SFU.CA Burnaby | Surrey | Vancouver

Rodney Vaughan

Professor, Simon Fraser University
Chair, Sierra Wireless

Research Statement:


From electronic and communication product design, I found that innovation requires not only signal processing, but also an understanding of the underlying physical mechanisms which are driving the need for signal processing solutions. This combination has become a theme of my research.

Research Interest:


Signal Processing Theory
Antenna Theory and Design
Wave Propagation Measurement and Modeling

Ongoing and Unlimited Topics:


Compact mammalian bio-implantable antennas,
Multiple element antenna (MEA) designs and evaluations,
Circularly polarized antennas,
Multifaceted structures for large arrays,
MIMO capacity optimization,
Blind and pre-coding techniques for OFDM,
Blind channel estimation
Physics-based algorithms for location estimation
Mobile antennas, including mutual coupling and distributed gain
Polarization diversity and downtilt for base stations
Signal processing algorithms for multiport receivers
Signal conversion stage signal processing
Beam space diversity: spacing for directive antennas and angular spacing

Existing and Completed Research Grants:


  • Sierra Wireless Endowed Professorship in Mobile Communications
  • Canada Foundation for innovation New Opportunities (CFI-New Ops)
  • NSERC Strategic Grant Deformable Smart Antennas
  • CFI LOF Grant Antenna Patter Measurement Facility for SFU
  • NSERC Discovery Grant, Adaptive Antennas for Communications in Interference Environments
  • NSERC I2I Grant, Phase 1A Cost Effective smart Antennas for Broadband Communications
    High Efficiency Digital Communications
  • British Columbia Advanced system Institute, Advanced Systems Institute Fellowship, High Efficiency Digital Communications (completed)
  • NSERC Discovery Grant, Signal Processing and Antennas for High Efficiency Digital Communications (completed)
  • Sierra Wireless Incorporated Donation, Pattern Measurement Facility at SFU (completed)
  • Nokia/MITACS, Basic Design Considerations for Embedded Antennas (completed)
  • NSERC Idea to Innovation Grant, High Performance 3D MEMs Antenna Technology (completed)
  • Nokia/MITACS, Measurement of Carrier Signal Phase in Cellphones (completed)

    Lab Facilities:


    Satimo SG128 antenna pattern chamber 300MHz to 12GHz
    NSI planar pattern scanner 8GHz to 50GHz
    Agilent PNA E8361C 67GHz
    Agilent multiple port ENA 16 ports
    Agilent E4446A PSA Series Spectrum Analyzer, 3 Hz to 44 GHz
    Agilent E5071B ENA RF Network Analyzer, 300 kHz 8.5 GHz
    Agilent E5091A Multiport Test Set, 16 ports
    Tektronix DPO 7104 Digital Phosphor Oscilloscope 1GHz
    (2 X TAP1500 active probe1.5GHz; 4 X P6158 passive probes 3GHz; 4 X P6139A passive probes 500MHz )
    Tektronix TDS 8200/80E06 sampling oscilloscope
    (with 70+ GHz Electrical Sampling Module)
    HP 33120A 15MHz Function/Arbitrary Waveform Generator
    Wavetek 182A 4MHz Function Generator
    HP 8920B RF Communications Test Set, 250kHz - 1GHz
    Tektronix TDS350 2 Channel Osilloscope 200MHz, 1GS/s
    Tektronix 2445B 4 Chennel 150MHz Osilloscope
    HP 8921A Cell Site Test Set, 250kHz - 1GHz
    Agilent E8285A CDMA Mobile Station Test Set
    HP E3631A (2 units) Triple Output DC Power Supply
    Avtech AVE1-C 10 v p-p monocycle generator with octave tuning
    Avtech AVE2-C 4 v p-p , fixed-tuned monocycle generator
    PulsOn P210 UWB Evaluation Kit
    Electro-Metrics EM-6865 Omni-Directional Wideband Antenna, 2GHz - 18GHz
    HP 34404A DMM
    Sun Fire X4600 Server, Sun Fire V40z Server, Sun Fire V890