Devices, Circuits, Processes and Tools for Reconfigurable and Programmable Power Efficient Microwave Circuits

用于可重新配置和可编程节能微波电路的器件、电路、工艺和工具

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-07121
• 负责人: Kouki, Ammar
• 金额: $ 3.35万
• 依托单位: École de technologie supérieure
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=689253
• 关键词: Devices; Circuits; Processes; Tools; Reconfigurable

Field programmable microwave circuits have alluded researchers for decades and still remains a highly sought after technology. In the digital domain, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and other programmable hardware have long been accessible to digital systems designers, with no particular requirements of in-depth knowledge and expertise in the underlining hardware technology. FPGAs for example have enabled high levels of hardware abstraction and helped democratize digital systems design and implementation to a very wide and diverse user community. By contrast microwave circuits/systems are highly static, must often be duplicated or repeated in the same radio to accommodate different frequencies or services and offer little to no hardware re-use and field programmability. Furthermore, their design has remained limited to a relatively small community of experts and is perceived as Black Magic' by most non specialists. ******The goal of my proposed research program is to take a holistic approach that can help bring about a paradigm shift in HOW programmable, power efficient microwave circuits can be designed and configured and WHO can do the designing and configuring without requiring in depth expertise nor scaring off new comers to microwave circuit design. This entails the development of new tools and technologies that, together, can bring about such a shift. Specifically, this program will seek to make discoveries along two main thrusts: (i) the tools thrust - through a novel RF/microwave circuit design framework that incorporates hardware abstraction techniques for function based design and hardware synthesis, and (ii) the technologies thrust - through novel devices and fabrication processes to enable design on the fly, programmability and efficient energy use and recycling through thermo-electric generation. On the technology front, the program will be focused on the use of the multilayer Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics (LTCC) technology coupled with microfabrication (MEMS) techniques and advanced GaN semiconductor devices while on tools front, high-level modern markup languages will be used to capture function-based designs and to implement hardware abstraction strategies. Synthesis techniques that allow mapping of the hardware-abstracted function based designs to the LTCC/MEMS/GaN physical technology platform will also be investigated. **

现场可编程微波电路几十年来一直受到研究人员的关注，并且仍然是一项备受追捧的技术。在数字领域，现场可编程门阵列 (FPGA) 和其他可编程硬件长期以来一直可供数字系统设计人员使用，对底层硬件技术的深入知识和专业知识没有特殊要求。例如，FPGA 实现了高水平的硬件抽象，并帮助将数字系统设计和实现民主化到非常广泛和多样化的用户社区。相比之下，微波电路/系统是高度静态的，通常必须在同一无线电中进行复制或重复，以适应不同的频率或服务，并且几乎不提供硬件重用和现场可编程性。此外，他们的设计仍然仅限于相对较小的专家群体，并且被大多数非专家视为“黑魔法”。 ******我提出的研究计划的目标是采取一种整体方法，帮助实现如何设计和配置可编程、高能效微波电路的范式转变，并且谁可以在不需要的情况下进行设计和配置深入的专业知识也不会吓跑微波电路设计的新手。这需要开发新的工具和技术，共同带来这样的转变。具体来说，该计划将寻求沿着两个主要方向进行发现：(i) 工具推动力 - 通过新颖的射频/微波电路设计框架，该框架结合了用于基于功能的设计和硬件合成的硬件抽象技术，以及 (ii) 技术推动力- 通过新颖的设备和制造工艺，实现动态设计、可编程性以及通过热电发电实现高效能源利用和回收。在技​​术方面，该计划将重点关注多层低温共烧陶瓷（LTCC）技术与微加工（MEMS）技术和先进氮化镓半导体器件的使用，而在工具方面，高级现代标记语言将用于捕获基于功能的设计并实现硬件抽象策略。还将研究允许将基于硬件抽象功能的设计映射到 LTCC/MEMS/GaN 物理技术平台的综合技术。 **