RF and mmWave Device engineering PhD student

The RF SOI Group of the Louvain School of Engineering performs research on the modelling, design and characterization of RF Silicon-on-Insulator (RF SOI) devices for applications such as advanced communication circuits, radar and imaging systems, miniaturized RFID chips, … In this field, recent transistor downscaling down to a few tens of nm has enabled the operation of RF SOI circuits well above 100 GHz. The design and characterization of devices and circuits at those frequencies require dedicated measurement techniques and on-wafer measurement setups. The RF SOI Group is therefore seeking an RF and mmWave Device Engineering PhD student to work on advanced techniques for on-wafer characterization of microwave Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) devices at microwave and mmWave frequencies.

Key responsibilities include:

• EM modelling, design and characterization of RF SOI calibration and de-embedding structures, including on-wafer electromagnetic environment (substrate, neighbouring structures, measurement probes, …) at mmWave frequencies;
• mmWave on-wafer characterization and modelling of SOI substrates, MOSFET devices and circuits;
• Collaboration with device and reliability engineers and researchers working at Incize, SOITEC, CEA-Leti, ST-Microelectronics, and GlobalFoundries.

Position Requirements

• Master in Physics or Electrical Engineering with Si device and microwave analysis experience;
• Experience in using EM simulation software;
• Familiarity with vector-network analyzer on-wafer measurement techniques;
• Understanding of broadband high-frequency and analog device figures of merit;
• Good communication skills and ability to work across functional teams of device, electrical characterization, reliability and layout.

Hosting lab information

The student will be hosted by the RF SOI Group of the Louvain School of Engineering. Under the guidance of Prof. J.-P. Raskin, the group has pioneered the widespread use of SOI for RF and microwave applications by establishing a clear path to transform lossy SOI substrates into quasi-lossless material. Thanks to those developments SOITEC’s eSI™ RF-SOI substrate has been able to displace III-V on the mobile handset RF switch market and at present almost all new smartphones have RF-SOI inside.

Prof. D. Lederer joined the Louvain School of Engineering in September 2020 to work on THz technologies. He joined the RF SOI Group to explore how the boundaries of RF SOI can be pushed towards > 100 GHz applications.