We conduct research in strategic areas of communications and sensor technology to address the ongoing requirements of national and global industry and the demands of the information age.

Mike Faulker, researcher

Areas of research

Telecommunications

Research is concentrated into the area of wireless systems and related applications:

  • Radio system design, which involves the capacity and deployment of wireless systems.
  • Air interface research, which involves the measurement and modelling of the radio channel and then the development of modulation schemes and algorithms to exploit or overcome the resulting channel characteristics.
  • Radio architectures and implantation (micro)–electronics.

  • Green wireless base-stations, based on low power transmitter electronics.
  • Frequency flexible circuits, including removal of switched filters from wireless handsets, and which requires close collaboration with our microelectronics capabilities.
  • Cognitive radio, which means dynamic and opportunistic access to unused spectrum. Previously this research involved TV band modems but now includes femtocell systems (i.e. very small area wireless systems).
  • Body area communications involve portable sensors for measuring physical activity in the lower limbs.

Microelectronics

Research involves the design of new integrated circuits for solving instrumentation problems and providing more efficient and effective signal processing, including:

  • full-custom integrated circuits design
  • semi-custom and FPGA circuits design
  • MEMS/MOS sensors design.

  • Telecommunications research, since mobile communications requires new integrated circuits to be designed, fabricated and tested.
  • The development of sensors for applications in sport and health science and biomedical engineering.

Optics & photonics

Research is conducted in the areas of:

  • optical fibre sensors
  • optical materials
  • optical fibre lasers & optical amplifiers
  • imaging of photonic devices.

  • Optical fibre Bragg gratings are an optical filter inscribed within an optical fibre and work includes understanding the complexities of their behaviour, including sensor applications, and their application for tuning and switching applications relevant to optical networks.
  • Deployment of optical fibre sensors in industrial situations, e.g. monitoring corrosion in water pipes.
  • Rare-earth-doped optical fibres are vital for optical fibre lasers and optical amplifiers and improvement in their fabrication will allow enhanced performance, or better tunability. This work is enabled by the silica optical fibre fabrication facilities at UNSW with VU as a partner (funded by an ARC LIEF grant).
  • Applications in biosciences and health of optical techniques include imaging using the microscope and new applications of optical fibre sensors; e.g. imaging of single muscle fibres and the assessment of compression garments.

Researchers

Members of the Telecommunications, Electronics, Photonics & Sensors Research Unit continue to publish their work in a broad range of scholarly journals and in proceedings of international learned conferences.

Read about our researcher publications in our biographies, via the links.

Name Phone and email
Professor Stephen Collins +61 3 9919 4283
[email protected]
Dr Daniel Lai +61 3 9919 4425
[email protected]
Prof Greg Baxter +61 3 9919 4276
[email protected]
Prof Mike Faulkner +61 3 9919 4254
[email protected]
Dr Horace King +61 3 9919 4696
[email protected]
Associate Professor Thinh Nguyen +61 3 9919 4281
[email protected]
Dr Fotios Sidiroglou +61 3 9919 9311
[email protected]
Dr Aladin Zayegh +61 3 9919 4858
[email protected]

 

Research undertaken by our current postgraduate students:

Name Thesis title
Marziyeh Nazari (PhD) Temperature and strain measurement using fluorescence from rare-earth-doped optical fibres
Behailu Mulatu Kibret (PhD) Sensor Technology
Sara Sangtarash (PhD) The design of cognitive radio system for efficient sharing of TV white space with LTE system
Nithila Dediyagala (PhD) Enhancing performance in fibre Bragg grating pressure sensors
Baharuddin Mustapha (PhD) Automated obstacle detection system for safe locomotion
Wan Hassan Wan Hafiza (PhD) Enhancing performance in wireless-fibre networks
Geordie Zhaojie Zhang (PhD) Improved cellular networks through cooperative coordination
Shabbir Ahmed (PhD) Spectrum sharing in cognitive radio networks
Shibu Darren (PhD) Tunable fibre Bragg gratings for optical communications & sensing applications
Sirmayanti Sirmayanti (PhD) Design of low power digital transmitter for femtocell basestation/access point
Mirhojjat H Seyedi (PhD) A novel intra-body communication transceiver for biomedical applications
Raheleh Eslampanah (PhD) A pilot subsystem for an active duplexer
Robabeh Amirkhanzadeh Barandozi (PhD) Active duplexing circuit for wireless communication
Abdul Hadi Bin Abdul Razak (PhD) Design and implementation of a wireless pressure sensor system for gait analysis
Mohammadreza Pourakbar (PhD) Tuneable active duplexer for mobile phones
Saleem Shahryar (PhD) Opportunistic spectrum access in cognitive radio networks
Cancan (Angela) Jiang (PhD)  
Lance Linton (PhD) Intelligent wireless modem design for high speed indoor communications
Hatef Sadeghi (PhD)  
Bhadra Thotath (PhD)  

Contact us

Professor Stephen Collins
Unit Leader, Telecommunications, Electronics, Photonics & Sensors Unit
Phone: +61 3 9919 4283
Email[email protected]