NIST only participates in the February and August reviews.
Consumer demand for small, light-weight, and energy-efficient electronics is driving the development of highly integrated devices. The resulting miniaturization of components has resulted in a paradigm shift in electrical test and measurement, with chip-scale electrical probing and evaluation quickly replacing more traditional connectorized measurements. Concurrently, the growing demand for wireless data is pushing manufacturers to build mobile handsets that operate within higher and higher frequency bands. Many proposed fifth-generation (5G) mobile handsets will operate in bands that lie in the mm-wave frequency regime (30 GHz to 300 GHz). In this frequency regime, the building blocks of integrated circuits, (e.g., transmission lines, filters, and amplifiers) are typically more power-hungry than at lower frequencies, making the cost per unit of transmitted power increase substantially. Compounding this problem, the current state-of-the-art in on-chip power measurements suffers from relatively large uncertainties, especially above 110 GHz. The resulting combination of cost and uncertainty is limiting the deployment of mm-wave communications devices. This research opportunity focuses on improving the state-of-the art in on-chip power measurements through the development of high-sensitivity, SI-traceable, on-chip standards. The interested candidate will have the opportunity to learn mm-wave device design, microfabrication, broadband (DC-1 THz) on-wafer metrology, and finite-element simulation techniques, among other skills.
References
Yang HH, Rebeiz GM: “Sub-10-pW/Hz0.5 Uncooled Micro-Bolometer with a Vacuum Micro-Package.” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques 64.7: 2129-2136, 2016
Wang DB, Liao XP, Liu T: “A thermoelectric power sensor and its package based on MEMS technology.” Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems 21.1: 121-131, 2012
Microwave; mm-wave; On-chip; Metrology; Wireless; On-wafer; Microfabrication; Simulations; Power; Optics; Combs