A bar code reading terminal can, in one embodiment, include a two-dimensional image sensor and an imaging assembly. The terminal can be configured, in response to receipt of a trigger signal, to buffer a set of frames and subject each frame of the set of frames to a decode attempt. The terminal can also be configured to convert the convert the captured set of video frames into a compressed video format, and transfer the resulting video file to a file server or to one or more playback devices, in response to a user interface action, or in response to difficult read condition having been detected. The terminal can also be configured to establish two-way video- and audio-communication with a remote video- and audio-streaming device. The video capturing and streaming operation of the terminal can be controlled remotely from a playback device via web interface.

Bar code reading terminal with video capturing mode

An encoded information reading (EIR) terminal can comprise a microprocessor electrically coupled to a system/data bus, a memory communicatively coupled to the microprocessor, an EIR device, a multi-band antenna, and a wireless communication interface. The EIR device can be provided by a bar code reading device, an RFID reading device, or a card reading device. The EIR device can be configured to output raw message data containing an encoded message and/or output decoded message data corresponding to an encoded message. The wireless communication interface can comprise a radio frequency (RF) front end electrically coupled to the multi-band antenna. The RF front end can comprise a micro-electromechanical (MEMS) filter array including one or more band-pass filter. Each band-pass filter of the MEMS filter array can be electrically coupled to a bias voltage source or an oscillating signal source. The RF front end can be electrically coupled to an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter and/or to a digital-to-analog (D/A) converter. The wireless communication interface can be configured to transmit radio signals in two or more frequency regulatory domains and/or receive radio signals in two or more frequency regulatory domains. The multi-band antenna can in one embodiment be provided by a meta-material antenna.

Encoded information reading terminal with micro-electromechanical radio frequency front end

This paper reviews recent progress and future directions of signal integrity design for high-speed digital circuits, focusing on four areas: signal propagation on transmission lines, discontinuity modeling and characterization, measurement techniques, and link-path design and analysis.

Signal Integrity Design for High-Speed Digital Circuits: Progress and Directions

Advances in antenna technologies for cellular hand-held devices have been synchronous with the evolution of mobile phones over nearly 40 years. Having gone through four major wireless evolutions [1], [2], starting with the analog-based first generation to the current fourth-generation (4G) mobile broadband, technologies from manufacturers and their wireless network capacities today are advancing at unprecedented rates to meet our unrelenting service demands. These ever-growing demands, driven by exponential growth in wireless data usage around the globe [3], have gone hand in hand with major technological milestones achieved by the antenna design community. For instance, realizing the theory regarding the physical limitation of antennas [4]-[6] was paramount to the elimination of external antennas for mobile phones in the 1990s. This achievement triggered a variety of revolutionary mobile phone designs and the creation of new wireless services, establishing the current cycle of cellular advances and advances in mobile antenna technologies.

Solving the 5G Mobile Antenna Puzzle: Assessing Future Directions for the 5G Mobile Antenna Paradigm Shift

We present unequally spaced linear array synthesis with sidelobe suppression under constraints to beamwidth and null control using a design technique based on a Comprehensive Learning Particle Swarm Optimizer (CLPSO). CLPSO utilizes a new learning strategy that achieves the goal to accelerate the convergence of the classical PSO. Numerical examples are compared to the existing array designs in the literature and to those found by the other evolutionary algorithms. The synthesis examples that are presented show that the CLPSO algorithm outperforms the common PSO algorithms and a real-coded genetic algorithm (GA).

Application of a Comprehensive Learning Particle Swarm Optimizer to Unequally Spaced Linear Array Synthesis With Sidelobe Level Suppression and Null Control

This paper presents the design of a broadband RF impedance tuner that is part of a dynamically reconfigurable automatic match control (AMC) circuit that can be used for a wide variety of wireless devices and intelligent RF front ends. The impedance tuner can be used at the input of wireless devices in order to provide a significantly broader bandwidth or to reconfigure the impedance match spectrum. The tuner uses a microstrip loaded-line circuit topology with multiple stubs that each have a varactor diode located at the end. The results show that the tuner can achieve a broadband impedance match for a wide variety of loads that are either purely resistive or that have a large reactance as well.

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Reconfigurable RF impedance tuner for match control in broadband wireless devices

Methods for higher order parallel plate mode suppression in grounded coplanar waveguides (GCPW) using unique ground via structures are presented in this paper. Suppression of these higher order modes can increase GCPW bandwidth. The ground via fence parameters that affect the bandwidth of the GCPWs are also discussed. Two new structures using staggered ground via fences and with defected side ground planes, for improving GCPW performances while meeting fabrication and routing requirements, are discussed. These two methods improve the interconnect bandwidth by 62.2% and 27.8%, respectively. The measured and simulated results of a test GCPW structure are in close agreement.

Impact of Ground via Placement in Grounded Coplanar Waveguide Interconnects

This letter demonstrate the frequency agility that can be achieved when an broadband antenna is integrated with a reconfigurable RF tuner as na impedance matching circuit. The reconfigurable tuner uses a microstrip loaded line structure with four stubs that are each terminated by a varactor diode. The spectral response can be varied by changing the capacitance of the diodes. Input impedance data obtained from measurements on commercially available antennas were used in an agilent advanced design system (ADS) model of the four-stub tuner. The results show that adding the reconfigurable tuner can facilitate excellent frequency agility of the return loss of the broadband antenna over several narrow frequency subbands

Frequency Agility of Broadband Antennas Integrated With a Reconfigurable RF Impedance Tuner

A transition from coplanar waveguide (CPW)-to-microstrip with vias is often used in wafer-probe measurements. This paper shows how field and impedance matching are used to develop a wideband transition. This paper demonstrates how the presence and placement of the vias affect the bandwidth and alters the impedance of the transition. The measured results on a transition show that a wideband transition with return loss better than 10 dB and an insertion loss less than 1.5 dB up to 36.64 GHz is obtained. The measurements show excellent agreement with simulation. The work presented in this paper provides a better understanding about a CPW-to-microstrip transition with vias as well as design procedures and principles that can be utilized to facilitate the realization of a broadband CPW-to-microstrip transition with vias.

Development of a Broadband Coplanar Waveguide-to-Microstrip Transition With Vias

This paper describes a method to extract the relative complex dielectric permittivity from propagation coefficient measurements on microstrip lines. The material characteristics of microstrip lines fabricated on two different types of substrates commonly used in microwave circuit and printed circuit boards are investigated. The mechanisms that cause the effective permittivity of microstrip lines to be dispersive are explored. The technique includes creating closed-form effective permittivity equations to relate the effective permittivity of the microstrip lines to the real part of the dielectric permittivity of the substrate. Curve-fitting methods are used to create causal dielectric material models that relate the imaginary part of the dielectric permittivity to its real part. The methods developed in this paper can be used to characterize low-loss dielectric materials whose polarization is dominantly dipolar within the microwave frequency range in high-speed packaging applications.

Kathleen L. Melde

Papers

Reconfigurable RF impedance tuner for match control in broadband wireless devices

Impact of Ground via Placement in Grounded Coplanar Waveguide Interconnects

Frequency Agility of Broadband Antennas Integrated With a Reconfigurable RF Impedance Tuner

Development of a Broadband Coplanar Waveguide-to-Microstrip Transition With Vias

A Comprehensive Technique to Determine the Broadband Physically Consistent Material Characteristics of Microstrip Lines