Cardiff engineers receive IEEE best paper prize

Professor Steve Cripps from Cardiff University School of Engineering, and two of his research collaborators, have been awarded the 2018 MWCL “Tatsuo Itoh” Award, which recognises ‘the most significant contribution in a paper published in the IEEE Microwave and Wireless Component. Letters’. The paper was selected from over 360 papers published in the highly rated MTT journal.

The award, consisting of a commemorative plaque and a prize of $650 for each researcher, was presented at the annual Society Awards Banquet during the International Microwave Symposium in Philadelphia this June.

"An Efficient Broadband Reconfigurable Power Amplifier Using Active Load Modulation," by Daniel J. Shepphard, Jeffrey Powell, and Steve C. Cripps (an IEEE fellow) was selected from over 360 papers published in one of the MTT Society’s flagship journals in 2016.

The paper addresses a novel technique whereby passive reactive matching in a microwave power amplifier circuit is complemented with an active signal input, enabling the amplifier's properties to be adjusted using an external signal. The technique has widespread application and impact in modern wireless communications systems and military radar and surveillance systems, enabling improved bandwidth and efficiency performance.

The work was led by Professor Steve Cripps and performed by members of his microwave circuit technology research group under a research contract from Selex-Leonardo in Edinburgh. The group forms part of the School of Engineering’s Centre for High Frequency Engineering, which is at the forefront of research into communications engineering, and has also been recognised by the MTT Society in the past.

In 2016, Professor Cripps and his colleagues picked up the Microwave Prize for the most significant paper published in the IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques [https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/350196-cardiff-engineers-scoop-top-prize-for-research-paper], which is judged the most significant in the field of interest of the MTT Society. This second award demonstrates that the Centre’s commitment to high-impact research continues to be recognised on an international stage.