City University of Hong Kong

Liang Wu

Quan Xue

Shaowei Liao

Systems and methods which provide an antenna in a chip-and-package distributed configuration as disclosed. Chip-and-package distributed antenna configurations of embodiments comprise an on-chip integrated circuit component and an in-package component. For example, embodiments of a chip-and-package distributed antenna comprise an exciting element on chip (i.e., formed as an integrated component in an integrated circuit die) and a primary radiator in package (i.e., disposed within an package while being external to the integrated circuit die). The on-chip exciting element may be configured to excite electromagnetic waves and to provide relatively wide bandwidth operation while occupying a relatively small area of the die. The in-package primary radiator may be configured to leverage the relatively large space in the integrated circuit product package to enhance the gain and/or configure the radiation pattern of RF signals with respect to the exciting element.

Chip-and-package distributed antenna

Systems and methods which provide oscillator configurations implementing phase rotation (rotated-phase-tuning (RPT)) are described. Embodiments of a RPT oscillator may employ phase interpolation, whereby two current vectors having different phases are superimposed to provide a resultant current vector having a tunable phase to vary a phase shift in a feedback loop of an oscillator circuit and correspondingly tune the oscillation frequency. Phase rotation provided by an RPT oscillator configuration of embodiments inserts a negative phase shift (rotation phase shift) into each of two current branches to rotate the phase shifts of a phase-tuning technique, such as for avoiding phase ambiguity with respect to tunable oscillation frequencies. RPT oscillators of embodiments are varactor-less and are particularly well suited for operation to provide output frequencies in the millimeter-wave (mmW) band.

Phase-tuning oscillators

Systems and methods which provide injection-locked circuit configurations for radiating signals in the terahertz frequency range with improved phase noise and signal output power are described. Embodiments of the invention provide an injection-locked terahertz radiator system comprising a half-quadrature voltage controlled oscillator (HQVCO), a plurality of injection-locked frequency quadruplers (ILFQs), and antenna elements. In operation according to embodiments, injection-locking provided by the ILFQs may be utilized to facilitate individual optimization of the output power and the phase noise. Intrinsic-delay compensation and harmonic boosting techniques may be utilized in configurations of the foregoing injection-locked terahertz radiator system to optimize the phase noise of the HQVCO and the output power of the ILFQs, respectively. Embodiments of an injection-locked terahertz radiator system herein are implemented as a fully integrated solution with compact form factor, providing high reliability and low cost.

Growing community of inventors

Hong Kong, China

Liang Wu