Abstract:
In this talk, the recent research progress in millimeter wave (mmWave) and terahertz (THz) integrated circuits (ICs) and systems applications in the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves (SKLMMW) of Southeast University and cooperative enterprises are reviewed.

Prof. Wei Hong received the B.S. degree from the University of Information Engineering, Zhengzhou, China, in 1982, and the M.S. and PhD degrees from Southeast University, Nanjing, China, in 1985 and 1988, respectively, all in radio engineering.

He is currently a professor of the School of Information Science and Engineering, Southeast University. In 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998, he was a short-term visiting scholar with the University of California at Berkeley and at Santa Cruz, respectively. He has been engaged in numerical methods for electromagnetic problems, millimeter wave theory and technology, antennas, RF technology for wireless communications etc. He has authored and co-authored over 400 technical publications and two books. He twice awarded the National Natural Prizes of China, four times awarded the first-class Science and Technology Progress Prizes issued by the Ministry of Education of China and Jiangsu Province Government, and 2021 IEEE MTT-S Microwave Prize etc.

Dr. Hong is a Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of CIE, the vice presidents of the CIE Microwave Society and Antenna Society, and was an elected IEEE MTT-S AdCom Member during 2014-2016, served as the Associate Editor of the IEEE Trans. on MTT from 2007 to 2010.

Abstract:
Oscillator, as the key component of frequency synthesizer, is the heart of wireless and wireline transceiver system. Efforts have been devoted in improving the quality of CMOS VCO because it directly dominates the quality of clocking signal, and hence the system performance, of communication or radar. Frequency tuning range, phase noise level at different frequency deviation, DC power consumption, etc., are key parameters concerned in system level. This talk introduces recent progresses of high performance VCOs achieved in the speaker's team, including wide-tuning-range VCOs, varactor-less VCO, low phase noise VCOs, etc. Theory, simulation and experimental results will be presented.

Quan Xue received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electronic engineering from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, China, in 1988, 1991, and 1993, respectively. In 1993, he joined the UESTC as a Lecturer and became a Professor in 1997. From October 1997 to October 1998, he was a Research Associate and then a Research Fellow with the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 1999, he joined the City University of Hong Kong and was a Chair Professor of Microwave Engineering before he left in 2017. He also served the University as the Associate Vice President, and the Director of Information and Communication Technology Center, and the Deputy Director of the State Key Lab of Millimeter Waves (Hong Kong). In 2017, he joined the South China University of Technology, where now he is a Professor and serves as the dean of the School of Electronic and Information Engineering, the dean of the School of Microelectronics, and the Director of the Guangdong Key Laboratory of Terahertz and Millimeter Waves. He also serves as the Antenna Chief Scientist of Huawei Technologies 2012 Labs (2020-2023), and a member of the National 6G Technology General Expert Group (2019-).

His research interests include microwave/millimeter-wave/THz integrated circuits and antennas. He has authored or co-authored more than 500 internationally refereed journal papers. Professor Xue is a Fellow of IEEE and an IEEE distinguished microwave lecturer for the 2022-2024 term. He served the IEEE as an AdCom member of MTT-S (2011-2013) and the Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques (2010-2013), the Editor of International Journal of Antennas and Propagation (2010-2013), the Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics (2010-2015), the Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Antenna and Propagations (2016), and , a track editor Eletromagnetic Science. Professor Xue is the winner of the 2017 H. A. Wheeler Applications Prize Paper Award.

Abstract:

Sub-THz Traveling Wave Tubes (TWTs) are an emerging solution for enabling long range high capacity links at sub-THz frequency.

TWTs are substantially three dimensional metal devices with dimensions proportional to the operation wavelength. At sub-THz frequencies the short wavelength poses substantial fabrication challenges. No commercial sub-THz TWT is available due to the challenging technology. Presently, only a few prototypes were built worldwide.

A TWT consists of an electron gun, a specific waveguide topology as slow wave structure (SWS), a collector, a periodic permanent magnets (PPM) system and RF windows to vacuum seal the input and output ports. The electron gun generates a beam with given current, voltage and radius traveling along the SWS in ultra-vacuum, confined by a magnetic focussing system. The amplification mechanism is based on the transfer of energy from the high energy electron beam generated by the electron gun to the RF field propagating in the SWS with phase velocity similar to the electron velocity. This mechanism permits to achieve more than one order of magnitude output power than solid state amplifiers at the same frequency.

This talk will introduce the emerging perspectives in the adoption of TWTs in new high capacity network architecture and describe the TWT working principle, the main fabrication processes at sub-THz frequencies, the design process and the state of the art of sub-THz TWT technology.

Claudio Paoloni since 2012 has been full professor and Cockcroft Chair with the School of Engineering at Lancaster University. He was the Head of School of Engineering (2015 – 2022).
He is Associate Editor of IEEE Transaction of Microwave Theory and Techniques and vice-Chair IEEE EDS Region 8.
He was member at large of the Board of Governor of the IEEE Electron Devices Society. He was Chair of the IEEE Electron Devices Society Vacuum Electronics Technical Committee (2017 – 2020).
He is IEEE Senior Member and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK.
He was Guest Editor in Chief of the Special Issue of IEEE Transaction on Electron Devices on Vacuum Electronics published in June 2023.
He was coordinator of two European Commission Horizon 2020 projects, TWEETHER and ULTRAWAVE to enabling ultra-capacity wireless network by a new generation of sub-THz traveling wave tubes.
He published more than 260 peer reviewed articles and four book chapters.
He has established at Lancaster University the “TWT Fab” a unique in Europe distributed laboratory for sub-THz Traveling Wave Tube fabrication.
Email. c.paoloni@lancaster.ac.uk Website:. http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/people/claudio-paoloni
Twitter: @ClPaoloni

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudio-paoloni/