Research Activity

The research activities carried out by the EDM-LAB group deal with the nonlinear characterization and modeling of high frequency and power devices and circuits, the design of hybrid and integrated circuits in the field of RF and power electronics and the development of electronic instrumentation and measurement techniques. These activities find applications in wireless communications, electronic equipment, and industrial automation, including telecom front ends for base stations and mobile terminals, radars, communication satellite payloads. More details are listed below.

Nonlinear characterization and modeling of microwave electron devices and circuits

Formulation and identification of compact and equivalent-circuit models of III-V transistor for power amplifier design, with focus on the modelling of dispersive effects, due to thermal phenomena and charge-trapping phenomena;
Implementation techniques in CAD software, nonlinear simulation techniques, noise models, nonlinear stability analysis;
System-level, non-linear dynamic behavioral models formulation, identification and extraction for functional blocks of wireless systems; efficiency enhancement techniques for power amplifiers, supply and load modulation control, linearization algorithms for the digital predistortion and non-idealities compensation in microwave systems.

Circuits design for RF and power applications

Development of special design techniques for: efficient high power amplifiers, high linearity power amplifiers, low noise amplifiers, low phase noise oscillators, mixers; design of monolithic (GaAs, GaN and Silicon technologies) and hybrid circuits (SMD and bare-die components, alumina substrate, circuit layout definition);
Research on fast and efficient power electron converters and digital control; wireless power transfer systems and their applications; study of power electron converters to be used in industrial and automotive applications.

Instrumentation and measurement techniques for RF and industrial applications

Novel characterization techniques and measurement automation enabling advanced characterization of electron devices and circuits: on-wafer or coaxial microwave measurements, S-parameters, large-signal characterization, calibration techniques, power efficiency evaluation, nonlinear distortion analysis, noise figure and phase noise, mixer conversion, oscillator characterization;
Development of special measurement set-ups for: pulsed IV electron device characterization, phase noise measurements, thermal impedance identification, electron device RF dispersion characterization, nonlinear kernel identification, spectral regrowth and wideband behavior analysis;
Nonlinear-dynamic characterization and behavioral modeling of analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion systems, digital signal processing, time and frequency techniques.