RF & Microwave Electronics

Access our comprehensive library of technical briefs on RF & microwave electronics, from engineering experts at NASA and major government, university, and commercial laboratories.

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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
This electronic pill can relay diagnostic information or release drugs in response to smartphone commands.
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Briefs: Aerospace
A technology uses a combination of WiFi signals and accelerometer technology to track devices in near-real-time.
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Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics
Low-Bandwidth Radar Technology Provides Improved Detection of Objects
Radar technologies were originally designed to identify and track airborne military targets. Today, they're more often used to detect motor vehicles, weather formations, and geological terrain. Until now, scientists believed that radar accuracy and resolution are related to the...
Briefs: Communications
The reader uses a frequency multiplexer to boost its ability to accurately locate a greater number of RFID tags.
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Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics
RFID-based devices work in indoor and outdoor lighting conditions and could transmit data for years before they need to be replaced.
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Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics
Although Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is being used widely for pallet and box-level tracking in the commercial sector, significant technology gaps remain for tracking dense quantities at the item...
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Briefs: Communications
A novel approach was developed to improve communications range and allow for covert behavior using a team of robots for future multi-domain operations. Specifically, researchers demonstrated...
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Briefs: Materials
To investigate oceans, researchers aim to build a submerged network of interconnected sensors that sends data to the surface. Supplying constant power to scores of sensors designed to stay for long...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Contact lenses that can monitor the wearer’s health and correct eyesight use embedded electronics. These, and other curved devices such as solar cells and electronics, could be...
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Briefs: Communications
A new wireless transceiver was developed that boosts radio frequencies into 100-gigahertz territory, which is quadruple the speed of the upcoming 5G, or fifth-generation, wireless communications...
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Briefs: Software
Technique Locates Robots and Humans in GPS-Challenged Environments
An algorithm enables localization of humans and robots in areas where GPS is unavailable. The Army needs to be able to localize agents operating in physically complex, unknown, and infrastructure-poor environments. This capability is critical to help find dismounted soldiers and for...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses magnetic fields and radio waves to create images of organs and tissues in the human body, helping doctors diagnose potential problems or diseases. Doctors use MRI to...
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Briefs: Motion Control
Antenna Near-Field Probe Station Scanner
Antenna characterization techniques are often expensive and time-consuming. NASA’s Glenn Research Center developed a highly versatile and automated system to perform characterization of single or multiple small circuit antennas, printed on-wafer or on other substrates, by measuring the antenna’s...
Briefs: Software
Self-Configurable Radio Receiver System and Method
A self-configurable radio receiver system was developed for relaying communication signals from multiple deep space assets. Most conventional radio receivers are hardwired to receive a specific type of signal and are incapable of receiving other types of signals without preconfiguration according...
Briefs: Communications
Today’s cellular networks and Wi-Fi systems rely on microwave radiation to carry data but the demand for more bandwidth is quickly becoming more than microwaves can handle. That has...
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Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics
Since 1998, almost 2,000 shoebox-sized satellites known as CubeSats have been launched into space. Due to their small frame and the fact that they can be made from off-the-shelf parts,...
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Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics
Scientists of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and École Poly-technique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have reported that they achieved the fastest distance measurement attained so far....
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Briefs: Imaging
Multi- and Wide-Band Single-Feed Patch Antenna
A novel patch antenna technology was developed that provides significant benefits to NASA satellite communication applications, offering a unique wide-band/multi-band operating capability. For other non-space applications, the antenna design also offers broadband capability with high gain for...
Briefs: Defense
A pocket-sized antenna was developed that could enable mobile communication in situations where conventional radios don’t work such as underwater, through the ground, and over very long...
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Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Researchers have created a fabric that automatically regulates the amount of heat that passes through, depending on conditions; for example, when conditions are warm and moist — such as those of a...
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Briefs: Imaging
Microfocus, Dual-Energy Imaging System Improves Contaminant Detection
Contamination of food with fragments of bone, metal, glass, or other foreign material is a major concern in the food industry. Current inspection technologies often miss very small fragments embedded in meat or other soft materials or lead to ambiguous results that require...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Researchers have created technology that is 10 times more reliable than current methods of producing unclonable digital fingerprints that can be used to...
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Briefs: Test & Measurement
Accurately measuring semiconductor properties of materials in small volumes helps engineers determine the range of applications for which these materials may be suitable in the...
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Innovators at NASA’s Glenn Research Center have developed a new means of avoiding and mitigating icing events for aircraft flying above 14,000 feet, dramatically improving aviation safety...
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Briefs: Transportation
There's an entire world our eyes miss, hidden in the ranges of light wavelengths that human eyes can't see. But infrared cameras can pick up this light emitted as...
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Algorithm Predicts How Electromagnetic Waves Interact with Materials at the Smallest Scales
Magnetic materials can attract or repel each other based on their polar orientation — positive and negative ends attract each other, while two positives or two negatives repel. When an electromagnetic signal like a radio wave passes through such materials,...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Silicon is a naturally occurring material commonly used as a semiconductor in electronic devices; however, researchers have exhausted the potential of devices with semiconductors made of...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Directly converting electrical power to heat is easy; however, converting heat into electrical power is not as easy. To address this issue, a tiny silicon-based device was developed that can harness...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A current-steering digital-to-analog converter (DAC) was developed that achieves improved switching times (up to 75% faster) in high-speed (gigahertz), high-resolution (8-14 bits)...
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