Development and integration of silicon-germanium front-end electronics for active phased-array antennas

The research presented in this thesis leverages silicon-germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) technology to develop microwave front-end electronics for active phased-array antennas. The highly integrated electronics will reduce costs and improve the feasibility of snow measurements from airborne and space-borne platforms. Chapter 1 presents the motivation of this research, focusing on the technological needs of snow measurement missions. The fundamentals and benefits of SiGe HBTs and phased-array antennas for these missions are discussed as well. Chapter 2 discusses SiGe power amplifier design considerations for radar systems. Basic power amplifier design concepts, power limitations in SiGe HBTs, and techniques for increasing the output power of SiGe HBT PAs are reviewed. Chapter 3 presents the design and characterization of a robust medium power X-band SiGe power amplifier for integration into a SiGe transmit/receive module. The PA design process applies the concepts presented in Chapter 2. A detailed investigation into measurement-to-simulation discrepancies is outlined as well. Chapter 4 discusses the development and characterization of a single-chip X-band SiGe T/R module for integration into a very thin, lightweight active phased array antenna panel. The system-on-package antenna combines the high performance and integration potential of SiGe technologies with advanced substrates and packaging techniques to develop a high performance scalable antenna panel using relatively low-cost materials and silicon-based electronics. The antenna panel presented in this chapter will enable airborne SCLP measurements and advance the technology towards an eventual space-based SCLP measurement instrument that will satisfy a critical Earth science need. Finally, Chapter 5 provides concluding remarks and discusses future research directions.M.S

A D-band 3D printed antenna

This paper reports the design and fabrication of a novel all-metal antenna operating in the millimeter-wave band. Based on the resonant cavity antenna (RCA) concept, the principle of antenna operation is explained, and a parametric study of several key design parameters is provided. A novel impedance matching technique is introduced to broaden the antenna return loss bandwidth. Two gain enhancement methods have been employed to achieve a more directive beam with reduced side lobes and back lobes. The D-band antenna prototypes are produced using i) all-metal printing without any post-processing; ii) dielectric printing with copper metallization applied later. Comparisons of the simulated and measured results amongst the antennas fabricated using the two additive manufacturing techniques are made. Measurement results of the two antenna prototypes show that the proposed design can achieve a 14.2% bandwidth with a maximum gain of 15.5 dBi at 135 GHz. The present work is the first D-band resonant cavity antenna fabricated using two different 3D printing methods

Graphene-based Wireless Agile Interconnects for Massive Heterogeneous Multi-chip Processors

The main design principles in computer architecture have recently shifted from a monolithic scaling-driven approach to the development of heterogeneous architectures that tightly co-integrate multiple specialized processor and memory chiplets. In such data-hungry multi-chip architectures, current Networksin- Package (NiPs) may not be enough to cater to their heterogeneous and fast-changing communication demands. This position paper makes the case for wireless in-package networking as the enabler of efficient and versatile wired-wireless interconnect fabrics for massive heterogeneous processors. To that end, the use of graphene-based antennas and transceivers with unique frequency-beam reconfigurability in the terahertz band is proposed. The feasibility of such a wireless vision and the main research challenges towards its realization are analyzed from the technological, communications, and computer architecture perspectives

Graphene-based wireless agile interconnects for massive heterogeneous multi-chip processors

The main design principles in computer architecture have recently shifted from a monolithic scaling-driven approach to the development of heterogeneous architectures that tightly co-integrate multiple specialized processor and memory chiplets. In such data-hungry multi-chip architectures, current Networks-in-Package (NiPs) may not be enough to cater to their heterogeneous and fast-changing communication demands. This position article makes the case for wireless in-package networking as the enabler of efficient and versatile wired-wireless interconnect fabrics for massive heterogeneous processors. To that end, the use of graphene-based antennas and transceivers with unique frequency-beam reconfigurability in the terahertz band is proposed. The feasibility of such a wireless vision and the main research challenges toward its realization are analyzed from the technological, communications, and computer architecture perspectives.This publication is part of the Spanish I+D+i project TRAINER-A (ref. PID2020-118011GB-C21), funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. This work has been also supported by the European Commission under H2020 grants WiPLASH (GA 863337), 2D-EPL (GA 952792), and Graphene Flagship (GA 881603); the FLAGERA framework under grant TUGRACO (HA 3022/9-1, LE 2440/3-1), the European Research Council under grants WINC (GA 101042080), COMPUSAPIEN (GA 725657), and PROJESTOR (GA 682675), the German Ministry of Education and Research under grant GIMMIK (03XP0210) and the and the German Research Foundation under grant HIPEDI (WA 4139/1-1).Peer ReviewedArticle signat per 21 autors/es: Sergi Abadal, Robert Guirado, Hamidreza Taghvaee, and Akshay Jain are with the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain; Elana Pereira de Santana and Peter Haring Bolívar are with the University of Siegen, Germany; Mohamed Saeed, Renato Negra, Kun-Ta Wang, and Max C. Lemme are with RWTH Aachen University, Germany. Zhenxing Wang, Kun-Ta Wang, and Max C. Lemme are also with AMO GmbH, Germany; Joshua Klein, Marina Zapater, Alexandre Levisse, and David Atienza are with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland. Marina Zapater is also with the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland; Davide Rossi and Francesco Conti are with the University of Bologna,Italy; Martino Dazzi, Geethan Karunaratne, Irem Boybat, and Abu Sebastian are with IBM Research Europe, SwitzerlandPostprint (author's final draft

NASA Tech Briefs, November 2009

Topics covered include: Cryogenic Chamber for Servo-Hydraulic Materials Testing; Apparatus Measures Thermal Conductance Through a Thin Sample from Cryogenic to Room Temperature; Rover Attitude and Pointing System Simulation Testbed; Desktop Application Program to Simulate Cargo-Air-Drop Tests; Multimodal Friction Ignition Tester; Small-Bolt Torque-Tension Tester; Integrated Spacesuit Audio System Enhances Speech Quality and Reduces Noise; Hardware Implementation of a Bilateral Subtraction Filter; Simple Optoelectronic Feedback in Microwave Oscillators; Small X-Band Oscillator Antennas; Free-Space Optical Interconnect Employing VCSEL Diodes; Discrete Fourier Transform Analysis in a Complex Vector Space; Miniature Scroll Pumps Fabricated by LIGA; Self-Assembling, Flexible, Pre-Ceramic Composite Preforms; Flight-speed Integral Image Analysis Toolkit; Work Coordination Engine; Multi-Mission Automated Task Invocation Subsystem; Autonomously Calibrating a Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer; Determining Spacecraft Reaction Wheel Friction Parameters; Composite Silica Aerogels Opacified with Titania; Multiplexed Colorimetric Solid-Phase Extraction; Detecting Airborne Mercury by Use of Polymer/Carbon Films; Lattice-Matched Semiconductor Layers on Single Crystalline Sapphire Substrate; Pressure-Energized Seal Rings to Better Withstand Flows; Rollerjaw Rock Crusher; Microwave Sterilization and Depyrogenation System; Quantifying Therapeutic and Diagnostic Efficacy in 2D Microvascular Images; NiF2/NaF:CaF2/Ca Solid-State High-Temperature Battery Cells; Critical Coupling Between Optical Fibers and WGM Resonators; Microwave Temperature Profiler Mounted in a Standard Airborne Research Canister; Alternative Determination of Density of the Titan Atmosphere; Solar Rejection Filter for Large Telescopes; Automated CFD for Generation of Airfoil Performance Tables; Progressive Classification Using Support Vector Machines; Active Learning with Irrelevant Examples; A Data Matrix Method for Improving the Quantification of Element Percentages of SEM/EDX Analysis; Deployable Shroud for the International X-Ray Observatory; Improved Model of a Mercury Ring Damper; Optoelectronic pH Meter: Further Details; X-38 Advanced Sublimator; and Solar Simulator Represents the Mars Surface Solar Environment

Hybrid Beam-Steering OFDM-MIMO Radar: High 3-D Resolution With Reduced Channel Count

We report on the realization of a multichannel imaging radar that achieves uniform 2-D cross-range resolution by means of a linear array of a special form of leaky-wave antennas. The presented aperture concept enables a tradeoff between the available range resolution and a reduction in the number of channels required for a given angular resolution. The antenna front end is integrated within a multichannel radar based on stepped-carrier orthogonal frequency-division modulation, and the advantages and challenges specific to this combination are analyzed with respect to signal processing and a newly developed calibration routine. The system concept is fully implemented and verified in the form of a mobile demonstrator capable of soft real-time 3-D processing. By combining radio frequency (RF) components operating in the W-band (85-105 GHz) with the presented aperture, a 3-D resolution of less than 1.5° x 1.5° x 15 cm is demonstrated using only eight transmitters and eight receivers

Energy-efficient modulation and physical layer design for low terahertz band communication channel in 5G femtocell Internet of Things

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. High throughput capability of the terahertz band (0.3–10 THz) wireless communications is expected to be utilized by the fifth generation of mobile telecommunication systems and enable a plethora of new applications. Supporting devices will transfer large amounts of data in both directions, causing high energy consumption by the electronic circuitries of the equipment in use. Therefore, physical layer for these systems must be designed carefully in order to reduce energy consumption per bit. In this paper, the best performing modulation scheme and hardware parameters that minimize the energy consumption without affecting the system throughput are determined. THz band device technologies are outlined and a complete survey of the state-of-the-art low-THz band circuit blocks which are suitable for mass market production is given. It is shown that for short-range communications, M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation is the most energy-efficient technique that can lead up to 90% reduction in consumed energy. Moreover, optimal transceiver parameters which can be used to further minimize the energy consumption of the THz band system are examined

Graphene-based Wireless Agile Interconnects for Massive Heterogeneous Multi-chip Processors

The main design principles in computer architecture have recently shifted from a monolithic scaling-driven approach to the development of heterogeneous architectures that tightly co-integrate multiple specialized processor and memory chiplets. In such data-hungry multi-chip architectures, current Networks-in-Package (NiPs) may not be enough to cater to their heterogeneous and fast-changing communication demands. This position paper makes the case for wireless in-package nanonetworking as the enabler of efficient and versatile wired-wireless interconnect fabrics for massive heterogeneous processors. To that end, the use of graphene-based antennas and transceivers with unique frequency-beam reconfigurability in the terahertz band is proposed. The feasibility of such a nanonetworking vision and the main research challenges towards its realization are analyzed from the technological, communications, and computer architecture perspectives.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table - Accepted at IEEE Wireless Communications Magazin

Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2007, nr 1

kwartalni

Automatic Tuning of Silicon Photonics Millimeter-Wave Transceivers Building Blocks

Today, continuously growing wireless traffic have guided the progress in the wireless communication systems. Now, evolution towards next generation (5G) wireless communication systems are actively researched to accommodate expanding future data traffic. As one of the most promising candidates, integrating photonic devices in to the existing wireless system is considered to improve the performance of the systems. Emerging silicon photonic integrated circuits lead this integration more practically, and open new possibilities to the future communication systems. In this dissertation, the development of the electrical wireless communication systems are briefly explained. Also, development of the microwave photonics and silicon photonics are described to understand the possibility of the hybrid SiP integrated wireless communication systems. A limitation of the current electrical wireless systems are addressed, and hybrid integrated mm-wave silicon photonic receiver, and silicon photonic beamforming transmitter are proposed and analyzed in system level. In the proposed mm-wave silicon photonic receiver has 4th order pole-zero silicon photonic filter in the system. Photonic devices are vulnerable to the process and temperature variations. It requires manual calibration, which is expensive, time consuming, and prone to human errors. Therefore, precise automatic calibration solution with modified silicon photonic filter structure is proposed and demonstrated. This dissertation demonstrates fully automatic tuning of silicon photonic all-pass filter (APF)-based pole/zero filters using a monitor-based tuning method that calibrates the initial response by controlling each pole and zero individually via micro-heaters. The proposed tuning approach calibrates severely degraded initial responses to the designed elliptic filter shapes and allows for automatic bandwidth and center frequency reconfiguration of these filters. This algorithm is demonstrated on 2nd- and 4th-order filters fabricated in a standard silicon photonics foundry process. After the initial calibration, only 300ms is required to reconfigure a filter to a different center frequency. Thermal crosstalk between the micro-heaters is investigated, with substrate thinning demonstrated to suppress this effect and reduce filter calibration to less than half of the original thick substrate times. This fully automatic tuning approach opens the possibility of employing silicon photonic filters in real communication systems. Also, in the proposed beamforming transmitter, true-time delay ring resonator based 1x4 beamforming network is imbedded. A proposed monitor-based tuning method compensates fabrication variations and thermal crosstalk by controlling micro-heaters individually using electrical monitors. The proposed tuning approach successfully demonstrated calibration of OBFN from severely degraded initial responses to well-defined group delay response required for the targeted radiating angle with a range of 60◦ (-30◦ to 30◦ ) in a linear beamforming antenna array. This algorithm is demonstrated on OBFN fabricated in a standard silicon photonics foundry process. The calibrated OBFN operates at 30GHz and provide 2GHz bandwidth. This fully automatic tuning approach opens the possibility of employing silicon OBFN in real wideband mm-wave wireless communication systems by providing robust operating solutions. All the proposed photonic circuits are implemented using the standard silicon photonic technologies, and resulted in several publications in IEEE/OSA Journals and Conferences