Speaker: Dr. Ana Collado, Senior Researcher and Project Management Coordinator
The Technological Telecommunications Center of Catalonia (CTTC) Barcelona, Spain

Title: Nonlinear RF/Microwave Circuit Design for Wireless Power Transfer and Energy Harvesting for Zero-Power Autonomous IoT and Smart City Applications

Abstract:
The need for mechanisms to achieve self-sustained devices and sensors towards implementing the concepts of the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart cities is a great concern in today’s society. The autonomy of devices and sensors is possible by considering wireless power transmission or energy harvesting solutions that allow powering up devices eliminating the use of batteries and the cost associated to their maintenance. During this multi-disciplinary presentation several energy harvesting and wireless power transmission solutions towards achieving the goal of self-sustainability will be shown, including improved efficiency topologies and waveform optimization. In the same direction of creating more energy efficient wireless systems, the signal generation and amplification is another important topic. In this presentation, bifurcation control for fast and accurate stability analysis in power amplifiers will be introduced as well as numerous novel topologies of coupled oscillator arrays for high frequency signal generation and beam steering exploring substrate integrated waveguide technology will be thoroughly discussed. The presented circuit designs find application in the frame of IoT, and 5G systems placing emphasis on energy efficiency and energy autonomy.

Speaker Bio:
Ana Collado received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in telecommunications engineering from the University of Cantabria, Spain, in 2002 and 2007 respectively. She is currently a Senior Researcher and Project Management Coordinator at the Technological Telecommunications Center of Catalonia (CTTC), Barcelona, Spain. Her technical interests include active antennas, substrate integrated waveguide structures, nonlinear circuit design, and energy harvesting and wireless power transmission (WPT) solutions for self-sustainable and energy efficient systems. She has participated in several national and international research projects and has co-authored over 70 papers in journals and conferences. She has participated in the organization of several international workshops in different countries of the European Union and also a Training School for PhD students. She was a EU Marie Curie Fellow of the FP7 project Symbiotic Wireless Autonomous Powered system (SWAP). She serves in the Editorial Board of the Radioengineering Journal and she is currently an Associate Editor of the IEEE Microwave Magazine and a member of the IEEE MTT-26 Wireless Energy Transfer and Conversion and MTT-24 RFID Technologies.

Sponsored by the Electromagnetics TIA, School of ECE, Georgia Tech
Co-Sponsored by the IEEE AP/MTT Chapter, Atlanta
Food and refreshments available after the seminar.