ECCS-EPSRC - Advanced III-N Devices and Circuit Architectures for mm-Wave Future-Generation Wireless Communications'

无处不在的高性能通信是我们社会的支柱，不仅在个人的日常生活中发挥着越来越重要的作用，而且在设备之间的后台通信中也发挥着同样重要的作用（例如，用于移动的车辆到基础设施，工业和制造业的过程控制和监控，全环境的虚拟化等）。因此，必须处理和通信的数据爆炸式增长需要非凡的带宽和无处不在的网络，这反过来又要求支持高性能、节能和低成本的电子产品。这项EPSRC - NSF提案的目标是在最关键的环节——无线功率放大器上实现一个巨大的飞跃，这对于实现无处不在、高速、透明的移动通信的愿景至关重要。功率放大器是任何通信系统中最关键的元件之一，因为它们决定了系统的整体效率。基于氮化镓的hemt在高性能功率放大器方面尤其有前景，但目前基于氮化镓的系统由于多种因素的组合而受到频率覆盖、效率和线性度的限制，包括器件设计，例如使用场极板有效地将工作限制在30 GHz及以下，以及材料问题，例如深电平陷阱、自加热意味着增益和效率随输出功率和频率而迅速下降。我们在该计划中利用基于gan的晶体管设计和新型电路拓扑的变革性进步，通过协同设计显着提高通信系统关键无线元件的效率，带宽，线性度和成本。该技术基于极化工程梯度通道GaN hemt，与传统hemt相比，线性度有了实质性的提高。通过结合对其底层器件物理（包括陷阱状态和热管理）的深入研究，我们通过优化器件设计和制造，解决了在增加频率（即Ka频段高达40 GHz）下降低GaN性能的主要影响。我们将基于我们的新型连续模式设计谐波端接放大器，使设计人员能够更广泛地选择阻抗，以实现所需的效率、线性度和输出功率特性。该项目汇集了圣母大学，布里斯托尔大学和谢菲尔德大学的世界领先专家，与英国和美国的支持行业一起工作，完成了两国从基板种植者，设备/芯片制造到电路设计师的整个供应链。有针对性的毫米波通信技术有望成为新兴应用的下一个前沿，在推动英国、美国和全球所有地区繁荣的升级议程中发挥关键作用。例如，预计到2035年，仅在英国，5G就将支撑价值13.2万亿美元的商品和服务新产业。

Ubiquitous, high-performance communication is the backbone of our society, and promises to play an increasing role not only in individual's daily lives, but just as importantly in the background with communication among devices (e.g. vehicle-to-infrastructure for mobility, process control and monitoring in industrial and manufacturing, virtualization of full environments for the metaverse, among others). The resulting explosion in data that must be processed and communicated requires extraordinary bandwidth and network ubiquity, which in turn demands supporting electronics that is high performance, power efficient, and low cost. This EPSRC - NSF proposal targets a great leap forward in the most critical link, the wireless power amplifier, that is essential to realizing a vision of ubiquitous, high-speed, transparent mobile communication. Power amplifiers are among the most critical elements in any communication system as they dictates the overall efficiency of the system. GaN-based HEMTs are especially promising for high-performance power amplifiers, but current GaN-based systems suffer from limited frequency coverage, efficiency and linearity due to a combination of factors, including device design e.g. use of field plates effectively limits operation to 30 GHz and below, and materials issues e.g. deep level traps, self-heating means that gain and efficiency degrade rapidly both with output power as well as frequency. We leverage in this programme transformative advances in both GaN-based transistor design and novel circuit topologies to dramatically improve the efficiency, bandwidth, linearity, and cost of the key wireless elements of a communication system, through co-design. The technology is based on polarization-engineeered graded channel GaN HEMTs that show a substantial improvement in linearity in comparison to conventional HEMTs. By combining with thorough investigation of their underlying device physics including trap states and thermal management, we address major effects that degrade the performance of GaN at increasing frequencies (i.e. Ka band up to 40 GHz) by optimizing device design and fabrication. We will design harmonically terminated amplifiers based on our new class of contiguous modes, that allow designers wider choice of impedances for desired characteristics of efficiency, linearity and output power. The project brings together world leading experts in the Universities of Notre Dame, Bristol and Sheffield, working alongside supporting industry in UK and US, that completes the entire supply chain from substrate growers, device/chip fabrication to circuit designer in both countries. The targeted enabling millimetre-wave communication technology is expected to be the next frontier in emerging applications that play a critical role in the levelling up agenda to drive prosperity in all regions of the UK, the US and worldwide. For example 5G is expected to underpin new industries worth $13.2T in goods and services in the UK alone by 2035.