Advanced Silicon Phased Array Chip Created

U.S. electrical engineers have created what they describe as the world’s most complex phased array — or radio frequency integrated circuit.

The government-funded chip is expected to be used in U.S. defense satellite communication and radar systems. In addition, the chip design is also expected to eventually be used in commercial applications, such as in high-speed wireless data transfer.

This is the first 16 element phased array chip that can send at 30-50 gigahertz, said University of California-San Diego Professor Gabriel Rebeiz, who led the project. “The uniformity and low coupling between the elements, the low current consumption and the small size — it is just 3.2 by 2.6 square millimeters — are all unprecedented.

If you take the same design and move it to the 24 or 60 GHz range, you can use it for commercial terrestrial communications, added Rebeiz.

The research, which included graduate students Kwang-Jin Koh and Jason May, is to be submitted to an academic journal.