High Frequency Electronics (HFE) Lab

RFID and Wireless Sensing

RFID technologies are a long-standing research line of the HFE Lab. Current activities focus on innovative sensing and identification architectures, including harmonic RFID, chipless and zero-power sensors, and RFID-enabled sensing platforms for Internet of Things applications. Particular attention is devoted to unconventional and sustainable materials, flexible substrates, and architectures capable of operating with extremely low or no battery power.

Wireless Power Transfer and Energy Harvesting

The Lab develops technologies for wirelessly powered and energy-autonomous electronic systems. Research covers RF energy harvesting, rectennas, wireless power transfer, low-power conversion circuits, and the co-design of energy sources and sensing platforms. These activities support the development of long-life and battery-free nodes for distributed sensing and IoT applications.

Sustainable and Green Electronics

For HFE, green electronics is not a single technology but a design approach. As electronics becomes more pervasive, sustainability increasingly depends on reducing both material and energy impact. The Lab explores biodegradable and recyclable substrates, paper- and cellulose-based circuits, low-power electronics, energy harvesting, and environmentally compatible fabrication approaches. The objective is to enable electronic systems that can be massively distributed without creating a proportionally larger environmental footprint.

Additive and Hybrid Manufacturing – SiP on Paper

HFE investigates additive, printed, and hybrid manufacturing techniques for RF and microwave electronics. A distinctive research line is the extension of System-in-Package concepts to unconventional substrates, including paper and cellulose-based materials (SiP on Paper, or SiPoP). Printed conductors, selective metallization, heterogeneous integration, and low-cost assembly techniques are explored to realize compact and sustainable wireless systems.

Radar and Microwave Sensing

The Lab develops microwave and radar sensors for motion, presence, distance, and contactless monitoring. Applications range from industrial and infrastructure monitoring to intelligent environments and biomedical sensing. The activity builds on long-standing experience in automotive radar and combines RF hardware, antenna design, signal acquisition, and application-oriented system integration.

Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Radiometers

Microwave and millimeter-wave radiometers are designed for applications ranging from environmental monitoring and early fire detection to the observation of solar phenomena. Research includes both discrete-component receivers and highly integrated implementations, exploiting silicon technologies to reduce size, power consumption, and system complexity.

RF, Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Circuit Design

HFE develops RF and millimeter-wave circuits and subsystems using both discrete and integrated technologies. Activities include reconfigurable and power-amplifier architectures, frequency-generation and conversion circuits, front ends, and building blocks for sensing and radiometric systems. Integrated-circuit design is carried out in CMOS and SiGe technologies, with access to Multi-Project-Wafer fabrication services..

Antennas and Active Radiating Systems

Planar and integrated antennas are developed for RFID, short-range wireless sensing, energy harvesting, and microwave systems. Research includes antennas on conventional as well as flexible and sustainable substrates, together with active radiating structures in which the antenna is co-designed with oscillators, frequency multipliers, rectifiers, or other RF functions.