Breadboard

Abstract: The half-bridge series resonant, parallel resonant and combination series-parallel resonant converters are compared for use in low output voltage power supply applications. It is shown that the combination series-parallel converter, which takes on the desirable characteristics of the pure series and the pure parallel converter, removes the main disadvantages of those two converters. Analyses and breadboard results show that the combination series-parallel converter can run over a large input voltage range and a large load range (no-load to full-load) while while maintaining excellent efficiency. A useful analysis technique based on classical ac complex analysis is also introduced.

Abstract: A breadboard of a three-layer printed reflectarray for dual polarization with a different coverage in each polarization has been designed, manufactured, and tested. The reflectarray consists of three layers of rectangular patch arrays separated by a honeycomb and backed by a ground plane. The beam shaping for each polarization is achieved by adjusting the phase of the reflection coefficient at each reflective element independently for each linear polarization. The phase shift for each polarization is controlled by varying either the x or y patch dimensions. The dimensions of the rectangular patches are optimized to achieve the required phase shift for each beam at central and extreme frequencies in the working band. The reflectarray has been designed to produce a contoured beam for a European coverage in H-polarization in a 10% bandwidth, and a pencil beam to illuminate the East Coast in North America in V-polarization. The measured radiation patterns show that gain requirements are practically fulfilled in a 10% bandwidth for both coverages, and the electrical performances of the breadboard are close to those of a classical dual gridded reflector

Abstract: The design of a C-band electronically beam scanning reflectarray is presented. The reconfigurable reflectarray element consists of a microstrip patch, printed on a flexible membrane substrate, aperture-coupled to a transmission line loaded with two varactor diodes. The designed element allows continuous tuning of the reflected signal's phase over a 360deg range with a maximum loss of 2.4 dB at 5.4 GHz. The measured results on a 30-element reflectarray breadboard show that by varying the bias voltages on each element the main beam can be steered to large angles, up to 40deg from broadside in the H-plane. A loss analysis of the proposed reflectarray is also presented

Abstract: The many successes of synthetic biology have come in a manner largely different from those in other engineering disciplines; in particular, without well-characterized and simplified prototyping environments to play a role analogous to wind-tunnels in aerodynamics and breadboards in electrical engineering. However, as the complexity of synthetic circuits increases, the benefits—in cost savings and design cycle time—of a more traditional engineering approach can be significant. We have recently developed an in vitro “breadboard” prototyping platform based on E. coli cell extract that allows biocircuits to operate in an environment considerably simpler than, but functionally similar to, in vivo. The simplicity of this system makes it a promising tool for rapid biocircuit design and testing, as well as for probing fundamental aspects of gene circuit operation normally masked by cellular complexity. In this work, we characterize the cell-free breadboard using real-time and simultaneous measurements of transcri...