Integrated Circuits and Systems Group

Professor Brian Evans
ECE Department, UT Austin
October 7, 2009, 5pm, ENS 637

Radio Frequency Interference Sensing and Mitigation in Wireless Receivers
Radio frequency interference (RFI) is a key limiting factor in communication performance of Wi-Fi, WiMax, cellular, and other wireless data communication systems. Sources of RFI include (1) other wireless users/services operating in the same frequency band, a.k.a. co-channel interference, (2) nearby electronic equipment, such as microwave ovens radiating in the 2.4 GHz band, and (3) the computational platform itself, including clock circuitry and power saving subsystems in laptops and notebooks. In this talk, we present statistical modeling of platform RFI, validate the models using measured platform RFI datasets, and propose receiver designs for mitigating platform RFI. Several proposed designs demonstrate 10x-100x reduction in bit error rate for single-antenna and two-antenna receivers. The statistical models for platform RFI also model co-channel interference, and can be generalized to model RFI from nearby electronic equipment.

ICSG is launching the ICS Seminar which combines the previously seperate VLSI Seminar Series and UT Mixed-Signal/RF Integrated Circuits Seminar Series.  The ICS Seminar’s goal is to provide an open forum for faculty, graduate students and local industry experts to share new ideas and directions in the general area of large-scale integrated circuits. The seminar talks cover a diverse set of research topics.

The first ICS Seminar talk is by Professor Brian Evans of UT ECE and is to be held on October 7 at 5pm in ENS637.

Xiaokang Shi, supervised by Professor David Pan, and Shayak Banerjee, supervised by Professor Michael Orshansky, have won IBM Ph.D. Fellowships for 2009-2010. The fellowships are awarded worldwide and are intensely competitive. Only 60 students are awarded this fellowship in a typical year. IBM Ph.D. Fellows are awarded tuition fees, and a stipend for one nine-month academic year. The fellowship is usually followed by an internship at IBM.