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: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=716573
• 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.

现场可编程的微波电路已经提到了数十年的研究人员，并且仍然是一项备受追捧的技术。在数字域中，数字系统设计师长期以来一直可以访问现场可编程门阵列（FPGA）和其他可编程硬件，对于强调硬件技术的深入知识和专业知识没有特别的要求。例如，FPGA使高水平的硬件抽象能够使数字系统的设计和实施民主化为非常广泛，多样化的用户社区。相比之下，微波电路/系统是高度静态的，通常必须在同一收音机中复制或重复，以适应不同的频率或服务，并且几乎没有硬件重复使用和现场可编程性。此外，他们的设计仍然仅限于相对较小的专家社区，并且被大多数非专家视为黑魔法。 我提出的研究计划的目的是采用一种整体方法，可以帮助您对可以设计和配置的可编程，有效的微波电路的方式进行范式转变，并且可以进行设计和配置，而无需深入的专业知识，也不需要吓new comers以微波电路设计。这需要开发新的工具和技术，这些工具和技术共同带来了这种转变。具体而言，该计划将寻求沿两个主要力量进行发现：（i）工具通过一种新颖的RF/微波电路设计框架，结合了基于功能的设计和硬件合成的硬件抽象技术，以及（ii）技术通过新颖的设备和制造过程启用了通过新颖的设备和制造过程来启动设计，可以通过fly，程序化的能量和恢复能力和恢复效率。在技​​术方面，该程序将集中于多层低温共同燃烧陶瓷（LTCC）技术，以及微加工（MEMS）技术和先进的GAN半导体设备，而在工具上，高级现代标记语言将用于捕获基于功能的设计和实施硬件策略。还将研究允许将基于硬件功能的设计映射到LTCC/MEMS/GAN物理技术平台的合成技术。