Title: Taming Waves for mmWave/THz Communications and Sensing: from Soliton Resonance to Phased Array
Abstract: mmWave and Terahertz (THz) technology is a key enabler for the next generation communications and sensing. In this talk, I will discuss fundamental innovations in mmWave/THz integrated circuits (ICs) and system based on wave propagation and interaction in linear and nonlinear media. In the first part of the talk, I will introduce a new IC design paradigm for high-frequency signal generation and processing. Based on this approach, I will present 1) a new method of controlling propagation delay in silicon, 2) a passive mmWave frequency divider for the first time implemented in CMOS and 3) nonlinear wave interaction in a 2-D lattice, so called Soliton resonance, to generate the sharpest pulse width achieved for high-amplitude pulses (>1 V) in CMOS. In the second part of the talk, I will discuss a method of controlling wave propagation in a system level, presenting a scalable dual-polarization 94-GHz phased array ICs and their module-level integration with antennas-in-package for a 3-D real-time radar application. I will also briefly discuss my future research directions.
Bio: Wooram Lee is currently a Research Staff Member in the RF Circuits and Systems Group at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, NY, where he is involved with the development of mmWave phased array circuits and systems for communications and radar as well as high-speed serial link transceivers for data center applications. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University. He received his B.Sc. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, South Korea, in 2001 and 2003, and his Ph.D degree at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, in 2012. From 2012 to 2015, he was with Broadcom, CA, where he worked on multi-Gbps CMOS transceivers and data converters for broadband communication in optical, copper and backplane applications. He received the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Pre-doctoral Fellowship (sole winner) for 2010-2011 and the Samsung Graduate Fellowship for 2007-2012. He was a recipient of the IEEE RFIC Symposium Industry Best Paper Award (2nd place) in 2019, and the Best Paper Award of the IEEE Radar Conference (3rd place) in 2009. He serves as a member of the Technical Program Committee of the IEEE BiCMOS and Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuits and Technology Symposium (BCICTS).