Antenna - power amplifier co-design for 6G telecommunication

We offer a PhD position where you will be exposed to the state of the art in millimeter-wave antenna systems, have the opportunity to contribute to large international projects, as well as projects with Swedish industry. This position is a great opportunity for you to learn both the scientific knowledge and practical skills in key enabling technologies of digital transformation - the area of great importance for industry and society.

Information about the research and the division
The PhD position is placed at the Antenna Group, part of the Department of Electrical Engineering (E2) at Chalmers The Antenna Group is well known in Sweden and internationally for its scientific contributions to antenna systems for telecommunications, radars, satellites, astronomy and space sciences, as well as disruptive antenna technologies for new applications, such as 5G/6G, having resulted in successful spin-off companies Gapwaves and Bluetest. We offer international PhD courses where we extend the fundamentals in antennas to the cross-disciplinary fields, covering electronic devices, integrated circuits, signal processing, and digital communication. We also offer training and access to a new world-class experimental infrastructure, the Millimeter wave -THz antenna chamber, at Chalmers, and the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing. Furthermore, we stimulate commercial exploitation of the results developed in the research projects through collaborations with industries and offer support of Chalmers innovation office for spin-off/start-up activities. At present, the Antenna Group has about 25 members from all over the world. The research and learning environment is international and English is the working language. We encourage personal health and well-being by organizing social events, providing annual wellness allowance to employees, and offering support from the international staff mobility office to newcomers from abroad, including help with the search for affordable student accommodation. A vast majority of our graduates successfully continue their professional careers in Swedish and European industry.

Information about Ericsson AB:
The PhD is a joint collaboration between Chalmers and Ericsson Research (www.ericsson.com).

Background of the research project:
The exploration of millimeter (radio) waves is expected to play a key role in the next-generation wireless applications and the digital transformation of society in general. New advanced applications will include immersive communication, holographic telepresence & augmented reality / virtual reality, personalized medicine, autonomous driving, environment surveillance, etc. The ultimate goal is an open wireless connectivity and service platform that can support digital inclusiveness and accessibility worldwide and be evolved with reduced energy consumption and lower ecological costs.
This PhD project is among 15 research projects of the European Doctoral Network `ANTERRA' (Non-Terrestrial Antenna Systems for the six-generation wireless, 6G) that offers 15 fully funded industrial PhD student positions in the area of antennas, integrated circuits and signal processing, starting in the autumn of 2022. ANTERRA is focused on Antenna Systems for 6G Non-Terrestrial Networks. The consortium consists of 14 leading European R&D laboratories from universities, industries, and technology institutes in the domain of satellite communication and wireless infrastructure which are located in The Netherlands, France, Sweden, Italy and Belgium.

Major responsibilities
In this PhD project, you will perform cutting-edge research on mm-wave active array antennas with integrated electronic components: The PhD student is expected to develop a new method for on-antenna multi-functional power combining that can enable full duplex active antenna systems at frequencies beyond 100GHz. The key enabler as presently considered is distributed active feeding of the radiating antenna element that provides tailored power combining and impedance matching with mm-wave power amplifiers. A particular challenge and the focus of the PhD project is a joint electromagnetic-circuit-thermal modeling, co-design optimization for high energy efficiency and linearity, and a very compact design. Your research will include fundamental theoretical studies, numerical simulations, and measurements of a performance verification system to be developed in collaboration with senior researchers in the team. You are expected to publish papers of high quality and collaborate with other PhD students and senior researchers in the team. To maximize the success of your PhD project, you will spend 18 months of your PhD project time as an employee at Ericsson (Gothenburg, Sweden) and visit other international partners. You will closely collaborate with another PhD student of the ANTERRA project (Project P4), working at the Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2) on complementary research in integrated high power amplifier - antenna co-design at L/S-band. The position generally also includes teaching on Chalmers' undergraduate level or performing other duties corresponding to about 5% percent of working hours. 

Qualifications
To qualify as a PhD student, you must have, or expect to receive soon, a master's level degree in Electrical Engineering, Engineering Physics, Technical Physics or similar. Knowledge of electromagnetic fields, microwave and antenna engineering is required. You also need to enjoy working in a team and have the ability to present scientific results in English, both in writing and orally. Experience in CST, HFSS, ADS or similar is required.

Advantageous merits: previous design experience in the area of microwave and antenna engineering, previous teaching experience, programming skills (Matlab and Python), knowledge of mathematical analysis.
If Swedish is not your native language and you are interested in learning it, Chalmers offers Swedish courses that are free for PhD students. Although the knowledge of Swedish is not mandatory for teaching and research, many PhD students decide to follow these courses.
For the PhD positions in ANTERRA project the EU `MOBILITY RULEs' apply. This means that candidate students cannot have resided for more than 12 months during the period of 3 years immediately before the start of the PhD, in Sweden.

Application procedure
Read more and apply here. 

Application deadline: 2022-09-01