/Design of GaN mm-wave power amplifier in imec technology

Design of GaN mm-wave power amplifier in imec technology

Leuven | More than two weeks ago

You will design a mm-wave power amplifier in imec's GaN on Si technology

With the venue of 5G, millimeter-wave frequencies are used to utilize the wide RF channels available at these frequencies and offer increased bitrates to mobile devices. Operating at mm-wave frequencies comes with several challenges of which transmitting sufficient power with high efficiency is one of the most important and challenging ones. While Silicon based technologies have been the dominant technologies in complex high speed circuits, they fall short in efficiency when providing power at mm-wave frequencies. III-V materials such as GaAs or GaN are better suited for this purpose, but they are significantly more expensive than Si.

GaN is traditionally used for high power, high efficiency applications at lower frequencies. In recent years, the technology has been scaled and mm-wave frequencies are now in its reach. At imec, we are developing a GaN on Si technology which will enable high efficiency operation at mm-wave while being cost effective.

During your Master’s thesis, you will design and layout a 28GHz power amplifier in imec’s own GaN on Si technology. You will be inspired by an existing implementation which was realized in a commercial technology. You will then design and layout a new amplifier taking the specificities of imec’s technology into account. You will interact with the technology developers to give feedback on various aspects of the technology and its PDK. With this thesis, you will contribute mainly to our mm-wave circuit research, while also having impact on our GaN development

Work:

Literature study: 30%

mmW Circuit Design and Layout 60%

Interaction with technology: 10%

Type of project: Thesis

Duration: 6-9 months

Required degree: Master of Engineering Science

Required background: Electrotechnics/Electrical Engineering

Supervising scientist(s): For further information or for application, please contact: Mark Ingels (Mark.Ingels@imec.be)