CAREER: Reconfigurable Traveling Wave Silicon Integrated Circuits for Millimeter-Wave Testing

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The objective of this research is to demonstrate a millimeter-wave network analysis system that operates at frequencies between 100 and 300 GHz where existing test and measurement solutions are difficult and costly. The approach is to develop wideband, reconfigurable high-frequency circuits that employ a recently discovered traveling wave circuit technique called constructive wave amplification. By introducing localized shunt feedback networks along a single transmission line, traveling wave propagation may be altered through changes to the shunt feedback network. Waves traveling in either direction may be amplified over a wide range of frequencies. The intellectual merit of this project includes the invention of reconfigurable, millimeter-wave circuits that advance both the state-of-the-art for millimeter-wave circuit design as well as test capabilities. Constructive wave amplification is a transformative aspect to this research because it relaxes known high-frequency transistor limitations. The research effort includes the theoretical analysis of the proposed approaches as well as experimental verification using silicon integrated circuit processes.The broader impacts of this project include the development of enabling technologies for new scientific, medical, and industrial applications at millimeter-wave frequencies. The proposed monolithic integration of high-frequency circuitry could lead to substantially reduced cost of network analysis. The integrated educational plan includes incorporation of principles of millimeter-wave circuit design and measurement into undergraduate and graduate level courses. To bring the research outcomes to a broader audience, the principal investigator will create a series of instructional videos available online that introduce students at the high-school, undergraduate, and graduate levels to radio frequency circuit design, test, and measurement.