2017 Early Achievement Award

Presented to: Dr. Zheng Yao

Citation: For his pioneering contributions in developing new GNSS signals and multiplexing techniques; and advancing the Chinese BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) signal design.

Dr. Zheng Yao has made significant and pioneering contributions in the field of GNSS signal structure and multiplexing techniques. His work has advanced the fundamental theory and general design methodology of constant envelope multiplexing techniques and lead to several innovative solutions in GNSS signal structure and multiplexing. He proposed the Asymmetric Constant envelope BOC (ACE-BOC) multiplexing technique with several low-complexity variants that has broadened the scope of dualfrequency multiplexing, enabling configuration diversification of the signal and supporting in-orbit reconfiguration. Furthermore, he proposed Quadrature Multiplexed BOC (QMBOC) structure, the BDS implementation of the MBOC modulation, and proposed the corresponding B1 multiplexing solution during its transition from regional to global system.

Dr. Yao established the general theoretical framework of constant envelope multiplexing design methodology. This framework represents the mathematical principles that govern current and future constant envelope multiplexing design methodologies. Under the guidance of this framework, he proposed a powerful generalized constant envelope multiplexing technique that extends the constant envelope multiplexing to signals with an arbitrary number of sub-bands and components, for arbitrary defined power sharing and phase relationship among components and arbitrary chip waveform shapes. His relentless drive and efforts opened up a wide design space for signal performance optimization.

Dr. Yao has made remarkable contributions in advancing GNSS receiver technologies, leading the development of the first softwaredefined real-time receiver capable of processing all GNSS open signals simultaneously. His receiver was also the first to achieve Galileo positioning fix in China as certified by the European Space Agency.

Dr. Yao received his BE in electronics information engineering and PhD in information and communication engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University. Dr. Yao was a recipient of ION’s 2008 Student Paper Award. The Ministry of Science and Technology, China also elected him as Remote Sensing Young Scientific Talent.