*********************************
There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
*********************************
Title: Silicon-based RF/mm-wave Power Amplifiers and Transmitters for Future Energy-efficient and Broadband Communication Systems
Committee:
Dr. Hua Wang, ECE, Chair , Advisor
Dr. John Cressler, ECE
Dr. Maysam Ghovanloo, ECE
Dr. Gee-Kung Chang, ECE
Dr. Hao-Min Zhou, Math
Abstract:
Power amplifier (PA) often governs the energy efficiency of a wireless transceiver. Its linearity is also of paramount importance to ensure the signal fidelity. Moreover, its broadband operation is highly desired for high-speed wireless communication. However, integrating a PA in silicon entails challenges due to the PA’s nature of large-signal and highly dynamic operation. This research exploits the mixed-signal computation and novel on-chip electromagnetic networks to enable intelligent RF/millimeter-wave large-signal operation in silicon. This research demonstrates the introduced design methodologies by silicon implementations. In a multiband millimeter-wave PA in silicon, mixed-signal reconfiguration and a novel on-chip power combiner enable broadband operation for fifth-generation (5G) communication. In a digital Doherty PA in silicon, flexible and precise digital control optimizes in-field Doherty efficiency enhancement and enables robustness against antenna mismatch. In addition, this research demonstrates two hybrid PA efficiency enhancement techniques that leverage digital-intensive architectures in silicon. Mixed-signal linearization is introduced in these architectures to eliminate the trade-off between efficiency and linearity.
