I-Corps: Fully Integrated. Multi-Standard and Tunable Radios

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种技术，该技术在物联网（IoT）和军事用途的集成电路中具有潜在的应用。该申请旨在实现全射频收发器（或组件）的设计，该设计可以在宽频率范围内进行调谐，从而通过单个可重构设计满足多种无线标准。这种收发器具有降低成本和增加市场的潜力。拟议的商业化努力代表了一个机会，可以广泛扩大无线技术的覆盖范围，同时促进美国在这一关键领域的增长。这个I-Corps项目是基于广泛可调谐和可重构的“片上”无线电集成电路的发展。使这成为可能的创新是一种新颖的可调谐谐振元件，可以在芯片上制造。可以容纳一系列载波频率的宽带无线电组件不能实现高性能，因为它们牺牲了增益、灵敏度、线性度、噪声和功率效率来实现功能。现有的可调谐窄带解决方案由于缺乏可调谐电感元件而做出了类似的权衡，而这种可调谐电感元件可以轻松廉价地集成到商业流程中。所提出的技术可用于构建可调谐放大器、振荡器和商用无线电中使用的其他基本模拟组件。该团队建议在开发完整收发器的原型系统演示时，探索可重构射频集成电路的市场。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a technology that has potential applications in integrated circuits for the internet of things (IoT) as well as for military use. The applictions seeks to enable the design of a full radiofrequency transceiver (or components) that can be tuned across a wide frequency range to meet multiple wireless standards with a single reconfigurable design. This transceiver has the potential to reduce costs and increase markets. The proposed commercialization effort represents an opportunity to increase the reach of wireless technologies broadly while bolstering US growth in this crucial area.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a widely tunable and reconfigurable “on-chip” radio integrated circuit. The innovation that makes this possible is a novel tunable resonant element that can be fabricated on-chip. Wideband radio components that can accommodate a range of carrier frequencies do not enable high performance since they sacrifice gain, sensitivity, linearity, noise, and power efficiency to achieve functionality. Existing tunable narrowband solutions make similar tradeoffs due to the lack of a tunable inductive element that can be easily and cheaply integrated into a commercial process. The proposed technology may be used to construct tunable amplifiers, oscillators, and other basic analog components that are used in commercial radios. This team proposes to explore the market for reconfigurable radio frequency integrated circuits while developing a prototype system demonstrator for a full transceiver.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.