Dr Chong Li
- Senior Lecturer (Electronic & Nanoscale Engineering)
telephone:
+44 141 330 4626
email:
Chong.Li@glasgow.ac.uk
School of Engineering, R207 80 Oakfield Avenue, G12 8LT
Biography
I obtained a PhD degree in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from the University of Glasgow in 2012. My PhD involved developing monolithic millimetre-wave signal sources and integrated circuits. From Aug. 2011, I took up a post as a Postdoctoral Research Assistant, and later a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Glasgow, working on development of terahertz imaging systems. I joined the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in January 2014 as a Higher Research Scientist. I rejoined Glasgow University in August 2017 as a lecturer and found the Microwave and Terahertz Electronics (MaTE) group. I am the Director of Electronic System Design Centre (https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/esdc/) and managing the Microwave and Terahertz Laboraotory (see below for further details).
I am a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Stratchclyde (2022-2025) and was a visiting researcher at the Advanced Technology Institute (ATI), University of Surrey in 2017. I was a member of the European Microwave Association (EuMA) General Assembly (GA) representing Group 4 (United Kingdom, Ireland, Gibraltar, Malta) between 2018 and 2021. I was the Chair of Workshop & Short Courses of EuMW2021 and I am an Associate Editor for Royal Society Open Science since 2017. I've served as a member of the technical programme committee for several conferences. I won the best paper twice at Loughborough Antennas and Propagation Conference (LAPC).
Research interests
I am leading the Microwave and THz Electronics (MaTE) Group and interested in:
- III-V (InP/GaAs/GaN) semiconductor devices and fabrication processes
- MMICs and TMICs
- emerging materials and technologies for wireless sensing, imaging, communications and energy harvesting;
- metrology for antennas and propagation; and
- metrology for on-wafer measurements.
Summer students, final year/MSc project students, self-funded/government-funded PhD students are welcome to my group. Please contact me if you have any brilliant ideas about any of the above listed topic(s) or something else.
Equipment and Facilities
I am currently managing the Microwave and Terahertz Laboraotry which is equiped with the state-of-art instruments for characterisation of RF, microwave, mmWave and THz devices and systems. Information about micro-/nano-fabrication can be found on the JWNC website. Here below list some of the equipment for measurements from RF to THz:
Anntenna measurement systems
- 0.5 GHz-18 GHz anechoic chamber
- 30 GHz-50 GHz OTA system
- 140 GHz-220 GHz near field planar antenna scanning system
- 220 GHz-325 GHz near field planar antenna scanning system
- 750 GHz-1.1 THz near field planar antenna scanning system
On-wafer power and S-parameter measurement systems
- 10 MHz-110 GHz on-wafer VNA system integrated with semi-automated probe station
- 110 - 170, 140 -220 GHz, 220 -325 GHz, 325-500 GHz and 500 - 750 GHz on-wafer VNA systems
- 750 GHz -1.1 THz on-wafer VNA system and material characterisation kits
Other measurement capabilities
- Spectrum analyer and power meter for up to 1 THz
- 70 GHz oscilloscope exented to 110-170 GHz and 220 GHz- 325 GHz (March 2023)
- 50 GHz arbitary waveform generator exented to 110-170 GHz and 220 GHz- 325 GHz (March 2023)
- 110 -170 GHz and 750 GHz-1.1 THz material characterisation kit (MCK)
- kV Semiconductor device analyser for DC & Pulsed IV/CV measurement (on-wafer)
- DC-40 GHz high/low temprature (77K/675K) manual probe station with permanent maganet
Postdoctoral Opportunities
PDRA1:
A fantastic opportunity has arisen for a 2-year Research Associate post working on antennas and wireless systems. You will contribute to a high profile EPSRC funded project-EPIQC. Contact me for further details.
PDRA2:
This is a new opportunity focusing on cryogenic microwave components and systems for quantum computer systems. This project is funded by the recent award of EPSRC New Horizon scheme and the initial appointment for this post is 21 months. The candidate must have profound knowledge and expereince in design, modelling and test of microwave components such as filters, and antennas. Established publication track record is necessary. Contact me for further details.
PhD projects
- Making the quantum computers wireless
The first computer ENIAC, which was invented 75 years ago, occupied 170 square meters and weighted almost 50 tonnes. Nobody at the time would imagine how computers could be evolved to what they look like today. Quantum computing, which is believed to be one of the most significant revolutions of 21st century is still at its dawn, facing the same challenges as first computers did half a century ago: bulky, expensive, and difficult to operate. We are here at Glasgow University bold and ambitious! Funded by EPSRC’s WiQC and EPIQC projects, we will take a risky but potentially rewarding step for the next generation of quantum computers: making the quantum computers wireless. Want to be part of this? Please get in touch.
- Pushing the limits of low noise amplifiers: from semiconductor materials, device physics, nanofabriacation to circuit design
Low noise amplifiers (LNAs) are the most important components of all RF systems such as communications, RADAR, astronomy observation, and remote sensing. The conventional key performance parameters of LNAs include noise figure, gain, linearity, and bandwidth. However, the recent advance of quantum computer systems has added another performance factor: DC power consumption which makes development of LNAs even challenging. In this project, you will take advantage of Glasgow University’s world leading nanofabrication and test facilities (JWNC and ESDC) and continue Glasgow University’s legacy on transistors flourish again.
- GaN-based diodes and tranistors for water and gas sensing
Ionic pollution in water and concentrations of gases, vapours and volatile organic compounds in air are becoming threads to human health, food safety and environments. GaN-based field effect transistor (FET)-based sensors have recently been demonstrated a viable solution due to their high sensitivity to the surface charge. However, the current technologies e.g. GaN transistors require tens of milliwatts which are not sustainable in many applications. In this project, we aim to reduce power consumptions of the sensors by at least two orders via co-optimisation of devices, circuits and systems.
- Compact monolithic integrated circuits for Beyond5G/6G wireless communications
With commercial 5G networks rolling out globally from 2019 onwards, the agenda for research into next-generation mobile communications has become a priority for academia and industry. One of the main challenges in cracking future communication systems is highly efficient RF front-end or transceiver. As the operating frequencies of future communications move into the millimetre wave domain, e.g. 30 GHz and above, the performance of electronic devices such as amplifiers and passive component integrated circuits will degrade in a number of ways, including lower efficiency, higher power consumption and poor integratability. In this project, you will take advantage of Glasgow University’s world leading nanofabrication and test facilities (JWNC and ESDC) and devise, fabricate and test compact transceivers operating at 110 GHz and above.
- Development of wireless charging technology for wireless sensor nodes
Wireless sensor nodes (WSN) have been found in many applications including environment monitoring, building structural health checks, and personal medical diagnosis etc. In most cases, sensor nodes are powered by built-in batteries which are bulky and can only last for short time. Replacing batteries can be very expensive or impossible in some scenarios. In the past decade, many energy harvesting approaches converting ambient energy e.g. solar, thermal, and acoustics to power WSNs have been studied; however, they face various limitations, e.g. weather conditions, size, distance, and communications. RF/microwave signals e.g. GPS, WiFi, 4G/5G are nowadays everywhere and they have the advantage of low attenuation in air and being less affected by weather conditions. That makes them suitable for long distance applications; however, RF/microwave signals suffer from high loss in water or inside human bodies. To use them in those conditions, different media such as ultrasound has to be implemented. In this project we will investigate a novel hybrid microwave-ultrasound transducer for both energy harvesting and wireless communications. We will tackle the challenges of RF/Microwave sensing, RF/Microwave to ultrasound frequency conversion, and ultrasound transducer efficiency. The candidate student will investigate new material, device modelling, circuit design and micro/nano fabrication. Finally, a hybrid transducer with integration of CMOS sensors will be tested for underwater monitoring or/and medical diagnosis.
follow the link to apply:
https://www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate/howtoapplyforaresearchdegree/#applyonline
Grants
Current grants
"Digitally tunable microwave metamaterials", DASA, PI (reputidated)
"EPSRC (UK) and DFG (Germany) joint workshop on THz integration technologies", EPSRC, Travel grant, Oct 2022
"Wireless Controls and Readouts for Qubit Upscaling (WiQC)", EPSRC EP/X017613/1, 10.2022-06.2024, PI, £200k
"Empowering Practical Interfacing of Quantum Computing (EPIQC)", EPSRC EP/W032627/1, 04.2022-03.2026, CoI, £3M
"Millimetre-wave and Terahertz On-chip Circuit Test Cluster for 6G Communications and Beyond (TiC6G)", EPSRC EP/W006448/1 ,01.2022-12.2023, Internal lead, £2.62M
"GaN Smart Power Integrated Circuit Techonlogy (GaN SPICe)", EPSRC EP/V026127/1, 10.2021-09.2024, CoI, £502k
"Integrated GaN-Diamond Microwave Electronics: From Materials, Transistors to MMICs (GaN_DaME)", EPSRC EP/P00945X/1, 01.2017(2020)-03.2023, GU PI, £4.3M
"Development of multi-physical on-wafer test capabilities for advanced communications and quantum technologies", industrial PhD scholarship, 04.2022-11.2026, PI
"EMC tests on CubeSats", Commericial, 01.2021-12.2025, PI
Past Projects
"Solar-Hydro power project", InnovateUK Energy Catalyst R7, TS/S021582/1, 04.2020-08.2021, PI, £300k
"Dielectric materials for 5G base station", 2020, PI
"Picosatellite antennae", Commericial, 2019, PI
"RFID for tracking livestocks", Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society Ltd. 2019, PI
"Multiphysical millimeter-wave probe station", EPSRC, ECR small equipment grant, 2019, PI
"Hybrid solar-hydro freasibility studies", Global Challenges Research Fund, 2018, PI
"Millimetre-wave on-wafer power and S-parameter measurements", Commercial, 2018-2019, PI
Horizon2020 PlanarCal (€1.8M) 2015-2018, WP leader
Horizon2020 MET5G (€1.6M) 2015-2018, Researcher
Horizon2020 MORSE (€2.4M) 2013-2016, Researcher
DECC DGO2 (£0.9M) 2014, WP leader
Supervision
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Visiting Scholars:
Dr. Shimul Saha, Mr. Chen Liu, Ms Yi Wang -
PDRAs:
Ali Al Mothian, "Wireless interfacing for quantum computer systems"
Qusay Raghib Ali Al-Taai, "MMICs and materials using GaN on diamond"
Ajay Beniwal, Marie Curie Early Stage Reseracher "DETECT"
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Current PhD students:
M. Farage (writing up) "W-band frequency scanning antennas" (1st supervisor)
Y. Yi (12.2018-) "Graphene-based terahertz tunable modulators" (1st supervisor)
J. Wang (10.2019-) "Terahertz transistors and power amplifiers" (1st supervisor)
H. Cheng (10.2019-) "Monolithic Integrated Circuits for Terahertz Communications" (1st supervisor)
M. Zhong (02.2020-) "Nonlinear electronic THz detectors" (1st supervisor)
Y. Ma (11.2020-) "Hybrid RF/Ulstrasound energy harvester" (1st supervisor)
V. Kukanja (10.2021-) "Metamaterials for biomedical applications" (1st supervisor)
Q. Li (11.2021-) "AI-driven design for transistors and LNAs" (1st supervisor)
Y. Jiang (03.2022-) "Advanced antennas for future wireless communications" (1st supervisor)
J. Kelly (04.2022-) "Development of multi-physical on-wafer test capabilities for advanced communications and quantum technologies" (1st supervisor)
E. M. Khusna (02.2023-) "On-Chip Antenna based on Spoof Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SSPP) for Commercial THz Systems" (1st supervisor)
A. Dhongde (11.2018-) "W-band GaN power amplifiers" (2nd supervisor, with Prof. Edward Wasige)
F. Wu (9.2021-) "MIR detector arrays" (2nd supervisor, with Prof. David Cumming)
Q. Guo (9.2021-) " "(2nd supervisor, with Prof. David Moran)
J. Johny (10.2022-) "" (2nd supervisor, with Prof. David Moran)
Funding opportunities
A fascinating 3.5-year PhD Scholarship is now available in the field of 6G wireless communications and Quantum computers. More details can be found here (https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/phd-in-engineering-development-of-multi-physical-on-wafer-test-capabilities-for-advanced-communications-and-quantum-technologies/?p136269 )
https://www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate/doctoraltraining/
- Iloke, Joel Idor
Prediction for Additive Manufacturing Resource Consumption and Mechanical Properties and the Multi-Objective Optimisation Approach - Jiang, Yunan
Intelligent metasurface for advanced applications - Johny, Jestin
Evaluation of Ultrawide Bandgap semiconductors for high performance electronics - Wu, Shuhao
MIR metamaterials for imaging applications using InSb detector
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Former PDRAs and PhD students:
Andrew Scott-George 2020-2021
Connor Munro 2020-2021
Haris Votsi 2015 (Surrey)
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Former visiting scholars:
2019: Dr. Ying Wang (Northwestern Polytechnical University)
2016-2017: Mr. Aihua Wu, HSRI,Mr. Chen Liu, HSRI
Teaching
Current
- ENG4100 Microwave & Optical Transmission System (since 2023)
- ENG3023 Electromagnetic Compatibility (coordinator) (since 2021)
- ENG5056 Microwave and Millimeter-wave Circuit Design (since 2017)
Past
- ENG3043 Real-time Computer Systems (coordinator) (2017-2022)
Professional activities & recognition
Editorial boards
- 2017: Royal Society Open Science
Professional & learned societies
- 2018 - 2021: Member of General Assembly, European Microwave Association
- 2019 - 2021: Chair of Workshops and Short Courses, European Microwave 2021
- 2017: Senior Member, IEEE (The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
- 2018: Member, IET (The Institution of Engineering and Technology)