Solid State Circuits Society

Terahertz (THz) and millimeter-wave (mm-wave) imaging and sensing is considered to be one of the emerging and disruptive technologies over the next decade. THz (including the W-band) waves pass through non-conducting materials such as clothes, paper, wood and brick and so cameras sensitive to them can peer inside envelopes, into living rooms and “frisk” people at distance. THz/mm-wave imaging/sensing systems, therefore, will be key enabling components in applications such as security surveillance (to find concealed weapons and explosives), non-destructive testing, biology, radio astronomy, multi-gigabit wireless connectivity, and medical imaging. One of the most critical and daunting tasks in a THz/mm-wave system is signal generation and frequency synthesis. This lecture presents a comprehensive overview and comparative study of research efforts which have explored several circuit techniques and architectures leading to highly efficient frequency synthesis and signal generation in silicon.

Bio:
Payam Heydari received his B.S. and M.S. degrees (Honors) in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in 1992 and 1995, respectively and Ph.D. degree from the University of Southern California in 2001. He is currently a Professor of Electrical Engineering and director of the Nanoscale Communication IC (NCIC) Lab at the University of California, Irvine. His research covers the design of terahertz/millimeter-wave/RF and analog integrated circuits. He is the (co)-author of two books, one book chapter, and more than 110 journal and conference papers. Prof. Heydari is the Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society. He has served on the Technical Program of International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) and as the Guest Editor of IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (JSSC), and Associate Editor of IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems – I as well as many other conferences and journals on integrated circuit design.