ECE 792 651 Design of mmWare Circuits & Systems

Topics will include silicon IC technology at mmWave, radio link budgets, beamformers, amplifiers, phase shifters, oscillators, mixers, transmit/receive front-ends, phased-arrays, receivers, transmitters, radars, and radiometers. Emphasis is placed on differences encountered in mmWave IC design as compared to RFIC design due to technology capabilities and/or application requirements.

Prerequisites

ECE 549 RF Design for Wireless and ECE 712 ICs for Wireless Communications.

Course Objectives

After taking this course, the student will be able to :

• Evaluate and describe requirements for millimeter-wave (mmWave) radio, radar, and radiometer systems;
• Evaluate and describe silicon technology capabilities at mmWave frequencies;
• Analyze and design the key integrated circuits found in mmWave receivers, transmitters, and phased arrays.

Course Outline

All lectures will be pre-recorded from the Spring 2022 or Spring 2024 offering of this class. The instructor will offer periodic online discussion sessions, targeting one per week, but excluding travel times. Students are expected to keep pace with the lectures at a rate of three lectures per week. One week is budgeted for a summer vacation. Please reach out to the instructor if additional accommodations are needed or if you have questions.

Course Requirements

50% Homework; 50% Projects.

Design Projects and Homework:
One larger design project and a few homework assignments are planned. Students will create designs using available industry design kits and Cadence, SpectreRF, and EMX.
Late policy: assignments must be uploaded before 11:55PM on the due date.
Late assignments will incur a 20% late penalty, except in pre-arranged cases, which must be cleared in advance with the instructor.

Textbook

Required Text:

• Sorin Voinigescu, High-Frequency Integrated Circuits, 1st ed., Cambridge, 2013.

Supplementary Texts:

• Hubregt J. Visser, Array and Phased Array Antenna Basics, Wiley, 1st ed., 2005.
• David Pozar, Microwave Engineering, Wiley, 4th ed., 2011.
• Merrill Skolnik, Introduction to Radar Systems, McGraw-Hill, 3rd ed., 2002.

Created: 05/01/2025