Open Competition 3 - Electronics and Photonics (September 2002)

Fully Integrated Gigahertz Receiver Front End

Sponsor: Discera, Inc.

• Project duration: 5/1/2004 - 1/31/2007
• Total project (est.): $3,734,357.00
• Requested ATP funds: $2,000,000.00

Today's cellular telephones and other wireless communications systems depend in part on large discrete devices, such as filters, to process signals. Recent advances in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) suggest it is now feasible to shrink these components and thereby pack more functions into smaller circuitry. Discera plans a three-year project to develop MEMS devices, an architecture, and processing methods for making the front end for a "radio receiver on a chip" that is much smaller, cheaper, and more efficient than today's receivers. The front end encompasses all the passive components (oscillators, filters, switches, and antenna) of a receiver circuit. The company intends to develop a standard process with a limited number of steps for producing all these devices on the same integrated circuit wafer, while maintaining the required performance in each device. The use of abundant materials and conventional manufacturing methods will hold down costs. In addition to size and cost reductions, the proposed front end is expected to offer up to a 10-fold increase in efficiency, thereby extending the life of batteries or other power sources. It also will offer highly precise filtering to reduce interference. The ultimate objective is to combine the passive component chip with an active signal-processing chip to make a receiver that operates at 0.4 to 2.5 gigahertz, encompassing the frequencies used by cell phones. The project leverages intellectual property licensed from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Mich.) and University of California at Berkeley. The University of Cincinnati (Ohio) will be subcontracted to develop the micro-antenna. ATP funding will accelerate the research by 12 to 18 months, offering the opportunity to develop this technology in the United States before overseas competitors. If successful, the project will initially benefit the wireless telecom and consumer electronics industries - the markets for resonators, oscillators, and filters alone will total $6 billion by 2006. In the long term, the technology could be used in smart tags for security and supply-chain management, as well as biomedical, environmental, and military applications.

For project information:

Wan-Thai Hsu, (734) 528-6365
whsu@discera.com

ATP Project Manager

Purabi Mazumdar, (301) 975-4891
purabi.mazumdar@nist.gov