WNCG Receives $900K from ARL for RFIC Design

 The U.S. Army Research Lab (ARL) has granted over $900,000 to the Wireless Networking and Communications Group for a major initiative in RF integrated circuit design. This Cooperative Agreement, supported by Congressman Lamar Smith in the recent Congressional Budget, provides for infrastructure equipment and staff support that is critical for the development of a research facility that will develop massively broadband wireless devices at millimeter wave frequencies.

Historically, wireless communications has been used to provide portability for voice (telephone) communications, and more recently for broadband data used in portable computing (such as for Wireless LANs). Also, there has been tremendous interest and federal support for low bandwidth, low power wireless nodes for use in ad-hoc networks that are critical in military and sensing applications. The new award will allow for the development of massively broadband RFIC’s that operate at 60GHz carrier frequencies. These millimeter wave frequencies will be ready to commercialize in 5 to 7 years, and WNCG is one of the few research centers now equipped to do work on RFIC’s at 60GHz frequencies and above. Portable content will enable battlefield personnel to use lightweight, rugged devices that exploit massive local-area bandwidth connectivity. Printed matter and mechanical disk drives, all liabilities during battlefield operations, will be replaced with the wireless technology proposed in this project.

Faculty members participating in this project include:

• Prof. Theodore S. Rappaport
• Prof. Jeffrey Andrews
• Prof. Gustavo de Veciana
• Prof. Robert Heath
• Prof. Scott Nettles
• Prof. Sanjay Shakkottai
• Researcher Lawrence Ragan

Click here for more information about the project entitled “Massively Broadband Wireless AdHoc Nodes.”