June 10, 2019

An Interview with Pete Bevelacqua

1 hour 12 minutes

Welcome, Pete Bevelacqua of Antenna-Theory.com!

This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Rohde & Schwarz. They just announced an industry first: complete solutions with all the upgrades up front—for one price. Now through December 31, save up to $10,000 on Rohde & Schwarz solution packages that come with fully loaded test & measurement instruments, right from the start. For more information about their latest product offering, check out AskAnEngineer.us

Chris first met Pete when he was giving a talk at HDDG about a custom made VNA

0h 0m 55s

Pete has been an antenna designer at Boeing, Apple, Nest

0h 1m 16s

Pete got started in this because he really liked Electricity and Magnetism classes.

0h 2m 12s

"Do I come out [of the class] and know how to put an antenna in a phone?" (answer: no)

0h 3m 4s

Pete studied with Dr Bilanas at ASU

0h 3m 20s

Convex optimization program

0h 4m 12s

Used a lot in signal processing

0h 5m 38s

Compared to linear optimizations

0h 6m 29s

Boeing wanted to put 20 antennas on a plane

0h 7m 37s

DC to daylight

0h 8m 20s

Starting with a specific problem

0h 9m 43s

"I want to put a bluetooth antenna in my device"

0h 9m 51s

Start from a place of practicality

0h 11m 16s

Do not make anything hard that doesn't need to be hard

0h 11m 32s

The one piece of math you need to know: the lowest frequency you're using

0h 12m 52s

Half wavelength for GPS is 3.5 inches

0h 13m 13s

Efficiency is how much you're putting in vs what you get out

0h 13m 30s

Everything in RF is dB

0h 14m 49s

...except for the antenna

0h 15m 13s

"This meeting is 3dB too long"

0h 16m 35s

Didn't design antennas at Boeing because they didn't need them to be custom/integrated

0h 18m 53s

Directionality of antennae

0h 21m 6s

"Do you want a high gain antenna?"

0h 21m 12s

Gain specifically is the efficiency (in dB) plus the directivity (in dB)

0h 21m 52s

FCC matters for consumer. If you have a directional antenna and it's out of spec, you'll need to take the overall power down

0h 23m 7s

Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP) = conducted power + antenna gain

0h 24m 0s

dDm is milliwatts of power

0h 24m 59s

RF and antenna teams are different at hardware companies.

0h 26m 6s

RF team assumes a 50 ohm antenna. The antenna team assumes a 50 ohm driver.

0h 27m 7s

Went from Boeing to Apple

0h 28m 7s

Consumer electronics and how it works

0h 29m 3s

Industrial design team starts the process for look, feel and materials.

0h 29m 10s

Mockup or simulation

0h 31m 36s

Integration and understanding what will be interfering

0h 31m 58s

Simulation is HFSS and CST

0h 33m 4s

Pete isn't big on simulating

0h 33m 16s

Some people don't simulate at all

0h 33m 57s

Not that many types of antennas

0h 35m 3s

Hybrids of dipoles

0h 36m 7s

VNA

0h 36m 21s

VSWR

0h 36m 37s

VNA just tells you it is matched, not that it's radiating

0h 37m 1s

Once it's matched you go about measuring its efficiency by putting it in an anechoic chamber

0h 37m 42s

Dealing with multiple frequencies

0h 38m 30s

GPS, Bluetooth, Wifi, Cellular

0h 38m 45s

Cellular bands

0h 39m 5s

Antennas are not meant to reject anything, that's the job of the filters

0h 40m 20s

1850 (MHz) spectrum in cellular

0h 40m 35s

"The ground in your PCB is part of your antenna"

0h 44m 20s

How a flat antenna can create a unidirectional radiation

0h 46m 27s

Omnidirectional is actually a donut pattern

0h 46m 46s

For lower cellular frequencies, the phone is shorter than half the antenna

0h 47m 33s

Explaining the polarization without looking

0h 48m 49s

"The more volume you have the more bandwidth you have"

0h 50m 34s

Fixing things with an exacto knife

0h 52m 34s

Choking the lines allows you to select the frequencies

0h 54m 5s

You start testing cert right away

0h 55m 23s

Building your own VNA (talk at HDDG)

0h 56m 41s

Went to Maker Faire, saw someone building a VNA

0h 57m 58s

Need a bidirectional coupler

1h 0m 9s

Need a frequency synthsizer

1h 1m 8s

Coupler has directivity

1h 2m 24s

Reflected comes back and you can measure with a chip

1h 3m 11s

Got the Chazwazza (VNA project) on kickstarter, but the demand wasn't there

1h 4m 0s

The unit operates from 400 MHz to 2.7 GHz

1h 5m 4s

Super light, especially compared to commercial equipment

1h 5m 16s

After VNAs, testing chambers are also useful

1h 6m 36s

Size of the chamber is a function of the wavelength

1h 6m 54s

Pete's current project is putting a working on putting a rocket in a balloon

1h 7m 56s

Check out more of Pete's work at Antenna-theory.com

1h 9m 53s

...more

View all episodes

By The Amp Hour (Chris Gammell and David L Jones)

4.9

226226 ratings

June 10, 2019

An Interview with Pete Bevelacqua

1 hour 12 minutes

Welcome, Pete Bevelacqua of Antenna-Theory.com!

Chris first met Pete when he was giving a talk at HDDG about a custom made VNA

0h 0m 55s

Pete has been an antenna designer at Boeing, Apple, Nest

0h 1m 16s

Pete got started in this because he really liked Electricity and Magnetism classes.

0h 2m 12s

"Do I come out [of the class] and know how to put an antenna in a phone?" (answer: no)

0h 3m 4s

Pete studied with Dr Bilanas at ASU

0h 3m 20s

Convex optimization program

0h 4m 12s

Used a lot in signal processing

0h 5m 38s

Compared to linear optimizations

0h 6m 29s

Boeing wanted to put 20 antennas on a plane

0h 7m 37s

DC to daylight

0h 8m 20s

Starting with a specific problem

0h 9m 43s

"I want to put a bluetooth antenna in my device"

0h 9m 51s

Start from a place of practicality

0h 11m 16s

Do not make anything hard that doesn't need to be hard

0h 11m 32s

The one piece of math you need to know: the lowest frequency you're using

0h 12m 52s

Half wavelength for GPS is 3.5 inches

0h 13m 13s

Efficiency is how much you're putting in vs what you get out

0h 13m 30s

Everything in RF is dB

0h 14m 49s

...except for the antenna

0h 15m 13s

"This meeting is 3dB too long"

0h 16m 35s

Didn't design antennas at Boeing because they didn't need them to be custom/integrated

0h 18m 53s

Directionality of antennae

0h 21m 6s

"Do you want a high gain antenna?"

0h 21m 12s

Gain specifically is the efficiency (in dB) plus the directivity (in dB)

0h 21m 52s

FCC matters for consumer. If you have a directional antenna and it's out of spec, you'll need to take the overall power down

0h 23m 7s

Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP) = conducted power + antenna gain

0h 24m 0s

dDm is milliwatts of power

0h 24m 59s

RF and antenna teams are different at hardware companies.

0h 26m 6s

RF team assumes a 50 ohm antenna. The antenna team assumes a 50 ohm driver.

0h 27m 7s

Went from Boeing to Apple

0h 28m 7s

Consumer electronics and how it works

0h 29m 3s

Industrial design team starts the process for look, feel and materials.

0h 29m 10s

Mockup or simulation

0h 31m 36s

Integration and understanding what will be interfering

0h 31m 58s

Simulation is HFSS and CST

0h 33m 4s

Pete isn't big on simulating

0h 33m 16s

Some people don't simulate at all

0h 33m 57s

Not that many types of antennas

0h 35m 3s

Hybrids of dipoles

0h 36m 7s

VNA

0h 36m 21s

VSWR

0h 36m 37s

VNA just tells you it is matched, not that it's radiating

0h 37m 1s

Once it's matched you go about measuring its efficiency by putting it in an anechoic chamber

0h 37m 42s

Dealing with multiple frequencies

0h 38m 30s

GPS, Bluetooth, Wifi, Cellular

0h 38m 45s

Cellular bands

0h 39m 5s

Antennas are not meant to reject anything, that's the job of the filters

0h 40m 20s

1850 (MHz) spectrum in cellular

0h 40m 35s

"The ground in your PCB is part of your antenna"

0h 44m 20s

How a flat antenna can create a unidirectional radiation

0h 46m 27s

Omnidirectional is actually a donut pattern

0h 46m 46s

For lower cellular frequencies, the phone is shorter than half the antenna

0h 47m 33s

Explaining the polarization without looking

0h 48m 49s

"The more volume you have the more bandwidth you have"

0h 50m 34s

Fixing things with an exacto knife

0h 52m 34s

Choking the lines allows you to select the frequencies

0h 54m 5s

You start testing cert right away

0h 55m 23s

Building your own VNA (talk at HDDG)

0h 56m 41s

Went to Maker Faire, saw someone building a VNA

0h 57m 58s

Need a bidirectional coupler

1h 0m 9s

Need a frequency synthsizer

1h 1m 8s

Coupler has directivity

1h 2m 24s

Reflected comes back and you can measure with a chip

1h 3m 11s

Got the Chazwazza (VNA project) on kickstarter, but the demand wasn't there

1h 4m 0s

The unit operates from 400 MHz to 2.7 GHz

1h 5m 4s

Super light, especially compared to commercial equipment

1h 5m 16s

After VNAs, testing chambers are also useful

1h 6m 36s

Size of the chamber is a function of the wavelength

1h 6m 54s

Pete's current project is putting a working on putting a rocket in a balloon

1h 7m 56s

Check out more of Pete's work at Antenna-theory.com

1h 9m 53s

...more

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An Interview with Pete Bevelacqua

An Interview with Pete Bevelacqua

More shows like The Amp Hour

The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

This Week in Tech (Audio)

Security Now (Audio)

Software Engineering Daily

Talk Python To Me

SpyCast

SANS Internet Stormcenter Daily Cyber Security Podcast (Stormcast)

Embedded

Smashing Security

Darknet Diaries

Physics World Weekly Podcast

Practical AI

Hackaday Podcast

Latent Space: The AI Engineer Podcast

Robinson's Podcast