Wireless Techniques can assist with the design, analysis and implementation of small to mid-sized systems. Typical applications include wireless & wired communications, signal & video processing and sensing. Starting with customer requirements, we design and implement hardware and firmware using the appropriate level of systems-engineering process. We can assist with wireless link analysis / design, wireless transceiver implementation, real-time/DSP system design and sensor system design. The following list describes typical system development challenges where we can be of assistance.
We provide in system-level analysis & design of wireless comm links. This general involves the development of a link-budget, which is an analysis of RF power levels throughout various parts of the tx/channel/rx system. Customer requirements for distance, carrier frequency, power consumption and other parameters are considered during the process. System parameters such as antenna style, modulation format, encoding method and tx power level are often trade-offs of the link-budgeting process.
The system design often includes an analysis of the communications channel and it's fading, or path loss characteristics. In some cases where the channel includes many path obstructions, this analysis might include an experimental characterization of the channel loss or multipath (channel impulse response) behavior. On-site characterization services are available.
We can assist with the selection and PCB implementation of transceiver chipsets for RF communications. Selection involves identifying candidate devices based on system parameters such as RF carrier frequency, modulation format, encoding method, and relevant standards where applicable. Trade-offs are then made based on performance characteristics of the candidate transceiver architectures. Typically, receiver interference blocking and chipset power consumption are important parameters. Once the chipset has been selected, a PCB layout can be produced. Our background is primarily in low-to-mid rate wireless applications such as sensor data telemetry and remote control of equipment.
We provide design and implementation of real-time embedded systems for comms, DSP and controls. We work with the NXP ARM7, ADI BlackFin BF53x and TI MSP430 Processors. Our experience is in small to mid-size projects (less than 50k-loc or so), generally for prototypes or small production runs.
We can assist with the design and implementation of sensor systems. Starting with customer requirements, we can perform a trade-off analysis of various sensing methods and technologies, providing estimates of economical and performance metrics such as system cost, SNR, accuracy and power consumption. Our sensing background is quite diverse, including motion (GPS & inertial), temperature (TC & RTD), airflow (hot-wire anemometry), acoustic and analog video.
We can assist with various electronic hardware engineering tasks such as RF & analog design, switching power conversion and EMI/EMC. This work may involve design of a new module or PCB from ground-zero, or optimizing a design for production considerations including performance, cost, size and reliability.