Tutorials

Advances in Silicon BFICs and GaAs/GaN T/R modules for High Performance and Affordable SATCOM and Radar Phased-Arrays

Monday, October 19

This workshop presents the latest and greatest phased-arrays for commercial and defense applications. Topics include advances in SiGe, CMOS and GaN for RF applications (GlobalFoundries), novel packaging techniques for wideband modules and for high power T/R modules (Pseudolithic), the building of complex beamformer ICs at 6-60 GHz (Axiro, Qorvo, ADI) and the use of silicon BFIC chips and GaAs/GaN T/R modules with planar and wideband printed-circuit antennas to build complex phased-arrays at 6-100 GHz (Extreme Waves). Also, affordable arrays built solely using silicon chips with wide performance for multiband SATCOM and other communication systems will be presented together with measured results.

Talk No. 1 - GlobalFoundries

  • Title: Advanced RFSOI and SiGe Technologies for Efficient Beamforming Solutions

  • Presenter:  Dr. Julio Costa

Talk No. 2 - Pseudolithic

  • Title: Building Single-Chip RF Front-Ends with III-V Performance and CMOS Intelligence

  • Presenter: Dr. James Buckwalter

Talk  No. 3 – Axiro USA

  • Title: Silicon Features for Phased Arrays: Scalability, Observability, and Trimming

  • Presenter: Dr. Samet Zihir

Talk No. 4 - Qorvo

  • Title: Efficient, Agile Arrays and Enabling Beamformer Technology

  • Presenter: Ryan Jennings

Talk No. 5 - Extreme Waves

  • Title: Mutli-Beam SATCOM Phased-Arrays and Low-Cost Radars using Silicon BFICs and T/R Modules

  • Presenter: Dr. Gabriel Rebeiz

Talk No. 6 - ADI    

  • Title: Building Efficient Dual-Polarized Weather Radar Phased Arrays with Silicon Beamformers

  • Presenter: Jeff Massman

Julio Costa was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  He is Vice President of RF Technologies at Global Foundries which he joined in 2022.  Previously he was a Senior Director of  Technology Development for QORVO in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he had been since 2002 leading a group of researchers focusing on Silicon SOI and RF MEMS technologies for next generation wireless systems.  He received his BSEE (1984) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his MSEE (1987) and PHD (1992) from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.   He worked at Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector (Freescale) from 1991 to 2001, where he worked as a researcher and technical manager in silicon and GaAs RF technology development.   He worked at ON Semiconductor until 2002, where he was a Director of R&D focusing on power management technology solutions.   He is the author of over 60 issued patents in device and process technologies in RF, and has numerous publications and presentations in international conferences. 

James F. Buckwalter is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering with the University of California - Santa Barbara (UCSB), Santa Barbara and Chief Technology Officer at PseudolithIC, Inc which he founded in 2021. He received the B.S. degree with honors in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, in 1999, M.S. degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2001, and Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Caltech in 2006. He has been recognized with a DARPA Young Faculty Award and NSF CAREER Award. He has published more than 280 peer-reviewed papers on radio-frequency and optoelectronic integrated circuit technologies and graduated more than 30 PhD students.  He is a Senior Member of the National Academy of Invenstors and a Fellow of the IEEE.

Dr. Samet Zihir, PhD, completed his BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from Sabanci University in 2009 and 2011, respectively, and his PhD in Electrical Engineering from UC San Diego in 2015. From 2014 to 2017, he was the Co-Founder of SpectraBeam, developing TRX beamformer ICs for 5G and Satcom.  

Following SpectraBeam's acquisition by IDT, he continued at Renesas as a Principal Engineer, leading the end-to-end design of 5G mmWave and Satcom/Radar TRX ICs. He is now the General Manager of the Satcom/Super-8 department in Axiro, leading the business unit and defining IC architectures for mmWave products.  

Dr. Zihir holds 21 US patents and has published 48 IEEE papers (15 journals and 33 conference papers). He has also served as a reviewer for JSSC, TMTT, and TCAS.

Ryan Jennings is Director of Si, SATCOM & Systems Engineering at Qorvo, where he leads the Integrated Si technology roadmap, new product development and customer support. He brings more than 28 years of experience leading mission-critical technology programs for commercial, intelligence and defense customers.

Before Qorvo’s acquisition of Anokiwave, Ryan served as Vice President of SATCOM and Systems. Earlier in his career, he held engineering and leadership roles at Ball Aerospace, advancing to Senior Manager responsible for phased-array systems for high-data-rate communications.

Ryan earned a B.S. degree in electrical, electronics and communications engineering from the University of Kentucky and an MBA with a focus in executive leadership from Regis University. He holds several phased-array related patents.

Prof. Gabriel M. Rebeiz is Member of the National Academy (elected for his work on phased-arrays) and is a Distinguished Professor and the Wireless Communications Industry Endowed Chair at the University of California, San Diego. He is an IEEE Fellow and is the recipient of the IEEE MTT Microwave Prize (2000, 2014, 2020) all for phased-arrays. His 2x2 and 4x4 RF-beamforming architectures are now used by Axiro/Renesas, ADI, Qorvo, Qualcomm, Intel, Samsung, Boeing and others, and most companies developing communication and radar systems. All SATCOM affordable phased-arrays are based on his work and architectures. He has published over 900 IEEE papers with an H-index of 110 and has graduated 130 PhD students including the former CEO of Qualcomm and several VPs in the communications and defense industry. He is a cofounder of Extreme Waves Inc., San Diego, CA, a company of 40 RF engineers building advanced SATCOM systems, communication systems and phased-arrays.

Jeff Massman received the B.S.E. degree in electrical engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy and the M.S.E.E. and Ph.D. degrees from the Air Force Institute of Technology. He is Chief Systems Architect, Phased Arrays at Analog Devices, where he leads the strategy, portfolio, and platform vision for phased-array systems. His work focuses on commercial AESA architectures, antennas, digital beamforming, calibration, and MIMO algorithms for scalable radar and sensing platforms. He has more than 16 years of experience across defense and commercial RF systems, with contributions spanning RF seekers, space-based sensors, collaborative UAV platforms, and 5G mmWave products. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, delivered invited workshops and technical talks, and holds multiple patents in antennas, RF systems, and array technologies.