Jacques C. Rudell, University of Washington Proposal NO: 1454098 (Career)
Broadband wireless internet access has been identified by the Federal Communications Commission as a foundational necessity for "economic growth, job creation, global competitiveness, and a better way of life". Existing consumer electronic devices heavily utilize the spectrum around the Very High Frequency (VHF) microwave bands (300MHz 5 GHz) for radio communication; however, with the proliferation of mobile smart phones, notebook, and laptop computers, the microwave band has become increasingly crowded. In contrast, the spectrum available above 24 GHz, commonly referred to as the millimeter wave (mmWave) band, is sparsely occupied and presents opportunities to address future wireless infrastructure demands. Exploiting these higher frequency bands requires new strategies to realize small, low-cost, broad bandwidth, and low power hardware. Although significant research effort over the past decade has been applied toward the realization of practical mmWave hardware solutions, the devices developed thus far have yet to experience widespread adoption, due in large part to the increased complexity associated with operating at such high frequencies. This research seeks to not only improve upon the existing hardware technology, but to transform it with new radio architectural techniques. In addition to expanding consumer markets, these hardware solutions will also benefit other areas, such as scientific and medical research; examples include improvements to Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging systems and transceivers for 5th Generation (5G) mobile devices. Moreover, these system and circuit challenges will also provide an ideal backdrop for integrating this research with University coursework, helping to prepare students for careers in industry and academia. This research seeks to address broad challenges inherent to realizing extremely wideband mmWave systems: What are the fundamental hardware trade-offs between power consumption, silicon area, and complexity for energy efficient longer-range mmWave communication These tradeoffs will be explored in this research using experiments to develop mmWave circuits and systems which demonstrate reliable, long range, broad bandwidth wireless communication in bands above 24GHz. Specific research objectives include: (1) invent and define new circuit topologies to facilitate integration of high-element low power phased-array transceivers, (2) develop techniques to build ultra-broadband circuits using minimal silicon area in conventional low cost silicon CMOS, and (3) design low power frequency synthesizers and the associated local oscillator distribution networks for high-element phased-array systems with minimal power consumption. The PI is actively involved in the IEEE and has strong relationships with many industry partners including Qualcomm, Broadcom, Google, Boeing, and Intel Corp. This places him in a unique position to disseminate research findings and new design methodologies to a wide audience through seminars and workshops for private industry, and at international conferences.
