Davis Advanced RF Technologies Lab

EEC 134 Design of RF/Microwave Systems (Senior project course)

The EEC 134 course was created to satisfy the need for a senior project course for students who are interested in high frequency electronic systems. The two-quarter long course emphasizes on system level design concepts and strives to provide a hands-on experience. As the course evolves, the projects start to encompass many facets of electrical engineering, including system engineering, antenna design, analog circuit design, embedded systems, and digital signal processing.

The first project option we have developed is the implementation of a frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar system that can perform range, Doppler, and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) measurements. In the first quarter, the students go through a series of structured labs to learn the basic system design concepts and acquire the necessary skills for putting together a high frequency system. In the second quarter, they propose and implement improvements to their radar system in terms of measurement accuracy, resolution, weight and power consumption. At the end of the course, their performance is partially judged in a radar competition.

Course Materials

• Lecture notes and lab manuals
• Course code repository
• Past student designs:
  • 2013 - 2014
  • 2014 - 2015
  • 2015 - 2016
  • 2016 - 2017
  • 2017 - 2018

Media Coverage

• Hackaday: UC Davis Students Build Coffee Can Radar Project Inspired by MIT
• Hackaday: The First Arduino Radar Shield

Acknowledgment

• National Instruments - AWR (2014, 2017) for sponsoring the radar competition!
• Mini-Circuits for generously providing free samples to the students.
• BayAreaCircuits for providing additional discounts on PCB prototyping.
• Northrop Grumman (2014)
• MIT-Lincoln Lab (2012–2014)
• Qualcomm (2012)
• Xilinx (2012)