This course has a fundamentals based approach, designed to give students the knowledge and skills they need in a competitive job market covering wireless communications and standards, in particular 5G, as well as antenna and transceiver design principles and practices for mobile devices.

The course briefly reviews amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM), which are essential in understanding IQ modulation used in virtually all modern radios (WiFi, OFDM, CDMA, TDMA, 4g, 5g, etc.). Building on these fundamentals, the course examines the industry’s digital wireless standards, including but not limited to IS-136, IS-95, Bluetooth, 4G, 5G, 802.11(a, g, n), and long term evolution (LTE).

It is equally important to understand antenna design and here you will learn about antenna trade-off considerations for cellphones, Bluetooth, and WiFi, including antenna size versus range on various configurations, dipoles, dish, beams, phase arrays, and slotted antennas. The course will analyze the practical designs used in the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy. Instruction emphasizes an intuitive understanding of the fundamentals, rather than complex mathematics, and industry insights from an experienced professional.

Learning Outcomes
At the conclusion of the course, you should be able to

• Describe legacy receiver and transmitter architectures
• Explain the fundamentals of AM and FM modulation both from a receiver and transmitter
• Discuss contemporary digital modulation techniques such as QAM, TDMA, CDMA, GSM, and OFDM as used in 5G
• Demonstrate Phase Lock Loops: how they work and how they are used in today’s radios
• Describe in detail modern antennas used in cell phones, wifi etc. design of multi band single feed antennas
• Evaluate transmission standards

Skills Needed:

A general background in electrical engineering and networking.