range and magnitude of point scatterers) after this full-range optimization process are also more accurate than the parameters obtained from a commonly used super-resolution procedure (root-MUSIC) applied to the non-coherent subband data.

For the measuring of the electromagnetic interference (e.g. on men) of RF fields produced by mobile communication equipment field probes are required with high spatial resolution and high sensitivity. Available passive probes show good results with respect to bandwidth and low field distortion, but do not provide the required sensitivity and dynamic range. A significant limitation for active miniature probes is the power supply problem, because batteries cannot be used. Therefore the effect of high impedance connection lines is examined by a numerical field simulation. Different approaches for the design of an active probe are discussed, a favourable solution with a logarithmic demodulator is implemented and measuring results are presented.

A novel transmission scheme for the forward link of a broadband satellite system that aims to avoid the need for feeder-link RF spectrum is described. The hybrid scheme uses one or more optical uplinks from a hub station to geostationary satellite, plus one or more Ka band downlinks. The approach aims to retain the advantages of strong channel coding with high spectral efficiency, as used in recent high-speed digital video broadcast satellites, yet minimise on-board processing requirements. Promising simulation results are presented for a range of channel models, including channel measurements made with ESA’s Artemis satellite. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Hochtemperatursupraleiter können aufgrund ihres schnellen Übergangs in die Normalleitung als Hochleistungsschalter eingesetzt werden. Der Schaltvorgang eines Supraleiters kann aktiv z.B. durch einen Wärmepuls ausgelöst werden. In dieser Arbeit wurde eine neue Art der Auslösung durch Hochfrequenz geringer Leistung untersucht. Neben der Erforschung verschiedenster für den Schaltvorgang bedeutender Parameter, konnte eine Theorie für den aktiven Schaltvorgang mit Hochfrequenz entwickelt werden. Durch eine Simulation wurde diese Theorie bestätigt. Die Entwicklung eines neuen Schaltelements ermöglichte es den Frequenzbereich für den Triggerpuls von einigen 10 MHz bis zu einigen 100 kHz nach unten zu erweitern. Die kürzeste bisher erreichte Schaltzeit mit Hochfrequenz-Trigger beträgt 39 µs. High temperature superconductors are particularly suitable as high power switches, due to its fast transition into normal conductivity. The switching operation can be triggered e.g. by a thermal pulse. In this dissertation a new kind of trigger, based on a low power radio frequency pulse, was investigated. Beside the research on different important parameters for the switching operation, a theory for the switching mechanism was developed. A simulation proved this theory. The development of a new switching element permitted the enhancement of the frequency range for the trigger pulse from a few 10 MHz down to a few 100 kHz. Up to now the shortest switching time achieved by a radio frequency trigger is 39 µs.