UCSB

Wireless microwave connectivity underpins almost all areas of modern digital society, from communications, sensing, to positions. However, the carbon emissions and e-waste generated from wireless microwave hardware needs to be tackled through innovative materials, design, and integration solutions, to build sustainable connected systems. This DML talk will cover the role of microwave sensing and connectivity in a sustainable and circular economy.

First, the industry-standard methodology of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) will be introduced for the first time, in the context of microwave hardware. The end-to-end impact of manufacturing and power consumption, and directions to make RFICs and PCBs more sustainable will be presented. Then, novel recycling and re-use solutions will be introduced for microwave circuits, showing how metals, substrates, and RFICs/MMICs, can be sustainably re-used. Finally, the opportunities for microwaves to enable new sustainable sensing applications in a chip-less way will be discussed. In particular, how novel materials which respond to almost any measurand, such as temperature, humidity, or gases, could be applied in practical chipless sensors, with low-cost and open-source

multiplexed readouts. The talk will conclude with guidelines on how microwave hardware can be designed, recycled, and optimised for sustainability and performance.

Biography:

Mahmoud Wagih received his B.Eng. (Hons.) in September 2018, and his award-winning Ph.D. on rectenna design in April 2021, both in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Southampton.

He is currently at the University of Glasgow leading the Green RF-Enabled Electronics Lab, having held a UKIC Fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engineering, and is the Founder of RX Watt Ltd. His interests broadly cover RF-enabled sustainable systems for energy harvesting, sensing, and wearable applications. He has published 130 journal and conference publications, across Nature Portfolio, Advanced, and IEEE Transactions journals, and 3 patents, and has been principal/co-investigator on over £15M research projects.

Dr. Wagih is an IEEE Distinguished Microwave Lecturer (DML), and Speakers’ Bureau speaker and Vice Chair for MTT TC-26, RFID, IoT, and Wireless Sensors. He received 20+ awards including multiple IEEE Best Paper/Presentation (IMS, WPTC, PowerMEMSx2), the EurAAP Per-Simon Kildal Best PhD in Europe in Antennas and Propagation, 2 URSI Young Scientist Award, was listed in Forbes 30 Under 30 for Science & Healthcare, 2024, and most recently the Royal Academy of Engineering Sir George MacFarlane Medal as the UK’s Young Engineer of the Year. He has served on multiple TPCs, e.g. TPC Co-chair for IEEE SAS 2025, and member of IMS TPC. He is a Topic Editor for the IEEE Journal of Microwaves, and an Associate Editor for Royal Society Open Science.

Address:United States

Opterus R&D

Multifunctional Antennas and Arrays for Wireless Communications

Biography:

Dr. Satish Kumar Sharma (SM'06) received his Ph. D. degree in Electronics Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, India in August 1997. He received his undergraduate degree (Bachelor in Technology) in Electronics Engineering from Kamla Nehru Institute of Technology, Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India in June 1991. He was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada from March 1999 to May 2001. He joined InfoMagnetics Technologies Corporation, Winnipeg, Canada as a Senior Antenna Engineer/Researcher from May 2001 to August 2006. While at IMT, he was also a Part-Time Research Associate at the University of Manitoba until August 2006.

Dr. Sharma joined San Diego State University (SDSU) as an Assistant Professor in August 2006. He established the Antenna and Microwave Laboratory (AML) at SDSU and has led the AML as its Director since then. He became tenured Associate Professor in August 2010. He was promoted to full Professor in August 2014 and currently holds this position. He was Interim Chair of his department from August 2022 to October 2023. He has held Distinguished Summer Faculty Fellow positions at the Naval Information Warfare Center, Pacific, (NIWC-Pacific), San Diego (2020, 2021, 2022 & 2024). He has received the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s prestigious faculty early career development (CAREER) award in 2009. He also received the 2015 IEEE AP-S Harold A. Wheeler Prize Paper Award. He served as an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Antennas & Propagation journal from August 2010 to June 2017. He also served as an Associate Editor of IEEE Antennas, Wireless & Propagation Letters from March 2017 to March 2023. His research lab has the capability to analyze, design, develop, and verify antennas from VHF to millimeter wave (110 GHz) frequencies.

Dr. Sharma has published over 320 journal and conference papers and holds three US and Canadian patents. He co-edited three volumes of "Handbook of Reflector Antennas and Feed Systems", published by Artech House in May/June 2013. His other coauthored book, "Multifunctional Antennas and Arrays for Wireless Communication Systems", was published by IEEE-Press/Wiley in April 2021. He has collaborated with industry professionals on SBIR/STTR Phase I and II projects in addition to projects from the NSF, NASA and Office of Naval Research (ONR). His research interests include microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies, beam steering antennas, flat panel phased array antennas, reconfigurable and tunable antennas, 3D printed antennas, inkjet printed conformal antennas, massive MIMO antennas, antennas for Cube-Satellites, reflector antennas and their feed systems, and metasurface antennas.

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Address:United States

TBD

Biography:

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Rapid design and prototyping of next-generation radio frequency (RF) and millimeter-wave (mm-wave) gallium nitride (GaN) monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) require reliable, accurate, and scalable models of the underlying transistors. A paramount component enabling first-pass design success of GaN power amplifiers (Pas) and low-noise amplifiers is accurate linear and nonlinear RF measurements which feed into the model extraction and validation workflow. Rigorous characterization and accurate modeling of GaN HEMTs is particularly important for millimeter-wave (mm-wave) applications.

This talk will discuss the recent advances in precision on-wafer small-signal and large-signal measurements of GaN HEMTs, accurate nonlinear modeling, and the impact on PA MMIC design. The challenges of on-wafer characterization and the impact on accurate nonlinear modeling and MMIC design will be discussed. Several examples of mm-wave GaN HEMT characterization up to 100 GHz will be presented.

Biography:

Dr. Nicholas C. Miller is an assistant professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Michigan State University. He was previously an electronics engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory Sensors Directorate from 2017 to 2023. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Michigan State University in 2013, 2015 and 2017, respectively. He is currently a young professional member of the IEEE MTT technical committee for microwave measurements (TC-3).

Dr. Miller’s current research interests include linear and nonlinear mm-wave characterization of on-wafer transistors and integrated circuits, physics-based compact modeling of compound semiconductor transistors, and technology computer-aided design modeling of wide and ultrawide bandgap semiconductor transistors.

Dr. Miller was a recipient of the IEEE AP-S Predoctoral Research Award in 2013, the U.S. DoD Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship in 2014, the IEEE Dayton Section Harrell V. Nobel Award in 2019 for physics-based device modeling, the Best Conference Paper Award at the 21st IEEE Wireless and Microwave Technology Conference (WAMICON) in 2021, the Best Presentation Award at the IEEE MTT-S Young Professional Workshop on Optimization and Modeling of Active Devices in 2022, and the AFRL Early Career Award in 2023.