CAREER:Integrated Nonlinear Dynamical Systems for Low-Phase-Noise

本研究的目的是展示集成的非线性动力系统，该系统可以有效地在射频、毫米波和可能的亚毫米波下在标准硅工艺中产生极低相位噪声信号。该方法是对集成振荡器进行非线性和随机分析，并采用相位降噪技术。所提出的研究的智力价值在于提高了我们对集成非线性动力系统的基本理解，当它们的构成器件接近或超过其最大单位功率增益频率时，并从根本上展示了新的频率合成概念，在相位噪声，功耗，芯片面积，与锁相环或直接数字合成等现有方法相比，具有频率敏捷性。所提出的研究的更广泛的影响是其潜在的转换能力，几乎所有的电子系统，如通信收发器，计算机，雷达和成像仪，其中精确的频率参考或时钟起着核心作用。建议的研究将由认识到需要将应用数学与器件物理、电磁学和电路设计结合起来的学生进行。女性和少数族裔学生将在研究生和本科阶段积极招收，并将在合作工程研究环境中被教育成独立的批判性思考者。重点将放在提高他们的分析和实验能力，同时保持直观的工程问题解决的心态。研究成果将以互动讲座-实验形式进入课程教学大纲。设想围绕研究主题的跨学科研讨会，其成果将通过互联网向公众提供。

The objective of this research is to demonstrate integrated nonlinear dynamical systems that can efficiently generate extremely low-phase-noise signals, at radio frequencies, millimeter-waves, and possibly sub-millimeter-waves in standard silicon processes. The approach is nonlinear and stochastic analysis of integrated oscillators, and using phase-noise reduction techniques.The intellectual merit of the proposed research is in improving our fundamental understanding of integrated nonlinear dynamical systems when their constituting devices operate close to and beyond their maximum unity power gain frequency, and to demonstrate fundamentally new frequency synthesis concepts with orders-of-magnitude performance improvement in terms of phase noise, power consumption, chip area, and frequency agility compared with existing methods such as phase-locked loops or direct digital synthesis.The broader impact of the proposed research is its potential transformational ability of virtually all electronic systems such as communication transceivers, computers, radars, and imagers, where an accurate frequency reference or clock plays a central role. The proposed research will be carried out by students who appreciate the need to coalesce applied mathematics with device physics, electromagnetics, and circuit design. Women and minority students will be actively recruited at graduate and undergraduate levels, and will be educated to be independent critical thinkers in a collaborative engineering research environment. Focus will be on improving their analytical and experimental abilities while maintaining an intuitive engineering problem-solving mindset. Research results will enter course syllabus in an interactive lecture-laboratory format. Interdisciplinary workshops around the research theme are envisioned, and their output will be available to the public through the internet.