Progress toward a single chip radio in CMOS
Dr. Kenneth O
Professor, University of Florida, Gainesville
Wednesday, Oct. 8 at 1 p.m. in TI Auditorium (ECSS 2.102)
Abstract
Small communication nodes, called µNodes, have been inspired by the great improvement in the high frequency capabilities of CMOS. Functionally, a µNode system on a chip (SoC) will contain a microprocessor, a true single chip radio including a baseband signal processor and antennas, and eventually various sensors. Physically, it consists of one low cost CMOS chip mounted on a battery or other power source. A typical size of µNodes is expected to be that of an M&M. Depending on applications and configuration, a µNode could be as small as 3mm x 3mm x 9 mm, which makes it difficult to visually detect. The intended ranges for the first attempt operating at 24 GHz are 1-5 m for node to node communication, and 100 m for node to a base station communication. This presentation will describe the challenges and research progress toward the realization of the true single chip radio as well as the remaining hurdles. In particular, the performance of on-chip antennas, a technique to eliminate the crystal frequency reference, 24-GHz RF CMOS circuits, and isolation issues between the transmitted signal from an on-chip antenna and other RF circuits will be discussed.
Biography
Kenneth O received his S.B, S.M, and Ph.D degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA in 1984, 1984, and 1989, respectively. From 1989 to 1994, Dr. O worked at Analog Devices Inc. developing sub-micron CMOS processes for mixed signal applications and high speed bipolar and BiCMOS processes for RF and mixed signal applications. He is currently a professor at the University of Florida, Gainesville. His research group is developing circuits and components required to implement analog and digital systems operating between 1GHz and 1THz using silicon IC technologies. He was the general chair of the 2001 IEEE Bipolar/BiCMOS Circuits and Technology Meeting. Dr. O has also served as the publication chairman of the 1999 International Electron Device Meeting and as an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices from 1999 to 2001.
Since 2001, he has also been a member of the International Advisory Committee for the Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science. He has authored and co-authored 170 journal and conference publications and holds nine patents. Dr. O received the 1996 NSF Early Career Development Award and the 2004 UF Ph.D. Advisor Award. He also held a UF Research Foundation Professorship from 2004-2007.
