RF Wireless Orientation: Devices and Industry Literacy Part 1 Basics

Course 281

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This new course will be available mid-2020. Early access will be avaialble via our RF Mentor Academy Subscription program end of Q1/start of Q2 2019.

Summary

This new series, based on our classic "RF and Wireless Made Simple" course is the perfect orientation for all "non-technical" employees in the RF/Wireless product industry. Everyone in your organization who needs to quickly appreciate the challenges and tradeoffs involved with producing wireless devices will benefit from this program. Take both sections, or just the basics, depending on your needs. Best of all, this program is part of our new RF Mentor Academy Subscription training program on RF Mentor Academy! Part I, which is recommended for all personnel, covers the basics that make RF and Wireless device design especially challenging. Building blocks and key acronyms like TDMA, CDMA, QAM, OFDMA are defined. You will even learn how to work with dB values!

Learning objectives

Upon completing the course you will be able to:

  • become fluent with terms and concepts related to the RF/wireless industry.
  • understand the tradeoffs between spectral and power efficiency
  • describe the different methods to allow multiple users to share spectrum
  • justify the need for impedance matching between circuit components
  • work natively with dB scale values without a calculator

Target Audience

Non-technical employees who are new to the RF/Wireless device industry or those looking to improve their skills and literacy to better work with customers and colleagues.

Outline

RF/Wireless Key Observations and Tradeoffs

Introduction
 • Radios everywhere • radio evolution
Spectrum and Power
 • Radio power management • Spectrum is precious • Spectrum vs. power efficiency
Frequency vs. Range
 • Antenna size vs. frequency

Decibels: You Can Speak dB

Decibels
 • motivations for using decibels • exponential scale • arithmetic in the dB system
Approximating dB Conversions
 • convert to dB in your head • convert from dB in your head

Special Problems at RF Frequencies

Power Transfer and Reflections
 • transmission lines • cables and connectors • mismatches
Radio Waves
 • frequency • wavelength • phase
Modulation
 • AM, FM • Digital Modulation • ASK, PSK, QAM • fundamental tradeoffs
Radio Wave Propagation
 • energy spread • reflections/multipath • fading • doppler

Multiple Access Techniques

Cellular Concept
 • frequency re-use with a cellular system
Spectrum Sharing
 • FDMA • TDMA • CDMA • OFDMA • MIMO