Postgraduate Studentships

Proposed Project Title: High-Efficiency Ku/Ka-Band GaNSi MMIC Doherty Power Amplifier for 5G

Principal Supervisor: Dr Mury Thian and Dr David Linton

Project Description:

Queen’s University Belfast is seeking an enthusiastic self-motivated individual with a ‘can do’ attitude to work on a new PhD research project “High-Efficiency Ku-/Ka-Band GaNSi MMIC Doherty Power Amplifier for 5G” in collaboration with M/A-COM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc. The successful candidate will be jointly supervised and spend at least three months at the industrial partner.

The benefits of Gallium Nitride (GaN) as a wide bandgap semiconductor in RF and microwave applications are becoming widely understood, and mainstream commercial applications are becoming increasingly apparent. Fabrication of GaN on Si substrates offers the performance of GaN with the scale and economies of high volume Si production and has enormous potential for small cell and macro cell base station high power amplifiers. These operate at comparatively low frequencies in the 1.8-2.2 and 2.3-2.7 GHz communications bands.

In order to accommodate the enormous expansion of data transmission that will be required to support a myriad of communications applications in future 5G standards will target operation at much higher frequency (e.g. 15 GHz Ku-band or 28 GHz Ka-band) with greater bandwidth. 5G is expected to operate MIMO technology with multiple antennae in array format to facilitate beam forming. To be viable this requires highly compact and efficient power amplifiers produced at very low cost.

Techniques for achieving highly efficient operation with high peak to average digital modulated signals, such as Doherty, are currently well established for the low frequency communications bands. However, amplifiers typically operate much less efficiently at Ku- and Ka-bands and the challenges with techniques such as Doherty are not well understood at high frequencies. There is therefore a great need for investigation of techniques for improving efficiency of power amplifiers in these bands.

Academic Requirements:

Candidates should have or expect to obtain (within 6 months) a First Class Honours degree or equivalent in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Physics, or Applied Mathematics. Candidates with experience in one or all of the following are highly desired: circuit simulations using ADS, Cadence; EM simulations using Sonnet, HFSS; RF circuit design implemented in hybrid or IC format including power amplifiers, mixers, filters, switches, 
oscillators, etc.

GENERAL INFORMATION

This 3.5 year PhD studentship commences on 1 October 2015 or soon after.

Eligibility for both enhanced EPSRC stipend (up to £19,000 tax free) and fees depends on the applicants being either an ordinary UK resident or those EU residents who have lived permanently in the UK for the 3 years immediately preceding the start of the studentship. Non UK residents who hold EU residency may also apply but if successful may receive fees only. Overseas students are NOT eligible for funding.

Applicants should apply electronically through the Queen’s online application portal at: https://dap.qub.ac.uk/portal/

Further information available at:  http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/eeecs/StudyattheSchool/PhDProgrammes

Contact detail

Supervisor Name: Dr Mury Thian
Tel: +44 (0)28 9097 1845
Email: m.thian<στο>qub.ac.uk

QUB Address:
Queen’s University Belfast
ECIT Institute
Queen’s Road, Queen’s Island
Belfast, BT3 9DT
United Kingdom

Deadline for submission of applications is Friday 29th May 2015.

For further information on Research Area click on link below:

www.ecit.qub.ac.uk