RF Interview questions

1. Which transmission line supports Quasi-TEM

a) Stripline b) Microstrip Line c) Coupled Stripline d) Coaxial Line

2. Two isotropic antennas are separated by a distance of 2 wavelengths, if both the

antennas are fed with currents of equal phase and magnitude the number of lobes in the
radiation pattern in the horizontal plane are
a) 2 b) 4 c) 6 d) 8
3. Given S-parameter corresponds to which microwave component
a) Power Divider b) Coupler c) Circulator d) Filter

4. EMPIRE is based on which method

a) FEM b) BEM c) FDTD d) MOM

5. 1 watt is
a) 10dBm b) 20dBm c) 30dBm d) 40dBm

6. Where is the LNA placed

a) Between Antenna and BPF
b) Between Antenna and Power Amplifier
c) Between Antenna and Mixer
d) Between Mixer and Antenna

7. A rectangular air filled wave-guide has cross section of 4cm x 10 cm. The minimum
frequency which can propagate in the wave-guide is
a) 1.5 GHz b) 2 GHz c) 2.5 GHz d) 3.5 GHz

8. A 1km long microwave link uses two antennas each having 30dB gain. If the power
transmitted by one antenna is 1w at 3GHz the power received by the other antenna is
a) 98.6 m watts b) 63.4 m watts c) 76.8 m watts d) 55.2 m watts

9. Which of the following is True or False

a) Data rate is inversely proportional to Distance
b) Antenna acts as a load
c) Directivity is inversely proportional to Distance
d) Patch antenna is used in high power applications.

10. The far-field region is commonly taken to exist at (D is the maximum overall dimension
of the source)
a) Distances greater than 2D2/ from the source
b) Distances lesser than /4 from the source
c) Distances greater than /4 from the source
d) Distances lesser than 2D2/ from the source

11. If the frequency were 12GHz, what would be the wavelength?

a) 25mm b) 2.5mm c) 0.25 mm d) 250mm
12. What is the frequency range if the antenna is operating at Ku-band?
a) 4-8GHz b) 8-12GHz c) 12-18GHz d) 18-27GHz

13. For a given permittivity of 4 and permeability of 2, what is the wave impedance?
a) 266.5 b) 533.0 c) 377.0 d) 133.2

14. In Smith chart, what is the wavelength it will cover for the first 1800 or first half circle.
a) b) /2 c) /4 d) 2

15. If source impedance is 50 Ohms and the load impedance is 100 Ohms, what will be the
line impedance of the Quarter Wave Transformer?
a) 14.14 Ohms b) 50 Ohms c) 1.414 Ohms d) 70.7 Ohms

16. Compute the skin depth of copper at a frequency of 20GHz. (Conductivity of copper =
5.813 x 107 mho).
a) 8.14 x 10-7 b) 6.6 x 10-7 c) 6.4 x 10-7 d) 4.6 x 10-7

17. Zigbee network is mainly used for

a) Signaling and Monitoring
b) High Speed Data Transfer
c) Voice Transfer
d) Video Transmission

18. Ideal Power Supply has

a) Zero internal resistance
b) High O/P resistance
c) High I/P resistance
d) Low O/P resistance

19. Which type of transmission line will have maximum value of characteristic impedance
a) Open Wire line
b) Coaxial Cable
c) Twin lead line
d) None
20. Write the relation between Standing Wave Ratio and Reflection Coefficient?

21. Draw the equivalent circuit of the transmission line.

by arasu

Re: RF Interview questions

Hi,
Some more questions on rf design

1. What’s a PCB? multilayer, calculation of impedance, skin effect, loss, grounding

technique, isolation technique
2. Name some band definitions. L-Band – 1-2 GHz, S-Band – 2-4 GHz, C-Band – 4-8
GHz, X-Band – 8-12 GHz, Ku-Band – 12-18 GHz.
3. What’s the definition of gain? The signal going into the device is smaller than the signal
going out.
4. What’s a definition of an amplifier? It’s a device that exhibits gain.
5. Insertion loss? The signal going in is greater than the signal that’s coming out.
6. Thermal impedance? A measure of how hot the device gets with varying electrical
input.
7. What’s the relation between dB and change of signal? +3 dB is 2 times bigger, +10 dB
is 10 times bigger.
8. What’s an octave? The bandwidth characterized by higher band being twice as much as
lower band (100-200 MHz).
9. What’s a decade? A bandwidth, where the higher band is 10x the lower band (100 MHz
– 1 GHz).
10. Skin effect? The signal is reported on the surface of the object, but not inside, e.g. a
solid brick wall.
11. VSWR? Voltage Standing Wave Ratio. The numeric representation of the device leak,
written like X:1 where X is greater when the leak is greater and 1:1 is the absolute no-leakage
VSWR.
12. Describe an impedance matching circuit. A circuit capable of changing the impedance
with different values for incoming and outgoing impedance.
13. Describe circular polarization. The signal travels both vertically and horizontally.
14. What’s the job of the amplifier? To increase the incoming signal.
15. What is noise figure? The level of noise that a low-noise amplifier (LNA) is capable of
discriminating.
16. What’s a transfer curve? It is a graph of the output power versus the input power of an
amplifier.
17. What’s the 911 point? The point where the input power results in flames on the other
end.
18. What’s saturation point? The point where the amplifier loses its linearity of the
transfer curve.
19. What does balanced amplifier consist of? Two amplifiers stuck together.
20. What is the filters function? To filter out all the unwanted radio signals.
21. What filter types are there? Low-pass (all frequencies below are allowed to pass in),
high-pass, bandpass (all frequencies of a given bandwidth are allowed) and band-reject.
22. What are saw filters used for? Very low frequency filtering.
23. What are mixers used for? To change the frequency of the signal.
24. What’s a superheterodyne receiver? It’s a receiver that uses two mixers in a row.
25. Describe VCO. Voltage-controlled oscillators change the frequency of the produced
sine wave depending on the voltage they receive.
26. Describe more on the function of PLL ?

guru

by guru
Re: RF Interview questions
Channels and TDMA structure
35. Why do we use Multiple Access Schemes? What is the difference between FDMA,
TDMA and CDMA?
36. Which channel(s) is used for SMS?

37. Which channel is used by MS to request access to the network?

38. What is AGCH?
39. Why do we need SDCCH?
40. What is a physical channel? How do we differentiate between physical and logical
channels?
41. What are TDMA frames, multiframes, superframes and hyperframes?
42. Why do we need FCCH, SCH and BCCH?
43. Why do we need SACCH?
44. What is the purpose of PCH and CBCH?
45. Do we keep BCCH on a hopping radio? Give the reason to support your answer.
46. How much delay is present between downlink and uplink frames? Why do we need this
delay?
47. Explain the structure of a Traffic Multiframe. Why do we need SACCH and Idle bursts in
a traffic multiframe?
48. How is a FACCH formed? When is a FACCH used?
49. What are bursts? Explain various types of bursts.
Radio Propagation and Antennas
50. What is VSWR? Why do we need it?
51. What do you mean by EIRP?
52. What is Polarisation? What are the types of polarisation?
53. What is fading? What are its different types: a) Based on Multipath time delay spread b)
Based on Doppler Spread?
54. What is Rayleigh Fading?
55. What is multipath fading?

56. How can we minimise multipath fading?

57. What are the different types of diversity?
58. Explain various types of Antenna Diversity?
59. Explain Frequency Diversity.
60. Explain Time Diversity.
61. What are the basic mechanisms of propagation?
62. What do you mean by Diffraction?
63. What is knife-edge diffraction?
64. What is Scattering?
65. What is FSPL?
66. What is meant by Fresnel zone and Fraunhofer zone?
67. What is beamwidth? What is the relation of beamwidth to length of antenna?
68. Define: a) Bandwidth, b) 3dB Bandwidth and c) absolute Bandwidth d) Coherence
Bandwidth e) Modulation Bandwidth f) Null-to-Null Bandwidth?
69. What do we understand from the terms a) SNR b) F/B ratio?
Handovers
by sanjeev

Re: RF Interview questions

70. What are the types of Handovers (intra-bsc, inter-msc, etc)?
71. What can be the reasons of Handover Failure?
72. What is the difference between a soft handover and a hard handover?
73. What are SYNC handovers? How are the different from asynchronous handovers?
74. What are emergency handovers?
75. What are the different types of Handovers? (PBGT, Quality, Level, etc)
76. How do we classify the handovers on the basis of decision making?
77. What are Vertical and Horizontal handovers?
78. What is “Multilayer Handoff” Strategy? What is “Ping pong effect” and “take-back”?
79. Who makes the handover decisions in GSM?
80. What is the role of the MSC in handovers?
81. What is the role of the MS in handovers?
Modulation
82. Which modulation scheme is used in GSM? Explain.
83. What is the difference between PSK, ASK and FSK?
84. What are QPSK and OQPSK?
85. What is MSK? What is its application in GSM?
86. What is QAM? What is its application in GSM?
87. What is meant by PAM and PCM? What is its application in GSM?
88. Explain FDM, TDM and OFDM.
89. Which modulation scheme is used in GPRS? In EDGE? Explain/Compare.
Drive Testing
90. What is C/I?
91. What is C/A?
92. What is RxQual? How do we relate it to BER?
93. What is the difference between BER-Full and BER-Sub?
94. What is SQI? Why do we prefer it over RxQual?
95. What is BSIC? Why do we need it?
96. What is AMR?

97. What can be the reasons of a Call drop?

98. What are counters? Why do we need them?
99. When do we need drive test?
100. What is cell-reselection?
101. What are C1 & C2?
102. What is call re-establishment?
103. Why do we make “short calls” and “long calls” during drive test?
104. What do you mean by CEFR and CSSR?
105. What is RSSI?
106. What is the difference between RxLev and RxQual?
107. What is the difference between FER and BER?
Procedures
108. What is cell selection? How does MS select a cell?
109. Explain the call flow for MOC and MTC.
110. Handover procedures.
111. How does a MS get “registered” with the network? (Explain IMSI attach procedure)
GPRS and EDGE
112. What is GPRS?
113. What is the basic difference between GSM and GPRS architecture?
114. What makes GPRS technology different from traditional GSM?
115. What are the functions of GGSN and SGSN?

116. How many coding schemes are used in GPRS? Why are they important?
117. What is the gross data rate offered by GPRS and EDGE?
118. What is EDGE? How is it different from normal GSM/GPRS?
119. How do we classify GPRS terminals?
GSM System Architecture
120. What are the main components of BSS?
121. What are the main components of NSS?
122. Why do we need HLR and VLR?
123. Why do we need EIR and AuC?
124. What is RBS?
125. What are the paging limitations of a BSC?
126. What is a coupling system?
127. What do we mean by E1 and T1?