Versatile RF-DACs, from RF-to-mm-Wave, to enable the Sixth Generation of Wireless Communications
Center for Wireless Technology (CWTe)
Please be invited for a special CWTe colloquium:
Dr. Jeffrey Walling (Virginia Tech) - Versatile RF-DACs, from RF-to-mm-Wave, to enable the Sixth Generation of Wireless Communications
Title:
Mixer-based transmitters have been dominant for approximately 100 years. However, for more than a decade RF-DACs have demonstrated the ability to combine the functionality of the DAC, upconverter and amplification stages of a transmitter into a single block.
The switched-capacitor power amplifier (SCPA) is a versatile RF-DAC that operates in a voltage mode and uses transistors only as switches.
This talk provides a tutorial introduction of the SCPA and presents architectural examples that enable both frequency reconfigurability and operation up to mm-Wave, supporting up to 3Gb/s transmission rates.
New uses of algorithmic designs for RF passives will also be introduced.
Speaker Bio:
Jeff Walling received his BS from University of South Florida and his MS and PhD from University of Washington, all in Electrical Engineering. He has held industrial positions at Motorola, Intel, Qualcomm and Skyworks. His research has primarily focused on circuits for wireless communications and sensing. From 2012 to 2019, he was an / is an assistant, then associate professor at University of Utah. Then he was head of RF transceivers at Tyndall National Institute in Cork, Ireland. Since 2021, he is an associate professor at Virginia Tech. He has served as an associate editor for TCAS-II, TCAS-I and JSSC, and on the technical program committees of the IEEE RFIC, ISSCC and NEWCAS conferences.