STTR Phase II: Tunable RF Front Ends for Wireless Devices

这个小型企业技术转让（STTR）第二阶段项目致力于为未来的无线设备创建可调谐射频滤波器。 所提出的方法将对先进磁性材料的研究与对磁性和非磁性材料的纳米结构化的研究相结合，目标是实现用于在高达5GHz的频率下实现可调谐电感器电容器（C）滤波器的电感器的品质因数（Q）和最大值（Ls）的数量级或更多的增加;特别是Ls 50 nH、Qs 100和自谐振频率3GHz。 该方法是在非磁性基质中经济地沉积存款取向的高磁矩磁性材料，以实现高磁导率，同时通过使用纳米结构避免高频下的涡流损耗。 此外，本研究将探索新的无线电前端电路设计技术，将利用电感器制造使用所提出的结构，实现可调谐射频滤波器适用于先进的无线设备。 必须开发新的电路设计方法，因为使用所提出的技术构建的LC滤波器将具有比现有的表面声波滤波器技术低得多的Q值，但将提供可调谐性、电路拓扑灵活性和对集成电路制造的适应性的新优势。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是，它将有助于使？认知无线电实用. 认知无线电是一种可以机会主义地寻找当前在其本地附近未使用的频谱部分，然后将其用于通信的无线电，通过允许积极地重用频谱来显著减少主要城市的电波拥塞。 认知无线电有可能将密集城市环境中可用的聚合数据速率提高一个数量级以上。 今天，这种无线电在经济上没有吸引力，因为RF前端滤波器必须使用一个固定的表面声波滤波器来实现每个可能的频带。 然而，所提出的增强型LC滤波器的可调谐性极大地促进了低成本认知无线电的创建。 在商业影响方面，拟议的可调谐LC滤波器将彻底改变蜂窝无线电（每年70亿美元的市场）的RF前端模块的设计方式。 将其转化为社会影响，所提出的技术具有将数据速率提高超过一个数量级的潜力，通过该数据速率，广大人群可以使用移动的互联网中的无线设备访问存储在网络上的数据。

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II project addresses the creation of tunable radio frequency filters for future wireless devices. The proposed approach combines research on advanced magnetic materials with research on nano-structuring of magnetic and non-magnetic materials with the goal of achieving an order of magnitude or more increase in quality factor (Q) and maximum value of inductors (Ls) used to implement tunable inductor capacitor (C) filters at frequencies up to 5GHz; specifically Ls 50nH, Qs 100, and self-resonance frequencies 3 GHz. The approach is to economically deposit oriented high-moment magnetic materials in a non-magnetic matrix to achieve high permeability while avoiding eddy current losses at high frequencies through the use of nano-structuring. In addition, this research will explore novel circuit design techniques for radio front ends that will exploit inductors fabricated using the proposed structures to implement tunable radio frequency filters suitable for advanced wireless devices. Novel circuit design approaches must be developed because the LC filters built using the proposed technology will have significantly lower Q than existing surface acoustic wave filter technology; but will offer new advantages of tunability, circuit topology flexibility, and amenability to fabrication over integrated circuits. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is that it would contribute to making ?cognitive radios? practical. Cognitive radios are ones that can opportunistically seek out portions of the frequency spectrum that are currently unused in their local vicinity and then use them for communications, dramatically reducing congestion in the airwaves of major cities by allowing aggressive reuse of frequency spectrum. Cognitive radios have the potential to increase the aggregate data rate available in dense urban environments by more than an order of magnitude. Today, such radios are economically unattractive because the RF front end filters would have to be implemented using one fixed surface acoustic wave filter for every possible band. However, the tunability of the proposed enhanced LC filters greatly facilitates the creation of low cost cognitive radios. In terms of commercial impact, the proposed tunable LC filters would revolutionize how RF front end modules for cellular radios (a $7B/year market) are designed. Translating this into societal impact, the proposed technology has the potential to increase the data rate with which the population at large can access data stored on the network using wireless devices in the mobile internet by more than an order of magnitude.