Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF
Markus Weiß, doctoral student at the microelectronics department at Fraunhofer IAF, was honored with the Best Student Paper Award for his presentation at the »IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Workshop Series on 5G Hardware and System Technologies«. The conference took place on August 30th and 31st, in Dublin, Ireland.
Markus Weiß presented his paper with the title »Riemann pump based RF-Power DACs in GaN Technology for 5G Base Stations«. His study is concerned with a new concept based on innovative gallium nitride technology that allows to convert digital signals, such as pictures or videos, to analog signals, in order to transmit them via radio masts of base stations. It is noteworthy that his circuit is faster and more powerful than commonly used components. This makes his research a pioneering work for the upcoming mobile radio standard 5G, as it is able to handle the steadily increasing data rates and radio nodes. In addition, his technology finds application in industry 4.0, enabling the transmission of data for process control in real time, something which has never before been achieved.
Markus Weiß was able to realize his circuit at Fraunhofer IAF. Here, he was the first who managed to implement a Riemann pump on the basis of gallium nitride. In addition to a high data rate, the circuit has yet another advantage over conventional components: A power amplifier can be integrated alongside the digital-to-audio converter. This allows for a direct connection with antennas and therefore a reduced complexity of existing infrastructures in the future.