SBIR Phase II: Low-Cost High Efficiency Gallium-Nitride RFIC-PAs

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will contribute to the advancement of the US’s competitiveness in Semiconductor based products, while also enhancing the national defense and minimizing the electricity requirements of next-generation wireless communications infrastructure equipment. This project will develop state-of-the-art Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuit Power Amplifiers (RFIC-PA), Mixers, and Switches through a leading U.S.-based semiconductor foundry.

These innovated circuits will contribute to modernizing the U.S.’s 5G communications infrastructure while restoring the country’s prominence in semiconductor-based technologies.

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will significantly enhance the output power and efficiency of RFIC-PA technologies over the present-day/competing state-of-the-art products. The RFIC-PA is the most voluminous, costly, and power consumptive component of emerging 5G macro and small cellular base stations, and the wireless devices connected to them.

For this reason, this project will apply innovative RFIC-PA design methods at the very forefront of high-efficiency RFIC design techniques toward the design, fabrication, test, and commercialization of five discriminating RFIC-PA products at the conclusion of this NSF Phase-2 project.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.