The increasing demand for wireless data has led to interest in wireless communication at mm-wave frequency bands where a large amount of spectrum is available, thus enabling high data rates for next generation wireless networks. However, conventional mm-wave links require high power transmitters, making transmitter efficiency critical. Additionally, these links must support multiple users at the same time. This project will develop both energy and spectrum efficient transmitters and receivers operating at mm-wave frequencies with innovation at all layers of the wireless link from communication protocols to transmitter/receiver integration circuits and antenna/lens design. In addition, advanced 3D printing techniques for low-cost manufacturing of mm-wave arrays will be studied. From the technology perspective, the proposed mm-wave network architectures offering high bandwidth, low latency and low-cost communications solutions will create more high-tech jobs and have major economic impact. The educational impact of the project includes curriculum enhancement, graduate course development, and research training for graduate students which also includes an emphasis on professional development and research management. The project will also expand research opportunities for high-school students and students from underrepresented groups, creating and expanding the pipeline of STEM students. A strong collaboration with industry partners will improve dissemination of the technology advances along with important training opportunities for students working on the project.
Massive antenna arrays, with hundreds of elements, capable of high gain and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)/multi-beamforming are attractive for multi-user wireless links at mm-wave frequencies. However, achieving such MIMO operation through digital beamforming is prohibitive due to costly and power-hungry mm-wave signal chains, analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters required for each antenna element. As a solution, hybrid MIMO architectures with reduced number of mm-wave signal chains have recently attracted interest for practical realizations of multiple MIMO stream transmissions. However, these architectures still exhibit drawbacks in terms of spectrum and energy efficiency and do not address hardware complexity issues. This project aims to address fundamental challenges in energy efficiency, spectrum efficiency, and hardware complexity in large mm-wave arrays through a lens antenna subarray (LAS) approach. The research plan is based on an end-to-end investigation that includes antenna array designs within the LAS scheme, mm-wave transceivers that leverage LAS, physical and media access control layer algorithms utilizing LAS, and low-cost packaging with emerging additive manufacturing technology. The project is led by the University of South Florida and Oregon State University, leveraging industrial collaboration partnerships with Keysight Technologies for mm-wave device, system, network characterization, and GlobalFoundries for silicon integrated circuit design and fabrication. The main contribution of this project is the LAS architecture: It outperforms traditional hybrid MIMO solutions by reducing hardware complexity and power consumption with minimal impact on wireless channel capacity per chain, resulting in significantly higher energy efficiency measured by data rate per unit power. The second major advance is to address system and hardware challenges in realizing scalable integrated mm-wave LAS transceivers to achieve this superior energy efficiency. The third major advance is addressing the cost effectiveness of mm-wave network deployment within the mass-scale communications market through innovative packaging and integration solutions using additive manufacturing.
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.
