Title:  Energy Efficient, Linear, and Wideband mm-Wave Transceiver Front-end for Next-generation Wireless Communication Systems

Committee:

Dr. Hua Wang, ECE, Chair, Advisor

Dr. Madhavan Swaminathan, ECE

Dr. Shaolan Li, ECE

Dr. Matthieu Bloch, ECE

Dr. Vadim Issakov, TUB

Dr. Theodore Rappaport, NYU

Abstract: To address the highly growing data-rate demand, it is envisioned that mm-Wave and sub-THz will be extensively employed in 5G-and-beyond communication system for increases of channel capacity and broader applicable spectra. Viable mm-Wave Tx/PA front-end solutions are required to support multi-Gb/s spectrum-efficiency modulated signals, such as high-order QAMs. Corresponding large PAPRs cause that Tx/PA must demonstrate exceptional linearity to maintain signal fidelity and exceptional efficiency at PBO. Such stringent requirements have triggered extensive research on new Tx/PA architectures to further improve the performance at mm-Wave. Similarly, mm-Wave receiver (Rx) front-end solutions should achieve high sensitivity and linearity while maintaining a wide bandwidth to proceed high speed signals. MIMO and phased array architectures are extensively utilized to improve mm-Wave link performance and spatial diversity via beamforming but the corresponding narrow beamwidth substantially complicates the Tx-Rx alignment. Moreover, due to the high complexity of the conventional MIMO systems, it is exceedingly difficult to build multi-beam/streams MIMO systems for multi-beam generation, which requires fundamentally new Rx array architecture. Lastly, for long-distance communications such as satellite links, higher EIRP is required and more MIMO channels within one chip become urgent need. Due to the critical requirement for integrating more MIMO channels on the same chip for low cost and low form-factor, compact high-performance mm-wave and sub-THz TRx front-end are highly demanding. To address aforementioned challenges for future communication system, this thesis introduces 1) two high-speed efficiency enhancement CMOS and InP PAs supporting 3-to-1 carrier fractional bandwidth, 2) two Rx arrays supporting autonomous beaforming/spatial filtering and multi-beams MIMO communication, and 3) two novel mm-Wave and sub-THz TRx frontend with small form factor suitable for large-scale array system.