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Georgia Tech ECE Research Group

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News and Resources for the Durgin Research Group

Perfect Pulses … Used to Make Anti-Reflective Surfaces

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At the recent IEEE Antennas and Propagation Symposium (APS), Mike Varner presented work by Alhassoun, Varner, and Durgin on the use of perfect pulses to suppress specular reflections on a highly reflective surface. A classic use of this problem is the reduction of radar signatures of aircraft hangers and other buildings near runways. The flat faces of these structures can often produce large radar returns/multipath that distort ranging by either the air traffic control tower or a descending plane. This presentation provides a unique use of the perfect pulse theory invented here at Georgia Tech to build a solution.

Corless MS Thesis on Microwave Backscatter Frequency Hopping Now Available

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The MS thesis document by Robert Corless on the topic of microwave frequency-hopping for backscatter is now available for download on the Georgia Tech server:

MS Thesis: Part 15 Compliant Frequency Hopping Backscatter Communication at 5.8 GHz

In this work, the author discusses the unique challenges and opportunities of implementing a frequency-hopping scheme for backscatter communications. The author even designs and implements a frequency-hopping algorithm on the GTPG’s custom frequency hopping board, consisting of a programmable microcontrollers and voltage-controlled oscillator + phase locked loop chips.

WWB03: The Radio Link Budget

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Part of the Wireless Without Batteries lecture series. We discuss various forms of the link budget, particularly those related to RFID and sensor systems.

WWB03: The Radio Link Budget
Paper: P.V. Nikitin and K.V.S. Rao, “Antennas and Propagation in UHF RFID Systems.” IEEE International Conference on RFID, Las Vegas, NV. April 2008. 12 pages.
Reading: T.S. Rappaport, Wireless Communications Principles and Practice, 2nd ed, Ch 4, 2003.

IEEE SPAWC 2018 Presentation on Perfect Pulses for ReMoRA

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Mike Varner recently returned from Kalamata, Greece, where he presented original research on the use of perfect pulses for scattering low-powered digital signals onto existing radio transmissions (often referred to as ambient communications or ambient scatter in the research literature; we like the term ReMoRa — Reflection of Modulated Radio — since it conjures up the analogous image of a “suckerfish” signal). Perfect pulses are signal components with remarkable DC-nulling properties; from these primitive signal constructs, a radio can construct informative digital signals that enable a number of applications, from clandestine signal transmission to low-power/batteryless sensors that “piggy-back” their information onto FM, TV, or cellular transmissions. Download his poster presentation here.