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Prof. M. Rodwell

 

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DARPA THz Electronics: with Teledyne Scientific.

This is both a device and an IC design program: we seek to develop classical radio transmitter/receiver ICs operating at 670, 820, and 1080 GHz. To do this we are (1) developing InP heterojunction bipolar transistors at the 128 and 64 nm scaling generations, targeting 1.2 and 2.0 THz fmax, and (2) designing full transmitter/receiver front ends  comprising LNA, PA, and PLL for LO synthesis (VCO, frequency dividers and phase detectors).  

 

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DARPA Hi-FIVE: with Teledyne Scientific.

We are developing medium-power amplifiers at 220 GHz for future applications in communications and imaging.   We are also exploring monolithic phased array power amplifier designs at 220, 340, and 650 GHz, seeking to generate sufficient power for long-range high-performance imaging and communications systems at these frequencies.


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SRC Nonclassical CMOS Research Center:

In this center we seek to develop MOSFETs with III-V compound semiconductor channels for potential replacement of Si-channel devices in future VLSI systems at and beyond the 10 nm scaling generation.  More details regarding this program can be found at this link.


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DARPA Flare: with Teledyne Scientific:

In this program we have developed very linear 1-10 GHz broadband amplifiers with very high third order intercepts yet low dc power consumption. The applications are in radar and in wireless communication. The amplifiers use feedback techniques typical of op-amps, but extend the loop bandwidths to 50 GHz or more.    

We are also developing sample-holds with ~30-40 GHz sample rates, and are investigating other linear high dynamic range GHz mixed-signal ICs.


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ONR Ohmic Contacts: with Gossard Group:

The 3 fundamental limits to transistor scaling for increased bandwidth are metal-semiconductor contact resistance, thermal resistance, and (FETs only) gate dielectric capacitance density. In this program we are exploring the formation of ultra-low-resistance contacts through epitaxy

 

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DARPA PICO; Optical PLLs: with Coldren and Bowers Groups, with Teledyne:

In this program we seek to develop coherent optical receivers using electrical phase-locking of the optical LO. We also seek to demonstrate optical wavelength synthesis for wavelength / frequency control in WDM and LIDAR systems using optical/electrical PLLs with electrical offset-locking in the 10-100 GHz range.

 

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mm-wave MIMO, mm-wave networks : with Madhow Group:

In this program we seek to demonstrate high-capacity mm-wave radio communications links using massive spatial parallelism. We are also exploring array techniques for adaptive networking.


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State Density Engineering for nm electronics::

We are developing research programs in ~7-10 nm transistors, emphasizing the role of semiconductor state density and carrier group velocity in determining on-state drive current.




mm-wave and sub-mmwave array transceivers

With >1 THz transistors now demonstrated in InP, and 150 GHz amplifiers demonstrated even in CMOS processes, highly directional and electronically steerable transmitters and receivers are now the key missing requirement for deployment of practical mm-wave (30-300 GHz) and sub-mm-wave (300-3000 GHz) radio systems. There are key opportunities in developing such arrays at 220, 340 and 650 GHz in III-V processes, and at 60 GHz and 70-90 GHz in CMOS processes.

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

UCSB