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Telecoms and Antennas

• 30 h - Telecoms and Antennas lectures and tutorial (28h) Experimental work (12h)
• Description:
  • Telecoms Basics of source and channel coding. Channel capacity. Basics of digital modulation and demodulation. Practical case of transmissions from space instruments.
  • Antennas, Microwaves Basics of guided waves and antenna theory. Antenna pattern, gain, and impedance. Friis formula of radio link budget. Practical antennas and arrays for space instruments. Up and down conversion for signal transmission. Heterodyne detection. Receiver and system equivalent noise temperature.
  • Experimental work
    • Students will characterize the antenna pattern of a 3-meter dish antenna working at a 1.4GHz using the sun as a quasi-point source. They will estimate the directivity of the antenna and compare it to estimated values based on the aperture size and with 3D-electromagnetic simulations performed on Ansys HFSS.
    • Students will measure the receiver equivalent noise temperature of microwave amplifiers using a cryogenic matched load, a noise source, a power meter and a spectrum analyzer. They will compare and analyze the results. Alternatively, they will perform a similar measurement on the 1.4 GHz receiver of the SRT using its internal noise source and a cryogenic load.