Highly Integrated Silicon (Si)-based RF electronics

ATE’s unique partnership with the University of Minnesota plans to exploits applied and fundamental research, respectively, to achieve unprecedented levels of integration for highly complex RF microwave, mm-wave and analog/digital/mixed-signal modules using Silicon Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology to support emerging DoD-critical applications such as wafer-scale phase array mono-static radars, bi-static radars, MIMO radars, direction finding (DF) signals intelligence (SIGINT), highly-integrated electronic warfare systems, or compact sensing systems.. In Phase I, ATE and the University of Minnesota will focus on application research to establish key performance parameters such as phase noise, phase shifter resolution/accuracy, linear dynamic range, channel isolation, etc. and analyze the feasibility of the proposed integration scheme and RF/mixed signal circuits that will result in revolutionary capabilities or superior performance which cannot be achieved by current III-V technologies. Simulation and/or basic experiments, expected RF performance, integration level (RF and digital transistor counts), and required integration technologies (3D integration, etc.) of the proposed circuits will be presented and discussed including proposed realistic fabrication technologies or necessary technology developments to realize the target RF/mixed signal circuits for the next phases.