Openings at ME

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PhD Opening: Digital Polar Transmitter for Spectrally Efficient Low Power Wireless Communications

Opening for: PhD student

Status details

Status:Closed
Announced:18 Sep 2018
Closing date:17 Nov 2018
Within the next few years, the wireless Internet-of-Things (IoT) are expected to see significant deployment to realize more integration between the physical and digital worlds, enabling more objects to be remotely sensed and controlled. Since IoT terminals inherently operate on batteries, an ever-decreasing power per bit is required to improve the system battery lifetime. Similarly, the power consumption of RF transceiver, synthesizers, and their building blocks should be reduced to satisfy the lifetime demands of IoT systems. Furthermore, the radio must have a small Form factor and be capable of supporting the current and future communication standards.

In this project, we are going to design and implement a sub-GHz fully integrated polar transmitter in CMOS technology, which supports IEEE 802.11ah Wi-Fi HaLow standard. In a polar transmitter, the information is sent by modulating both amplitude and phase of the signal. Consequently, in this program, the first Ph.D. student works on designing frequency synthesizer and phase modulation while the primary focus of the second student is on power amplification and envelope/amplitude modulation.

Requirements

  1. 1- M.Sc. degree in Microelectronics
  2. 2- Knowledge of designing CMOS circuits
  3. 3- Good analytical skills
  4. 4- Motivated student eager to work independently and expand knowledge in the field
  5. 5- Good written and verbal English skills
  6. 6- Familiar with fundamentals of analog and digital phase-locked loops
  7. 7- Familiar with switched-mode power amplifiers
  8. 8- Familiar with digital synthesis flow
  9. 9- Strong desire for enhancing his/her RF/mm-wave and mixed-signal knowledge

Contact

dr. Masoud Babaie

Associate Professor

Electronic Circuits and Architectures Group

Department of Microelectronics

Additional information

In The Netherlands, almost all PhD positions are linked to funded research projects. This has several implications:
  • PhD students are employed: they receive a salary rather than a grant. Most projects have a duration of 4 years.
  • Positions become available once a project is funded. This can happen at any time during the year.
  • It typically takes 6 to 9 months for a project proposal to receive funding. In this period, a position may be anticipated but the outcome remains insecure. Once a project is funded, the open position needs to be filled as soon as possible.

If you are interested in our research, it merits to inquire whether openings will be available. We collect resumes of prospective PhD students throughout the year, for each of our research tracks.

General requirements

We make our selection based on the following general requirements:
  • Formal requirements regarding prior education: you should have earned an MSc degree at a recognized institute for higher education.
  • Background: you should have a background that fits the requirements of the project
  • Excellence: your Grade-Point-Average should be above 8 (10). Also your MSc thesis should have received a grade above 8 (10).
  • English: you should be able to communicate well in english (written and oral). Provide TOEFL/IELTS scores if available.
  • Originality: your MSc thesis or later work (publications) should reflect some original ideas. Critical and independent thinking is very important.
  • Team player: you should be able to work well in a team of other project members.
Your resume should contain contact information of prior advisors/supervisors who can provide feedback.