Abstract

The growing demand for wireless network capacity beyond 5G has driven interest in the wide bandwidth available in the sub-THz spectrum. However, the severe path loss at these high frequencies necessitates the use of large-scale phased array transceivers. Designing such systems presents fundamental challenges, particularly due to the limited antenna-in- package (AiP) area available per antenna element at sub-THz frequencies, which complicates integration and thermal management. Additionally, as operating frequencies approach the fmax of silicon transistors, the available gain and output power per transistor become limited. This short course will present design principles and techniques for building sub-THz front-end amplifiers and phase shifters to address these challenges.

Bio

Wooram Lee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Penn State University. He received his B.Sc. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in 2001 and 2003, and his Ph.D. degree at Cornell University in 2012. He was a Research Staff Member at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center from 2015 to 2020, an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University from 2017 to 2020, a Senior Scientist at Broadcom from 2012 to 2015, and a Research Engineer at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Korea from 2003 to 2007. Prof. Lee serves as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, a Guest Editor for the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, a member of the Technical Program Committee of the IEEE BiCMOS and Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuits and Technology Symposium (BCICTS) and International Microwave Symposium (IMS), and IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society Technical Committee on Microwave/Millimeter-wave Radar, Sensing, and Array Systems (TC-24). He received the Best Student Paper Award (as a faculty advisor in 2023), and Best Industry Paper Award (in 2019) from IEEE Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFIC) Symposium, 2022 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC) Prize (as a co-recipient), the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Predoctoral Fellowship (the sole winner) for 2010-2011 and the Samsung Graduate Fellowship for 2007-2012. He received the Best Paper Award of the IEEE Radar Conference in 2009.