Prototyping Capabilities
DREAMS is focused on Advanced RF Technology for commercial and national security applications, with deep capabilities in low power, high linearity, and frequency agility that underpin these advanced RF systems.
![Macro of Microchip Wafer](https://ca-dreams.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/49/2024/05/prototyping_capabilities.jpg)
The California DREAMS technical approach has three focus areas. First, the enablement of advanced RF prototyping across the full electromagnetic spectrum using state-of-the-art compound semiconductor materials, augmented with photonics and advanced CMOS technology. Our Lab Partners and DOD-volume fabs have pioneered molecular beam epitaxy, organometallic vapor phase epitaxy, and related growth and characterization techniques. We have demonstrated state-of-the-art performance in device cutoff frequency (Ft), noise figure, linearity, and power-added efficiency. Our Lab Partners operate world-class facilities offering access to a wide range of materials, devices, circuits, and architectures to extend these services.
Second, we host a range of technologies to improve RF system linearity and dynamic range through the integration of state-of-the-art circuit and mixed signal architectures. Our Lab Partners and DOD-volume fabs have heterogeneously integrated low-phase noise oscillators, amplifiers with supporting precision metrology. We have demonstrated ultra-low phase noise electronic and laser clocks that operate well over 100 GHz, and digitization (sampling and conversion) at the fundamental thermodynamic limits. Our advanced GaN-CMOS heterogeneous materials growth, circuit and subsystem design, ultra-high-speed low-power analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), and optimized analog circuit–system architectures support a wide range of high-performance RF applications.
Lastly, we host a range of technologies to support multi-sensor and integrated multifunction prototypes. Our capabilities include the integration of GaN for the RF front end, Si CMOS for direct RF sampling ADCs/DACs, and Si-photonics for power-efficient high-rate data communications. Examples include the next-generation multifunction high-performance AESA and the EO/IR and RF Converged Distributed Sensors.
Partners and Prototyping Capabilities
- Caltech
Electrical Engineering Division of Engineering and Applied Science - UCI Samueli School of Engineering
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - UCLA
Samueli Electrical & Computer Engineering - USC Viterbi
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering - USC
Information Sciences Institute - UC Riverside
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering - UCSB
Electrical & Computer Engineering - Northrop Grumman Microelectronics
Space Park - Teledyne
Research & Development - HRL
HRL Laboratories