Goal
To provide an environment for
research into the design issues necessary to support next generation wireless
communication systems and to expand the graduate research program in the
wireless segment. The research focuses
on highly integrated CMOS implementations, which have the lowest
possible energy consumption while using advanced communication algorithms. The
evaluation of these components will be made in a realistic test environment.
Research
Focus
The
research focus will be on the issues, which impact the design of single chip
CMOS wireless transceivers that can be implemented as a "System on a
Chip". Research activities will span the design of analog RF front ends,
A/D/A interface circuitry and the digital backend with particular focus on how
these different areas inter-relate. It is expected that the application of these
radios will support transport of a wide variety of data types ranging from low
bandwidth control, voice, and text messaging, up to full rate video in a variety
of environments. For this reason, multi-modal capabilities based on software
programmability and hardware reconfigurability are considered critical.
The very high levels of integration of heterogeneous components are
common to the issues of "System on a Chip" design, but this activity
will be focused on a specific application domain.
It
is clear that a single chip radio solution will require much more than circuit
design for an optimized final realization. Among the issues which must be
addressed will be to gain an understanding of how to apply modulation, advanced
communication algorithms and associated protocols which will meet the
performance specifications in an energy efficient manner. Careful modeling will
be required of the underlying analog RF elements including both active and
passive devices and associated interconnect as well as a design methodology
which will support this heterogeneous design task.
In
support of this need it will be necessary to have a coordinated effort in the
following areas:
·
Analog
RF including A/D/A interface circuits and passive elements
·
Low
power digital computation and circuits
·
Applied
communications theory
·
Design
tools and methodology
Analog
RF
Since the
basic technology will be deep-sub-micron CMOS, there is a need for careful
modeling of the underlying passive and active components. This will then be used
in optimization of the radio architecture and sub-circuits with particular
emphasis on the analog/digital trade-off.
Low
Power Digital Computation
The research
into the digital processing will focus on the implementation of high sample rate
and complex algorithms at the lowest possible energy consumption. The
architectures to implement these algorithms will range from dedicated to
software programmable, using custom designed logic, fixed cores and
reconfigurable hardware components.
Applied
Communications Theory
Explore
advanced techniques such as wideband CDMA, multi-user detection, multi-antenna
diversity and adaptive algorithms in order to determine the performance gains in
the environments and application areas associated with future wireless systems.
The dependence of these algorithms on analog limitations and digital energy
consumption will be evaluated. Control
protocols will also be studied with the focus on structured design, synthesis,
formal verification and energy efficient implementation.
Design
Tools and Methodology
A set of
tools and related design infrastructure will be developed in conjunction with
commercial tools. The emphasis will be on developing an approach which supports
trade-offs at the highest possible levels of description, yet provides accurate
estimations of key parameters of performance and power dissipation. These will
span both analog and digital domains as well as support programmable and
dedicated digital components. A
design flow embodying these characteristics will be established to support
design of prototype system-on-a-chip components.
Center
Organization
The center is a
research unit operating as a part of the Electronics Research Laboratory in
conjunction with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
at the
University
of
California
,
Berkeley
. The center organization consists
of scientific directors, an Executive Director and a board of advisors.
The scientific directors, professors Robert Brodersen, Jan Rabaey and Borivoje
Nikolic´, will direct research activities.
The executive director, Gary Kelson, will be responsible for center business management,
member relations and operations.
The board of advisors is comprised of the scientific directors, a representative from the
CITRIS Institute, Gigascale Silicon Research Center
and a representative from each participating and platinum member company.
Gary Kelson will chair the board of advisors that will meet at least two times per year to review
research activities, research progress, center operations and center finances.
Membership
BWRC
is a pioneer in a new wave of university-industry-government partnerships that
many industry and government leaders believe is necessary if the
U.S.
is to maintain world leadership in advanced technologies.
This model involves forging deep relationships with leading wireless
companies so that university researchers can benefit from industrial experience
and industry can more rapidly transfer new technologies.
Center membership provides access to faculty and graduate students
involved in a large interdisciplinary research effort investigating issues
relevant to future generations of wireless systems with a relatively modest
investment. The Center further provides a state-of-the-art design environment,
supported by some of the latest developments in design methodology, modeling and
experimentation (as made available by the University
of California, Berkeley
and the member companies). The critical-mass combination of UC Berkeley
researchers and leading companies in their respective areas has the potential of
making truly significant advances possible. All Member Companies participate in
semiannual research retreats. Membership
consists of a limited number of Participating Members, Platinum Members and
Associate Members as described below.
Participating
Member Companies have the opportunity of direct involvement with the research
team, and open access to the research center.
Participating Member Companies may send a senior employee to
work at the Center, on a regular basis, as a visiting researcher.
Visiting researchers will fall into two classes:
Provisional
Industrial Researcher (PIR)
is a visiting researcher who is present at the Center for less than 2 continuous
months.
Visiting
Industrial Fellow (VIF) is a
visiting researcher who is present at the Center for more than 2 continuous
months. VIF’s will be required to sign the
University
of California Patent Policy.
Participating
Member Companies support the Center through the following contributions:
Associate
Members
Membership
Status
Research
Reviews
The Center will
conduct research reviews at least twice per year.
Research results, progress and future directions will be presented by
faculty, students, visiting researchers and invited guests.
These meetings will be open only to Participating, Platinum and Associate
Member companies. There is no limit
on the number of representatives that member companies can send to the research
reviews.
The Center will
publicly disseminate research results as rapidly as possible. The Scientific Director(s) will determine the timing of releases. The Center web site, journal publications, conferences and workshops will
be used for dissemination as appropriate. Participating,
Platinum and Associate Member companies will be given preferential access to new
research results posted on the web site for approximately 6 months prior to
release for public access.
Intellectual
Property
BWRC operates under
a public domain research policy that includes regularly publishing the results
of research projects. Members
will
have unrestricted access to all such research results and full rights to use the
research results, at no charge.
Center patents
are expected to be rare. However,
when they do occur, they will be handled in a manner consistent with University
of California Policy. All members
of the Center research staff including VIF’s will be subject to this policy.
Patents resulting from inventions by one or more Center research staff
members or VIF’s and one or more employees of a Member Company who are not
VIF’s, will be jointly owned by the University of California and the Member
Company.
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