Li Yang

About the research project «Reconfigurable and Multi-Functional RF/Microwave Circuits with Reflectionless and/or Nonreciprocal Properties and Their Application to Advanced Smart Energy-Efficient/Low-Power RF Front-End Chains (EfficientRF)»

Research line: Energy-efficient multi-functional and reconfigurable RF/microwave circuits

Mentor: Roberto Gómez-García

Abstract:

In this project, novel fully-reconfigurable and multi-functional reflectionless and/or nonreciprocal RF/microwave circuits will be developed for modern smart energy-efficient/low-power RF front-end chains. To realize the desired spectral-adaptivity and multi-operability capabilities for these fully-versatile transceiver modules so that to reduce their energy/DC-power consumption, research activities will focus on the implementation of reconfigurable and multi-functional RF/microwave circuits with reflectionless and/or nonreciprocal behaviour.

First, two-port reflectionless RF/microwave broad-band bandpass filters (BPFs) based on microstrip-to-microstrip vertical transitions will be investigated to circumvent the use of active/passive isolators (which require extra DC power or are very bulky in magnetic-based solutions) in RF front-end chains. Then, its application to design innovative two/multi-port reconfigurable and multi-functional filtering devices (e.g., reconfigurable reflectionless filtering power dividers, filtering antennas, and multi-band BPFs) will be conducted. Subsequently, as an alternative solution to avoid the referred use of RF isolators, the development of RF/microwave devices with intrinsic low-power nonreciprocal filtering characteristics will be addressed.

Meanwhile, new architectures for two/multi-port reconfigurable and multi-functional nonreciprocal filtering circuits and devices (e.g., reconfigurable nonreciprocal filtering power dividers, filtering antennas, and multi-band BPFs) will be further studied and developed to avoid hardware redundancy−as found in current multi-standard RF-transceiver modules−towards their energy-efficient implementation. Furthermore, new paradigms that may lead to the redefinition of the entire RF transceiver architecture based on the ground-breaking reflectionless nonreciprocal filtering components to be conceived in this project will be evaluated. It is firmly believed that next-generation energy-efficient/low-power RF/wireless front-end chains may have great benefits from the results to be obtained in this project.

Background of Li Yang:

Li Yang received the M.Sc. degree in electrical and electronics engineering and Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Macau (UM), Macau, China, in 2013 and 2018, respectively. His doctoral dissertation concerned the analysis and design of microstrip-to-microstrip vertical transitions for applications in multi-layered bandpass filters. From October 2012 to March 2013, he was an Exchange Student with the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. From March to September of 2018, he was a Research Associate with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UM. He was invited to give seminars in Shenzhen University and UM, in October 2018 and May 2019, respective. Since November 2018, he is a post-doctoral research fellow with the Department of Signal Theory and Communications, University of Alcala, Madrid, Spain. Up to now, he has authored or co-authored over 22 papers in international journals and 13 papers in international conference proceedings, with number of citations of 149 and H-index of 6 (Google Scholar). His current research interests include the synthesis design of RF/microwave planar and multilayered passive filters, tunable and reconfigurable filters for energy-efficient RF front-end chains, filtering antennas, and multifunctional circuits and systems. Dr. Yang was a recipient of the Best Student Paper Award of the International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation 2010 in Macau. He served as a Technical Reviewer for several prestigious international journals (IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, etc.) and conferences (International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation 2018, IEEE MTT-S International Wireless Symposium 2019, IEEE Radio & Wireless Week 2020, European Microwave Week 2020, etc.).