NSF awards $175,000 BRIGE grant to Prof. Khalil

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Assistant Professor Waleed Khalil

Waleed Khalil, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, was recently awarded a Broadening Participation Research Initiation Grant in Engineering (BRIGE) award from the National Science Foundation. The two-year $175,000 award will support Prof. Khalil’s project, UWB Digital to RF Transmitter Architecture and Circuits for Future Software Radio Systems.

Prof. Khalil’s research aims to demonstrate a new class of ultra wideband transmitters that make software defined radios a reality. The transmitter comprises a wholly-digital baseband to RF modulation scheme that will enable unparalleled degree of programmability and achieve very high dynamic range spurious free operation. The linchpin of the proposed mixer-less modulator is a “multi-path” and “multi-phase” direct digital-to-RF digital-to-analog converter architecture, designed to cancel (in the digital domain) sampling image frequencies and non-linearity spurs. This technology could be transitioned to a wide range of rapidly evolving commercial and military communication systems such as cognitive radios and software defined radars. The new architecture can also serve as a catalyst for upgrading the current radio-transmitter handheld to a common radio architecture supporting all different standards and technologies.

NSF BRIGE grants are intended to increase the diversity of researchers who apply for and receive ENG funding to initiate research programs early in their careers, including those from under-represented groups, engineers at minority serving institutions, and persons with disabilities.

One of Prof. Khalil’s graduate students who is assisting with the software defined transmitters research recently received a bronze medal in TSMC’s Outstanding Student Research competition.