Roozbeh Tabrizian Receives $500K NSF CAREER Award

Dr. Roozbeh Tabrizian, assistant professor at ECE Florida, has received an NSF CAREER Award for his project, “Active Nano-Acoustic Waveguide Matrix to Tackle Signal Processing Limits: Enabling Wideband and Nonreciprocal Integrated Communication Beyond the UHF.”

Dr. Tabrizian’s five-year, $500K grant will support his research on novel germanium-based nano-acoustic signal processors that enhance access to radio spectrum resources. These novel processors will work towards alleviating radio spectrum overcrowding due to scarcity, as well as enable ultra-fast data communication, required for emerging amenities in a modern society.

Dr. Tabrizian’s proposed research targets aim to surpass the fundamental limitations of current integrated RF front-end, through the development of a transformative nano-acoustic technology in single crystal germanium. While current spectrum analysis hardware limits wireless systems to operating within .3–6 GHz, a relatively narrow range, the proposed research enables the access to and utilization of a huge and untapped frequency range. It would operate efficiently over the entire super- and extremely-high-frequency regimes (i.e. 3-300 GHz), and would enable simultaneous data transmission and reception in the same frequency band, through fundamentally different operation physics. This would yield an effective doubling of spectrum use efficiency.

Given the fact that effective access to radio spectrum is crucial for a diverse span of social needs – ranging from national security and public safety to transportation, broadcasting and commercial services – and plays a decisive role in continuous economic growth, there are education and outreach activities associated with this award. The project promotes the enrichment of social knowledge of novel nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS) and their indispensable role in everyday life. The project will also create educational kits and develop high school curriculum, while enhancing diversity in interdisciplinary Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (iSTEM) research and careers through the involvement of female and minority students. As part of the award, NEMS-specific graduate and undergraduate courses will be created.

More detailed information about Dr. Tabrizian’s NSF CAREER Award is available here.