Abstract-We present the first custom integrated circuit implementation of the compressed sensing based non-uniform sampler (NUS). By sampling signals non-uniformly, the average sample rate can be more than a magnitude lower than the Nyquist rate, provided that these signals have a relatively low information content as measured by the sparsity of their spectrum. The hardware design combines a wideband Indium-Phosphide (InP) heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) sample-and-hold with a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to digitize an 800 MHz to 2 GHz band (having 100 MHz of non-contiguous spectral content) at an average sample rate of 236 Msps. Signal reconstruction is performed via a non-linear compressed sensing algorithm, and an efficient GPU implementation is discussed. Measured bit-error-rate (BER) data for a GSM channel is presented, and comparisons to a conventional wideband 4.4 Gsps ADC are made.

We describe a microelectromechanical (MEM) relay technology for high-performance reconfigurable RF circuits. This microrelay, fabricated using surface micromachining, is a metal contact relay with electrical isolation between signal and drive lines. This relay provides excellent switching performance over a broad frequency band (insertion loss of 0.1 dB and isolation of 30 dB at 40 GHz), versatility in switch circuit configurations (microstrip and coplanar, shunt and series), and the capability for monolithic integration with high-frequency electronics. In addition, this MEM relay technology has demonstrated yields and lifetimes that are promising for RF circuit implementation.

Abstract-In this paper we present a complete (hardware/software) sub-Nyquist rate (×13) wideband signal acquisition chain capable of acquiring radar pulse parameters in an instantaneous bandwidth spanning 100 MHz-2.5 GHz with the equivalent of 8 ENOB digitizing performance. The approach is based on the alternative sensing-paradigm of CompressedSensing (CS). The hardware platform features a fully-integrated CS receiver architecture named the random-modulation preintegrator (RMPI) fabricated in Northrop Grumman's 450 nm InP HBT bipolar technology. The software back-end consists of a novel CS parameter recovery algorithm which extracts information about the signal without performing full timedomain signal reconstruction. This approach significantly reduces the computational overhead involved in retrieving desired information which demonstrates an avenue toward employing CS techniques in power-constrained real-time applications. The developed techniques are validated on CS samples physically measured by the fabricated RMPI and measurement results are presented. The parameter estimation algorithms are described in detail and a complete description of the physical hardware is given.

Abstract-A 100-element 10-GHz grid amplifier has been developed. The active devices in the grid are chips with heterojunction-bipolar-transistor (HBT) differential-pairs. The metal grid pattern was empirically designed to provide effective coupling between the HBT's and free space. Two independent measurements, one with focusing lenses, the other without, were used to characterize the grid. In each case, the peak gain was 10 dB at 10 GHz with a 3-dB bandwidth of 1 GHz. The input and output return loss were better than 15 dB at 10 GHz. The maximum output power was 450 mW, and the minimum noise figure was 7 dB. By varying the bias, a signal could be amplitude modulated with a modulation index as large as 0.65. Tests show that the grid was quite tolerant of failures-the output power dropped by only 1 dB when 10% of the inputs were detuned. The grid amplifier is a multi-mode device that amplifies beams of different shapes and angles. Beams with incidence angles up to 30" were amplified with less than a 3-dB drop in gain.

No abstract