Fourth Year Projects for 2011-2012

Group Project in Radio Frequency and Analog Design

Link to Fourth-Year Projects for 2012-2013

As in previous years, it is expected that this will be joint between students reporting to Prof. Plett and Prof. Rogers.

We haven't finalized the exact frequency range and application yet, but other than that, the projects will be similar to previous years so reading last year's description, listed below, will give you a good idea of what to expect.

Last year, (2010-2011), students worked on ultra wideband radio in the frequency range from 3.1-10.6 GHz. Students started by exploring the architecture and the required tools with help from the professors and some of their graduate students. Then from a list of possible components, students chose particular components to work on as the main focus of their work. These components were further explored and implemented as an integrated circuit in a commercial 130 nm process using industry standard tools. A complete implementation would include schematic level design and simulation, layout, and extraction of parasitics from the layout to obtain a more accurate simulation. Finally the intention was for all students to combine their blocks to form a complete transceiver. The particular components developed by the students in 2010-2011 were a 3-5 GHz LNA, a broadband mixer, a 1 Gs/s A/D converter, two different PAs (one from 3 to 5 GHz and one from 6-10.6 GHz), and a 16 GHz oscillator. Examples of other components that could have been chosen would have been the integrated baseband filters, a D/A converter, and frequency synthesizer components.

In earlier years, other topics have included 60 GHz radio, wireless LAN, and Bluetooth radio.

Description from 2010-2011 (last year)

While cellular and WLAN applications are some of the best known applications for radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs), another very active area that has generated much interest is the design ultra wide band (UWB) systems for personal area networks (PAN) and other low power applications. Unlike narrow band wireless applications, UWB systems must handle many signals simultaneously over a wide frequency range.

Students in the project will be responsible for the design of a high frequency (either in the 3-10GHz range or in the 60GHz range) circuit building block and may also be expected to participate in designing the radio architecture. The circuit blocks will be designed in either a 130nm or 65nm state of the art CMOS process, using the same tools used in industry.

This project will make use of the skills students have developed in ELEC 2507, and ELEC 3509. Enrollment in courses such as ELEC 4505, and ELEC 4707 will provide additional background for the project. This project will be run jointly with Professor Rogers.