Najme Ebrahimi - Connectivity Matters: Towards Next Generation of Heterogeneous Smart Wireless World, 5G and Beyond

Description

This is a virtual event. Abstract: The next generation of the smart wireless world requires heterogeneous systems to intelligently operate from radio frequency (RF) to mm-wave (MMW) and terahertz bands to enable connectivity of everything anywhere at any time. In light of the recent virus outbreak, the wireless connectivity and virtual reality, demanding the highest data rate communications, are becoming increasingly important. To this end, acquiring the MMW wireless band (30 GHz–300 GHz) and developing 5G wireless technology and beyond are more essential than ever. The major challenges of deploying high data-rate wireless communication systems at high-frequency bands are the channel fading and multi-path diffraction effects. Hence, multiple-element transceivers such as scalable “directional” arrays or massive MIMO systems are required. Furthermore, the next generation of the heterogeneous wireless world is expected to have over one trillion sensors connected, such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices operating at RF band and using “omni-directional” antennas, which require secured connectivity to protect against malicious attacks such as interference and eavesdropping. In this talk, firstly, I will present novel techniques to overcome the challenges for future scalable “directional” high data-rate MMW transceiver arrays, from silicon device-centric circuits to radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) and packaging. This includes parasitic-insensitive, power-efficient, and wideband arrays of injection-locked oscillators for efficient local oscillator (LO) distribution and phase shifting (circuit technique), image selection architecture to significantly reduce the required bandwidth of the LO generation circuitry for the MMW system (RFIC architecture), and novel compact differential aperture coupled LO distribution feed network for compact antenna-IC integration (packaging). I will also discuss several future directions towards wideband and high-frequency signal generation and modulation based on integrating the circuit and electromagnetics fundamental theories for communication and sensing above 100 GHz, namely, 6G. Secondly, in this talk, I will present a novel embedded architecture for distributed IoT networks that utilizes a master-slave full-duplex communication using “omnidirectional” antennas to exchange a random modulated phase shift as the secret key, while preventing malicious eavesdropping. I will also discuss future research directions towards intelligent radios with wideband interference cancellation, from circuit level to system level. Bio: Najme Ebrahimi is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Michigan (U-M) since September 2017. At the University of Michigan, she is mainly conducting research on mm-Wave/THz high data rate communication and sensing as well as the connectivity of the next generation of distributed IoT networks. She earned her PhD from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in June 2017, with thesis emphasize on enabling high data rate communications and scalable mm-wave phased arrays for the next generation of the smart wireless world. She received her MS degree and BS degree, with highest honors, from Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2011 and Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran, in 2009, respectively. She is a member of IEEE Solid-State Circuits and IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques societies. She is the recipient of PhD Endowed Graduate Fellowship from UCSD (2012-2013) and U-M Departmental Postdoctoral Fellowship (2017-2019). She is currently serving as the vice-chair of IEEE Southeastern Michigan for Microwave Theory and Techniques Chapter where she is awarded MTT-s Travel Grant (2019). She is selected as 2019 EECS Rising Star by MIT launched Rising-star program and 2020 ISSCC Rising Star by IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society.