The exact frequency range and application has not been finalized yet (so at least initially there is an opportunity to come up with your own ideas). Other than that, the projects will be similar to previous years so reading those descriptions (links from previous page) will give you a good idea of what to expect.
Typically, we have designed using the same tools they would use in industry (e.g. Cadence) and into an industrial foundry, e.g., from IBM, TSMC, or ST. Some example designs in the past have been for Ultra Wideband Communication from 3.1-10.7 GHz, high-speed data transfer in the 60 GHz range, an LTE-based design at 2.6 GHz, a bluetooth application at 2.4 GHz. For a few years design was into our in-house DOE process, with more limited performance so designs were in the FM radio band around 100 MHz.
The first step is for students to explore the architecture and the required tools with help from the professor and some of their graduate students. Then from a list of possible components that make up the complete design, students chose particular components to work on as the main focus of their work.
The selected components would then be explored more deeply, alternatives examined, and the selected design implemented as an integrated circuit in the chosen commercial 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. Interaction would be required between all students in order to combine all the blocks to form the complete, receiver, transmitter, or transceiver.
Examples of components that could be developed by individual students would be a Low-Noise Amplifer, mixer, oscillator, power amplifier, frequency synthesizer components, A/D converter, D/A converter, filters, temperature independent voltage references. It would also be possible to do system level design for the overall system, or for a frequency synthesizer.
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 would provide additional background for the project.