New High Frequency Amplifier Harnesses Millimeter Waves in Silicon for Fast Wireless (IMAGE)
Caption
The new silicon-based amplifier marks progress toward high capacity wireless communications systems that will operate at millimeter wave frequencies (70-110GHz) and could provide data transfer rates as fast as 10 Gigabits per second over a kilometer. Toward this goal, the new amplifier provides both high gain (the ability to increase the volume of a signal) and high bandwidth (the ability to do it over a broad range of tones). It has a direct transmission line path from the input to the output that carries electromagnetic waves -- undisrupted -- across the surface of a silicon chip. Amplification "stages" along this transmission line boost the signal power by monitoring the signal amplitude and generating feedback in just trillionths of a second, feedback that injects additional energy in phase to the signal. The amplifier provides record-breaking gain of 26-30dB at 100GHz and allows wave propagation along the chip surface.
Credit
UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
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UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
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