Events Calendar

Integrated Systems Seminar

Speaker: Steven Bowers, California Institute of Technology

Talk Title: Holistic electromagnetics: integrated co-design of microwave, analog, digital, and photonic systems

Abstract: Continued integration of various devices on to a single semiconductor substrate as well as the scaling of those devices to ever smaller feature sizes have opened up a new design space for system level innovations that are no longer constrained by many of the restrictions of discrete system design. This talk will present holistic design methodologies for integrated power generation and radiation at mm-wave frequencies that are enabled by this continued integration of various electronic and electromagnetic (EM) structures onto the same substrate. One benefit of this integration available to mm-wave designers is the vast computational power available on chip. A fully integrated self-healing power amplifier at 28 GHz in 45nm SOI CMOS takes advantage of this processing power to heal the PA against process variation, mismatch, environmental variation and transistor failure.
Continuing with the observation that transistors and their connections to EM radiating structures on an integrated substrate are essentially incrementally free, the concept of multi-port driven (MPD) radiators is introduced, and proof of concept mm-wave radiators using 130nm SiGe BiCMOS and silicon photonics are demonstrated.
These systems showcase the benefits of utilizing a co-design between various fields, such as analog circuit design, digital circuit design and applied electromagnetics. By removing many of the boundaries between these various disciplines, new system architectures can be realized that can further push the limits of achievable performance.


Biography: Steven M. Bowers received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego and his M.S. and Ph.D. specializing in mm-wave circuits and systems from the California Institute of Technology, where he is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow. His research interests include holistic integration of high-frequency analog circuits, advanced digital circuits, novel electromagnetic structures and integrated silicon photonics to enable the next generation of mm-wave applications, specifically in adaptive and self-healing mm-wave circuits and mm-wave power generation and radiation. He received the Caltech Institute Fellowship in 2007, Analog Devices Outstanding Student Designer Award in 2009, is a member of IEEE, HKN and Tau-Beta-Pi, and was the recipient of the IEEE RFIC Symposium Best Student Paper award in 2012 and the IEEE IMS Best Student Paper award in 2013.

Host: Hossein Hashemi

Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Hossein Hashemi