IEEE NCS AP-S/MTT-S Chapter

Dr. Rui Ma: Digitization and Intelligence: Unlocking the Innovation of Future Radios

Time: Monday June 19, 2023 at 12:00 pm MDT

Location: University of Alberta – DICE 8-207 (Pizza served)

Rui Ma is a mmWave PA Systems Director at pSemi, a Murata company. From 2012 until joining pSemi in July 2022, Dr. Ma was a Senior Principal Scientist with Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he received a MIPI Alliance award for his contributions to the development of the analog reference interface for the eTrak envelope tracking specification and top corporate R&D awards for GaN development and Digital Transmitter applications. During this time, he was also a Visiting Scientist with THz Integrated Electronics Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 2016 to 2021.

From 2010 to 2012, Dr. Ma was a Senior Research Engineer with Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), where he focused on research and development for enabling power amplifier technologies for wideband radio at NSN Research Center.

Dr. Ma is a Senior Member of IEEE and inventor or co-inventor of more than 25 U.S. patents and patent applications on RF-related topics. He has served on IMS2019/21 Steering Committee. From 2018 to 2020, Dr. Ma chaired the MTT Boston chapter and won the 2020 MTT-S Outstanding Chapter Award. He was an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques from 2020-2022. He is the IEEE Boston Section Chair in 2023.

Dr. Ma received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany, in 2009.

Abstract

To overcome the ever-increasing design challenges of radio front end for wireless communications, extensive research efforts have been devoted to advance the RF transmitters in recent years at both industry and academia. This talk provides an introduction on the innovations leading to more advanced digital and intelligent RF transmitters. First, an overview and the technical challenges on designing and implementation of All-digital transmitter will be introduced covering both hardware and software aspects, including active devices, switching-mode PA operation, efficient and spurious-free power encoding of signals. Then advanced techniques with demonstrators of All-digital transmitter and All-digital phased array will be showcased. In addition, Machine learning and AI techniques applied to enhance the agility and performance (i.e. operating bandwidth, efficiency, linearity) of (digital) radio transmitter will be highlighted. Perspectives on the future directions of radio transmitter towards a greener and smarter wireless communication will be shared at the end.

Reminder for all in-person attendees

Please only attend the event if you are feeling well; anyone feeling sick must stay home.