The objective of this research is to demonstrate integrated nonlinear dynamical systems that can efficiently generate extremely low-phase-noise signals, at radio frequencies, millimeter-waves, and possibly sub-millimeter-waves in standard silicon processes. The approach is nonlinear and stochastic analysis of integrated oscillators, and using phase-noise reduction techniques.
The intellectual merit of the proposed research is in improving our fundamental understanding of integrated nonlinear dynamical systems when their constituting devices operate close to and beyond their maximum unity power gain frequency, and to demonstrate fundamentally new frequency synthesis concepts with orders-of-magnitude performance improvement in terms of phase noise, power consumption, chip area, and frequency agility compared with existing methods such as phase-locked loops or direct digital synthesis.
The broader impact of the proposed research is its potential transformational ability of virtually all electronic systems such as communication transceivers, computers, radars, and imagers, where an accurate frequency reference or clock plays a central role. The proposed research will be carried out by students who appreciate the need to coalesce applied mathematics with device physics, electromagnetics, and circuit design. Women and minority students will be actively recruited at graduate and undergraduate levels, and will be educated to be independent critical thinkers in a collaborative engineering research environment. Focus will be on improving their analytical and experimental abilities while maintaining an intuitive engineering problem-solving mindset. Research results will enter course syllabus in an interactive lecture-laboratory format. Interdisciplinary workshops around the research theme are envisioned, and their output will be available to the public through the internet.
