Dayton Engineer
UD Researchers Secure Subcontract for Collaborative Project to Enhance 5G/6G Technology for the Department of Defense
A School of Engineering faculty member and a researcher are a part of a team that has been awarded a multi-million dollar subcontract to help develop technology that is critical to the Department of Defense (DoD).
Dr. Guru Subramanyam, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Dr. Eunsung Shin, senior research physicist, will represent UD in the Wideband Multifunctional Software Defined Radio (WMSDR) project, which is a collaborative effort between UD, Lockheed Martin, Intel, Indiana Microelectronics, CapV LLC and 3D Glass Solutions.
The subcontract was one of five awarded through the Midwest Microelectronics Consortium (MMEC), which partners with industry, academia and government to rapidly advance defense and commercial technology applications. The MMEC is one of the eight regional technology hubs established under the DoD’s Microelectronics Commons program, focused on expanding the nation’s global leadership in microelectronics.
The goal of the project is to enhance 5G/6G capabilities for the Department of Defense. Advances made in this project will help future defense and aerospace systems be smart, autonomous capable, with significant size, weight, power and cost savings.
“As wireless applications continue to grow exponentially, the limited available electromagnetic spectrum could result in catastrophic failures in the presence of strong interfering signals,” Subramanyam said. “If we can utilize higher 5G bands, we can obtain higher bandwidth and better spectrum efficiency to support growing applications.”
The project’s team, with the exception of Intel, has worked before on a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Wideband Adaptive RF Protection (WARP) project to demonstrate autonomous sensing and AI based tuning of the chip-scale wideband tunable filters. This collaboration used UD-developed thin film varactor devices. CapV LLC has licensed the UD-developed thin film varactor devices and plans to commercialize the technology.
The team will design reconfigurable radio frequency front-ends for 5G, which require tunable filters that can be tuned rapidly to higher frequencies as soon as it senses interfering signals. They also plan to miniaturize Software Defined Radio (SDR) systems that cover 5G bands.
UD will work with CapV LLC to design and manufacture the thin film variable capacitors for the WMSDR system.
“Miniaturized WMSDR will be a game changer for Aerospace and Defense applications as it is expected to provide a significant size, weight, power and cost savings,” Subramanyam said.
Funding from the subcontract will specifically support UD faculty, staff and students involved in the design, electro-magnetic simulations and development of a comprehensive plan for the fabrication and packaging of the varactor devices for the WMSDR.