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Summary: In this paper, we propose a computer‐aided design (CAD) tool in the electronic design automation (EDA) domain. This tool is dedicated for the design and simulation of Radiofrequency (RF) filters that are integrated into Advanced Design System (ADS) software. It includes a graphical user interface (GUI) developed using the design kit feature available under ADS and "Application Extension Language (AEL)" as a programming language. This will extend the existing smart filter design tool under ADS by adding more types of RF filters. The proposed feature will provide to users a rapid and an accurate tool to design and simulate RF filters by presenting interactive menus facilitating the process. As a proof of concept, an application of this tool is presented for the design of a Dual‐Behavior Resonators filter. The tool can be upgraded by adding other RF components and even entire front‐end circuits. In a future step, this tool will be enhanced by adding tuning capabilities to RF filters using ideal capacitors and varactors, which will make it the first one of its kind in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel reconfigurable dual-bandpass filter with independently controlled center frequencies and fixed bandwidths is presented. It was designed to be integrated as a radio frequency anti-aliasing filter in a reconfigurable multi-bandpass sampling global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver. The center frequency tuning ranges are 1190–1210 MHz and 1560–1590 MHz in the lower and the upper L-bands, respectively, with a fixed bandwidths of 35 MHz. Varactor tuning technology associated with open loop stub loaded resonator microstrip topology were investigated to achieve these goals. The proposed dual-bandpass filter design showed the agility to independently control the center frequencies in the two L-bands and to deactivate one of the passbands. Furthermore, it shows enough flexibility to adapt to the deployment of new GNSS standards specifications. It exhibits on all the tuning ranges an insertion and a return losses of less than 4.5 dB and more than 10 dB, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A low-complexity time of arrival (TOA) estimation method for Transmitted Reference Ultra-Wideband (TR-UWB) signals is proposed. It has a two-step structure adapted to the Time Delayed Sampling and Correlation (TDSC) receiver. The estimation principle is based on the changes of the received signal by means of the derivative of its sliding correlation. The proposal's first step finds a signal block containing the start of the direct path received pulse (coarse estimate). The second step searches in that block for the actual beginning of the pulse with a higher resolution (fine estimate). The method takes into account the characteristics of the TDSC receiver CMOS prototype which, in its actual version, can achieve a sampling frequency of 7.5 GHz offering a resolution of around 4 cm. The performance evaluation of the proposed TOA estimation is presented along with some experimental results. This TOA estimator structure is simple, feasible, and with a low computing demand, suited for fast mobile localization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]