The Flexible Future of the RFIC

Abstract: Over the last quarter of a century, RF and mm-wave CMOS integrated circuits have gone from the realm of exotic research to becoming the only realistic way to implement almost all commercial communication and sensing systems. The ability to reliably integrate a large number of active and passive components operating at RF and mm-wave frequencies continues to enable an unlimited number of new applications and design approaches previously not practical or economical. Wireless power transfer at a distance is an example of an emerging third prong of novel use cases for RF and mm-waves integrated circuits.

Despite these major advances, such RF and microwave systems remain relatively small, static, and rigid, thereby limiting their ability to be used in many novel applications ranging from wearable fabric, to easily deployable large-scale arrays in various environments. Such systems can provide significant additional utilization of the unprecedented IC fabrication capacity of the silicon foundries and enable yet another wave of new domains of use.

Flexible lightweight collapsible active electromagnetic surfaces enabled by an array of CMOS RFICs with the dynamic ability to compensate and correct for mechanical changes in the real time can open the door to a breadth of new applications from RF active fabric for clothing to communication and wireless power transfer systems that can be rapidly deployed on the ground and in space to enable a truly wireless ecosystem of the future.

Slides and backup recorded presentation can be found here.