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24 MAY 2023 – VAN DER VALK NIJMEGEN 

The Benelux RF Conference brings together Belgian and Dutch high-tech professionals and companies involved in the development and application of high-end RF techniques. The seventh edition took place on Wednesday 24 May 2023 at Van der Valk Nijmegen. 

Keynotes

Maarten Paulides Eindhoven University of Technology Electromagnetics for care & cure – from bench to bedside
Yves Baeyens Nokia Bell Labs Practical approaches to industrialize near-THz communication systems
Full program

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24 MAY 2023 – VAN DER VALK NIJMEGEN 

Program

You can find the full conference program of the Benelux RF Conference below. 

Registration

Welcome & opening

09:30 – 09:35

Bert Krikke (Noviotech Campus)
Bram Nauta (UT), conference host

Keynote

09:35 – 10:15

Electromagnetics for care & cure – from bench to bedside

Maarten Paulides

Eindhoven University of Technology

10:15 – 10:45

PhD pitches

Martijn de Kok (TUE): 5G beamforming ICs in a large-scale active transmit array for Ka-band tracking radar
Ariane De Vroede (KU Leuven): A 4×4 607 GHz harmonic injection-locked receiver array achieving 4.4pW/√Hz NEP in 28nm CMOS
Meerten Versluis (TUE): Non-isolated patch antenna combiner for mm-wave outphasing applications

Break

System design

11:15 – 11:45

Directional neutral broadband RF technology for one-touch Docsis network upgrades

Johan van der Tang

Technetix

test & measurement

11:15 – 11:45

Noise figure and noise temperature: a practical how-to for the real world, from design to debug

Philip Sanders

AboveRF

System design

11:45 – 12:15

Into the design of a 144 GHz MIMO FMCW radar demonstrator

Kristof Vaesen

Imec

test & measurement

11:45 – 12:15

Novel methodology for high-frequency circuit stability analysis

Sergey Baranchikov

Keysight

Lunch

packaging

13:45 – 14:15

Innovative semiconductor packaging material developments for next-gen RF applications

Ruud de Wit

Henkel Electronic Materials

test & measurement

13:45 – 14:15

Efficient compressed sensing-based fault diagnosis in arrays of antennas

Francesco Ferranti

VUB

Break

System design

14:45 – 15:15

Analog transport and optical beamforming for mm-wave beyond-5G signals

Simon Rommel

Eindhoven University of Technology

test & measurement

14:45 – 15:15

Towards autonomous on-wafer RF probing

Faisal Mubarak

VSL

System design

15:15 – 15:45

RF beamformer control, measurement, modeling and simulation

Arnaud Delias

Amcad Engineering

test & measurement

15:15 – 15:45

Practical challenges of making S-parameter measurements at 220 GHz for on-wafer device modeling

Christian Sattler

Anritsu

Break

16:15 – 16:45

PhD pitches

Anil Kumaran (TU Delft): A wideband mm-wave CMOS 5G transmitter
Rana ElKashlan (Imec/VUB): GaN-on-Si HEMTs with a composite AlGaN/cGaN back barrier
Anton Atanasov (UT): The load-modulated linearizer – a technique for intermodulation cancellation in PA systems

keynote

16:45 – 17:30

Practical approaches to industrialize near-THz communication systems

Yves Baeyens

Nokia Bell Labs

Drinks and dinner

Subject to change

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24 MAY 2023 – VAN DER VALK NIJMEGEN 

About the Benelux RF Conference

  • Sessions on product-specific applications with a focus on innovative solutions in combination with advanced wireless technology
  • In-depth sessions highlighting trends such as RF energy and RF power and focusing on engineers, designers and technical managers in the advanced RF field

Our target audience

  • engineers
  • team leaders
  • technical managers
  • product developers
  • innovation managers

Conference date

24 May 2023 

Event Location

Van der Valk Hotel Nijmegen-Lent
Hertog Eduardplein 4
6663 AN Nijmegen
Next to train station Nijmegen-Lent

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24 MAY 2023 – VAN DER VALK NIJMEGEN 

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Arnaud Delias (Amcad Engineering)

RF beamformer control, measurement, modeling and simulation

15:15 – 15:45 hours
Beamforming in advanced antenna systems including phased-array antennas or massive MIMO is designed depending on the number of final users and the characteristics of the deployment scenarios. Thus, radio transceivers must be simulated in realistic conditions to be efficiently designed. As circuit-level simulation of the radio chain isn’t straightforward when considering wideband complex modulated signals, system simulation becomes the better approach to analyze and test the antenna front-end, where the elements of the radio chain will be analyzed using behavioral models. However, extracting accurate behavioral models of such a system can be cumbersome because each channel can be characterized by a high number of measurement data. Switching and selecting the relevant beamformer states to get the information necessary to extract a model can be time consuming. We’ve designed a fully automated and compact test bench to cover prototyping, tuning and qualification steps of a 4-channel beamformer. An ergonomic and flexible hardware measurement bench is then offered to perform all the required tests on all channels including S-parameters and several other figures of merits. The measurement bench is mainly based on the use of a high-end VNA associated with a dedicated switch matrix module. At the same time, this ATE makes it possible to reduce the number of instruments required, reducing inherent constraints: availability of instruments, calibration and multiplication of potential issues. It also reduces the number of bench positions (RF paths to be switched) limiting hardware cost and providing a greater flexibility. Our software platform provides a complete automation of the test sequences and automatically generates a dynamic test report filled with all the measurement data, showing in real time the performances of each channel for any state. All power supplies, digital control signals, as well as external device conditions (temperature), can be driven and set through the user interface and a specific gateway control unit that standardizes the communication protocol between the software and all the hardware accessories. The measurement data are then used to extract a behavioral model of the beamformer, to simulate the behavior of the entire system composed of digital, analog and antenna elements.
Arnaud Delias is IQSTAR software product manager at Amcad Engineering. He received the Master Research degree in electronics and optics for telecommunication from the University of Limoges, France, in 2012, and his PhD degree at the Research Institute on Microwave and Optical Communications XLIM, University of Limoges, in 2015. His research interests are nonlinear device characterization of RF and microwave circuits and subsystems.
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Philip Sanders (AboveRF)

Noise figure and noise temperature: a practical how-to for the real world, from design to debug

11:15 – 11:45 hours
Noise figure and noise temperature describe the noise performance of a receiver and typically have a dominant impact on the link budget. In this talk, I’ll first bring up the noise topic in an intuitive approach, avoiding confusing math, and give insight in the system-level design, supported by real-world examples. I show that noise figure isn’t a synonym for signal-to-noise degradation. Also, with the insights gained, the potential areas for improvement will be identified. Next, I focus on testing and debugging noise aspects. More often than anticipated, we’re generating additional noise ourselves and need to combat that at the right places, which will be illustrated. Although making accurate noise figure measurements can be very challenging, a practical approach is taken in how to use similar techniques to debug and optimize receivers.

Philip Sanders graduated in 1986 from Ghent University and joined Newtec, first indirectly in a collaboration project with the university on the impact of power amplifier non-linearity, thereafter as a microwave engineer and technology manager, involved in microwave board-level design as well as antenna and waveguide structure design, mainly for satcom. In 2013, he set up his own RF lab and started as an independent consultant, first as a part-time activity, and since 2021 as a full-time freelancer, focusing on RF to mm-wave design, but also supporting RF debug needs for a wide variety of clients.

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Simon Rommel (TUE)

Analog transport and optical beamforming for mm-wave beyond-5G signals

14:45 – 15:15 hours
5G is set to transform the role mobile networks play in modern society with the introduction of low latency and massive increases of capacity supporting use cases such as industry 4.0, virtual and augmented reality and smart mobility. Going beyond 5G, haptic and holographic video conferencing, fully autonomous transport and the development of a smart sustainable society will require even further advances in latency, capacity and network intelligence. Analog rather than digitized signal transport in the radio access network is key to latency minimization and support for high-bandwidth millimeter-wave signals. Spatial control over the radio signal with beamforming and beamsteering brings the necessary efficiency and dynamicity to adapt to changing requirements with mobile users. Looking beyond 5G, this talk introduces analog transport and optical beamforming for combined latency minimization and efficient spatial control for radio signals at mm-wave and above with support for bandwidths unmatched by electronic solutions.

Simon Rommel holds a BSc from University of Stuttgart, Germany, a MSc from Aston University, Birmingham, UK and Scuola Superiore Sant-Anna, Pisa, Italy (2014) and a PhD degree from Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark (2017) with research focused on photonic-wireless convergence and mm-wave radio-over-fiber links, including a research stay at National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Koganei, Tokyo, Japan. Since 2017, he’s with Eindhoven University of Technology, currently as an assistant professor, continuing his work on photonic and 5G/6G RF technologies as well as quantum communications.

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Johan van der Tang (Technetix)

Directional neutral broadband RF technology for one-touch Docsis network upgrades

11:15 – 11:45 hours
In a standard CATV network up and downstream signals are separated by two different spectrum bands: the lower frequency spectrum for upstream and the higher frequency spectrum for downstream. Traditionally, diplex filters are used to implement the separation between return spectrum and forward spectrum. This means when an operator wants to upgrade from for example a Docsis 3.x high split (204 MHz) to a Docsis 4.0 ultra high split (396 MHz), all broadband amplifiers in the field need to be upgraded by swapping the desired diplexer. In this talk, “one-touch” direction neutral network (DNN) broadband RF access amplifiers will be highlighted. This network approach and its DNN RF amplifiers enable upgrade to Docsis 3.x with a high split now, while being able to evolve to Docsis 4.0 ultra high split services at a later stage, remotely without revisiting any amplifier in the field. The future-proof solution transports overlapping downstream and upstream signals, without the need for diplex filters or echo cancellation. By offering the network a zero-guard band between upstream and downstream, it allows more upstream or downstream traffic than traditional network approaches.

Johan van der Tang started his career at Philips Research in 1995. Since then, he worked at several RF design and executive positions at companies like Broadcom, Greenpeak and Dialog/Renesas. Currently, he’s VP of engineering at Technetix. He holds an MSc degree from the University of Twente and a PhD degree from Eindhoven University of Technology.

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Faisal Mubarak (VSL)

Towards autonomous on-wafer RF probing

14:45 – 15:15 hours
RF probing is critical for accurate on-wafer measurements at sub-millimeter frequencies and is subject to precise alignment between the probe and substrate. Whereas conventional manual alignment methods resulted in acceptable performance for measurements up to 110 GHz, they’re found increasingly unsuitable for measurements at sub-mm frequencies. This talk will present automated methods for RF probing. The combined use of RF sensing and a dedicated vision system with machine learning algorithms results in repeatable and accurate RF device characterization over an extended period

Faisal Ali Mubarak (M’12) was born in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1982. He received a BSc degree in electrical engineering from the Rijswijk Polytechnic Institute of Technology, Rijswijk, the Netherlands, in 2006 and an MSc degree in electrical engineering from Delft University of Technology in 2009. In 2009, he joined the VSL-Dutch Metrology Institute in Delft, where he’s currently leading the RF and microwave measurements group as a principal research scientist. His current research interests include RF component measurement techniques up to mm-wave frequencies. In 2017, he was one of the co-founders of Vertigo Technologies in Delft, a company developing innovative measurement techniques and instruments.

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Christian Sattler (Anritsu)

Practical challenges of making S-parameter measurements at 220 GHz for on-wafer device modeling

15:15 – 15:45 hours
This talk describes some of the technical challenges when performing on-wafer S-parameter measurements at 220 GHz. It will cover several mechanical aspects when designing a broadband millimeter-wave module and its impact on the prober station. Also, the need to design a new broadband interface to get seamless coverage from kHz to > 200 GHz including the design of a new probe tip. In addition, certain aspects of on-wafer S-parameter and power calibration are discussed.

Christian Sattler has more than 30 years of experience in RF and microwave. He studied communication engineering and worked for several companies mainly in the area of test & measurement. At Anritsu, he’s held several technical and management positions including marcom and strategic marketing. In his current position, he’s responsible for business development of RF and microwave products in EMEA and a team leader for the engineering and technology team.

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Francesco Ferranti (VUB)

Efficient compressed sensing-based fault diagnosis in arrays of antennas: signal excitation optimization and multicarrier systems

13:45 – 14:15 hours
With the rise of communication technologies such as massive MIMO, antenna systems are becoming more and more complex and arrays with a large number of radiating elements are becoming commonplace. This also means the reliability of these systems comes into question since their performance is dependent on whether each of these antennas is working as expected. Undetected faults in a large system could prove costly, necessitating efficient techniques to detect and diagnose faulty elements. In this talk, novel efficient compressed sensing-based fault diagnosis techniques for arrays of antennas will be presented.

Francesco Ferranti is a professor at the Brussels Photonics group of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). He’s also an adjunct professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Madras and at Carleton University, Canada. His research activities have mainly focused on advanced data-driven (eg surrogate modeling, machine learning and macromodeling) and model-driven (eg model order reduction) modeling for the analysis, simulation and design of complex dynamical systems, such as microwave filters, antennas and power amplifiers, high-speed interconnects and circuits, metasurfaces/metamaterials, photonic integrated circuits and smart contact lenses.

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Ruud de Wit (Henkel Electronic Materials)

Innovative semiconductor packaging material developments for next-gen RF applications

13:45 – 14:15 hours
Smart electronics trends like 5G, 6G and ADAS are driving advanced semiconductor packaging innovations toward higher functionality, enhanced connectivity at higher frequencies, smaller form factors (miniaturization) and reduced power consumption. To meet these future demands, semiconductor package designs continue to evolve toward more challenging system-in-package, antenna-in/on-package and wafer-level architectures. Especially for next-gen RF devices like 6G antennas and automotive radars, the thermo-mechanical, thermal conductivity and (di)electric properties of assembly and packaging materials play a key role as well as high productivity and sustainable processing. This talk will give an overview of the challenges and solutions from a semiconductor encapsulation and adhesive perspective based on customer needs and experiences, and ongoing material developments to enable new RF designs.

Ruud de Wit is responsible for managing Henkel’s Semiconductor, Sensor & Consumer Electronics Assembly Materials business development within EMEA region. He has a BSc degree in mechanical engineering followed by several polymer, sales and marketing courses. He’s been working for Henkel since 1990 in multiple positions including technical customer support, quality assurance and engineering, and global semiconductor account and product management. In the last couple of years, his main focus has been on exploring and driving new semiconductor packaging material developments within Henkel to enable potential customers to design smaller RF and power devices.

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Sergey Baranchikov (Keysight)

Novel methodology for high-frequency circuit stability analysis

11:45 – 12:15 hours
Across the entire wireless communications industry, standards are moving higher in frequency and systems are getting more complex. High-frequency circuit instability arises from a combination of gain and feedback. At the same time, advanced packaging technologies make the internals of the circuit less accessible than in the past, meaning things are harder to fix after the fact in the lab. Most high-frequency-design engineers use only the classic Rollet Stability Factor to assess circuits, but this technique is based on assumptions, which may not be valid for modern circuits. This talk will help understand how instabilities fundamentally arise in circuits and illustrates how to troubleshoot and resolve these issues upfront in the design process using the latest simulation methodology for both small and large signal analysis in a non-invasive manner.

Sergey Baranchikov is an EDA products application specialist at Keysight, with 10+ years of experience in the industry.

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Keynote: Yves Baeyens (Nokia Bell Labs)

Practical approaches to industrialize near-THz communication systems

16:45 – 17:30 hours
In the past few years, we’ve seen the proliferation of mm-wave radios thanks to the global effort to make ultra-high capacity 5G a reality. Such systems benefit not only from RFIC innovations but also from advances in packaging, material engineering and co-design of various elements to produce scalable and manufacturable products. Near-THz is poised to offer even higher peak capacity for a new generation of 6G wireless networks. This talk focuses on the path to make near-THz systems manufacturable at scale and suitable for mass deployment. It will present various RFICs and interposer technologies operating at E-band, D-band and beyond and integrated systems capable of achieving tens of Gb/s with high spectral efficiency.

Yves Baeyens received a PhD degree in electrical engineering from KU Leuven in 1997. After his PhD, he spent one and a half year as a visiting scientist at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid-State Physics in Freiburg, Germany. Since 1998, he’s been with Bell Laboratories, in Murray Hill, NJ, USA, currently the research division of Nokia. As a Senior Bell-Labs Principal Scientist, he’s responsible for research in mm-wave ASICs, high-speed electronic and opto-electronic systems. Since 2003, he’s an adjunct professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering of Columbia University, New York City, NY, where he teaches a graduate course on advanced microwave circuit design. He’s a 2009 Fellow of the IEEE and a 2016 Bell-Labs Fellow.

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Kristof Vaesen (Imec)

Into the design of a 144 GHz MIMO FMCW radar demonstrator

11:45 – 12:15 hours
We present a highly integrated and compact 144 GHz MIMO FMCW radar prototype with 10 GHz bandwidth. The radar is based on custom-designed 28nm CMOS chips. The front-end chips contain the TX and RX signal paths along with integrated on-chip antennas. The PLL chip generates an off-chip chirp signal at 16 GHz that’s distributed to multiple TX/RX chips on a single module, eliminating the need to route mm-wave signals. Several generations of demonstrators are presented with a detailed look at the hardware and software parts and a deep dive into the design process. The current demonstrator consists of a 4×4 MIMO radar module integrated together with a commercial FPGA/processor platform into a 10x10x5 cm³ housing that allows testing and experimenting without laboratory equipment. Measurement results with the prototype are provided, demonstrating the radar resolution performance and the 2D angular measurement capabilities.

Kristof Vaesen received an industrial engineering degree in 1996 and an MSc degree in electrical engineering from the KU Leuven in 1998. He joined the High-Density Interconnect and Systems Packaging group at Imec later in the same year. He started working on single package integration of RF front-ends and has been designing RF building blocks in thin-film RF MCM-D technology. In 2012, he joined the mm-wave design group of Imec. Since then, his research activities are focused on the design and modeling of mm-wave passives and the implementation of CMOS mm-wave circuit blocks.

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Keynote: Maarten Paulides (Eindhoven University of Technology)

Electromagnetics for care & cure – from bench to bedside

09:30 – 10:15 hours
Medical technologies play an increasingly important role in keeping healthcare affordable. They can provide cost-effective (home) monitoring, diagnosis and therapy to enable personalized care and cure. The non-invasive nature and distinct features of electromagnetic waves at different frequencies place them at the core of many medical applications, like neurostimulation devices, magnetic resonance scanners and thermotherapy devices. The EM4C&C lab of Eindhoven University of Technology works on these applications using EM waves between 100 Hz and 10 GHz. In the medtech domain, major challenges are to demonstrate effectivity and safety while conforming to tight regulations and reducing animal testing. In response, the lab invests in advanced approaches to infer modes-of-action related to the EM waves, enabling virtual design and optimization of novel devices. In this process, tight collaboration with industry and clinical centers are established and exploited for successful device design, implementation and clinical validation.

Maarten Paulides studied electrical engineering (2002) at Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) and obtained a PhD in health and medical physics (2007, cum laude) from Erasmus University Rotterdam. Since, Paulides worked at Erasmus MC and part-time at TNO. In 2018, he returned to TUE as full professor and chair of the Electromagnetics for Care & Cure lab and director of the Center for Care & Cure Technology Eindhoven (C3TE). Paulides co-founded Sensius Thermotherapy and advises five other SMEs.