A 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) radio student design competition will be offered by Dr. David S. Ricketts of North Carolina State University (NC State) at the 2018 International Microwave Symposium (IMS). The competition leverages Dr. Ricketts’s hands-on workshop, known as “From Bits to Waves: Building a Modern Radio in One Day,” which successfully combines the use of NI AWR Design Environment with design labs to construct working radios.

Student design team competitors will be asked to design, construct, measure and demonstrate a 16-QAM wireless transmitter operating at 950 MHz. Prior to arriving at IMS2018, the teams will design a Wilkinson combiner, a branchline coupler, a double-balanced mixer, a power amplifier and an antenna. During the show, the teams will fabricate their designs and test each component and the complete radio on site. The performance metric will be received power/error vector magnitude, with the highest number winning the competition. 

For details and to register for the competition, visit http://rickettslab.org/bits2waves/ims2018/.