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Joshua Nakaska - Alumni

Joshua Nakaska - RFIC Design Group - University of Calgary You can enter my new external website by following This Link.

Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC) Design

My research interests encompass all areas of RFIC design including low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), mixers and oscillator topologies. Previous circuit designs taped-out were fabricated using CMOS technologies (0.13um, 0.18um, 1.5um) - I also have experience using 0.25um and 0.35um CMOS design kits. High-frequency silicon-germanium (SiGe) bipolar designs have also been fabricated. The design of several RF BiCMOS circuits is currently underway. I am also investigating the viability of a Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) process to utilize the reduced parasitics to the substrate for my high-frequency circuit requirements.

My supervisor is Dr. Jim Haslett.

I am a member of The Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC) Design Group at the University of Calgary.

Current Research

  • Analog Radio Frequency Integrated
    Circuit (RFIC) Transceiver Design
  • Phase Locked Loops (PLLs) and Frequency Synthesizers
  • Innovative Monolithic Capacitors
  • RF Frequency Division Circuits
  • Mixed Signal Design Integration and Isolation Techniques

Thesis Topic

I am developing a 17 GHz RFIC frequency synthesizer for a wireless local area network (LAN). Frequency synthesizers provide a programmable frequency input for mixers in modern communications transceivers. My research will complement an RF system currently under development at TRLabs. I expect to complete my thesis requirements in the Fall of 2005.

Tools

I design analog integrated circuits using Cadence. Digital logic is implemented using VHDL and NCSIM, and the synthesized logic is currently being tested on a FPGA. I intend on following the analog and digital flows independently and integrating the layouts to produce the final mixed-signal design. I also use a variety of multi-dimensional modelling tools to characterize passive devices. I am proficient at using all these tools within a UNIX development environment.

Conference Chair

I had the honour of chairing the "Instrumentation and MEMS" session for the 1st Annual Graduate Students Research Conference at the University of Calgary in May 2004.

Publications

  1. "SOC Design of an IF Subsampling Terminal for a Gigabit Wireless LAN with Asymmetric Equalization", Holly Pekau, Joshua K. Nakaska, Jim Kulyk, Grant McGibney, and James W. Haslett, The 4th IEEE International Workshop on System-on-Chip for Real-Time Applications, July 19-21, 2004.

  2. "A Novel 10 GHz Inductorless Injection Locked Prescaler IC", Joshua K. Nakaska and James W. Haslett, The 16th Annual International Conference on Wireless Communications, Calgary, July 12-14, 2004.

  3. "An Integrated Inductorless Quadrature Voltage Controlled Oscillator Design In a 47 GHz SiGe Process", Joshua K. Nakaska and James W. Haslett, The 2nd Annual IEEE Northeast Workshop on Circuits and Systems, Montreal, June 20-23, 2004.

  4. "Radio Frequency Voltage Controlled Oscillators", Joshua K. Nakaska and James W. Haslett, 2004 iCore Informatics Summit, Banff, June 7-9, 2004.

  5. "Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit Research", Joshua K. Nakaska and James W. Haslett, 1st Annual Graduate Students Conference, May 3-4, 2004.

  6. "Integrated GHz Voltage-Controlled Oscillators in a 47GHz SiGe Process," Joshua K. Nakaska and James W. Haslett, 15th International Conference on Wireless Communications, Calgary, Alberta, pp. 159-164, July 2003.

  7. "A 0.18um CMOS Bluetooth Frequency Synthesizer for Integration with a Bluetooth SOC Reference Platform," Bogdan A. Georgescu, Joshua K. Nakaska, Robert G. Randall, and James W. Haslett, 2003 IEEE International Workshop on System-on-Chip for Real-Time Applications (IWSOC 2003), Calgary, Alberta, pp. 258-263, July 2003.

  8. "RFIC Research," Joshua Nakaska, James W. Haslett et al., Poster Presentation, TRLabs Technology Forum, Calgary, Alberta, October 2003.

Previous Research

  • High-Precision, High-Temperature Integrated Circuit (IC) Voltage-to-Frequency Converters (VFC) for Oilfield Applications

Graduate Courses

  • RF Integrated Circuit Design
  • Radio Frequency and Microwave Circuit Design
  • Analog CMOS Integrated Circuit Design
  • Analog Passive & Active Filter Design
  • Wireless Engineering Fundamentals
  • Radio Frequency (RF) Computer-Aided Design (CAD)
  • Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) RF and Electromagnetics

Work Experience

Gennum Corporation, Burlington, Ontario - Internship

  • Developed VHDL testbenches for ASIC prototyping using FPGAs

Bio-Instrumentation Laboratory, University of Calgary

  • Development of a data acquisition, and spectral processing environment

Kenonic Controls, Calgary, Alberta

  • SQL script development, Y2K database preparation

Wireless Resource Centers

Check out the exciting Network for Emerging Wireless Technologies (NEWT) , a wireless test and resource center located in Calgary.

Support

I would like to thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), iCore, the Telecommunications Research Laboratories (TRLabs) in Calgary, the University of Calgary, and the Canadian Microelectronics Corporation (CMC) for their continued support.
©2007-2011 University of Calgary. All rights reserved.
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