9617333 McNeill, John A. Worcester Polytechnic Institution CISE Research Instrumentation: Protyping Equipment for Application Specific Architectures This research instrumentation grant enables two distinct research projects: - Integrated 622Mhz Synthesizer for Telecommunications - Methodology Extensions: Low Noise Integrated Circuit Design for Telecommunication Systems The equipment in this proposal is requested to support research into a design methodology for a class of low noise integrated oscillators. Stable, low noise oscillators are required as time and frequency references in applications such as wireless telecommunications, high speed microprocessors, disk drive read channels, and oversampled data conversion. The key insight of the oscillator design methodology is the linkage of system-level performance to fundamental limits imposed by circuit-level considerations such thermal noise. The methodology is being extended in the areas of higher speed (operating frequencies to 2.5GHz), lower power consumption, and more fabrication technologies (CMOS and BiCMOS). Testing of the design methodology is carried out through design, fabrication, and test of integrated circuits that implement a system-level function. The requested test equipment, which enables precise system- and circuit-level measurement in both the time and frequency domains, is essential to verify the theoretical predictions of the methodology. The requested equipment is also part of an ongoing program to establish a design and test environment for education of undergraduate and graduate students in the complete mixed-signal integrated circuit design process. The activities supported by this capability include interdisciplinary collaborative work and involvement of undergraduate students in research.
