PhD offers
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Factory of the future incl. robotics and non destructive testing
Microstructural characterization by bulk laser-ultrasounds tomography
The proposed thesis falls into the framework of designing innovative methods in the materials characterization. The thesis aims to develop a new tomographic technique for characterizing microstructures using bulk laser ultrasound. In the state of the art, acoustic methods such as the scanning acoustic microscope and surface wave optoacoustic spectroscopy lead to grain imaging but...
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Smart Energy grids
Topology reconstruction of a ramified network by multisensor reflectometry
Smart Grids aim at monitoring and controlling electric power networks. Many parameters have to be monitored such as production and consumption units, and the integrity of the structure of the interconnection netwotk itself. Smart grids aim at enhancing the quality of service while protecting people and infrastructures. In this area of research, most algorithms are...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
X-ray attacks of advanced technology integrated circuits
The CESTI laboratory in Grenoble is responsible for the safety evaluation of products (commercial or prototype). or prototypes). A wide range of tests can be carried out as part of these evaluations, including those designed to observe the target's behavior when faults are injected into integrated circuits. Fault injection consists of perturbing the system by...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Impact and cohabitation of Lithium on a microelectronics platform
Context: Lithium-based materials, whether thin layers or bulk material, are of great interest for varied applications (batteries, RF components…). However, their cohabitation with other “standard” materials for microelectronics requires special attention regarding dissemination in the clean room and a potential impact on electrical performances of devices. Indeed, as a precaution, these materials are “confined” on...
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Energy efficiency for smart buildings, electrical mobility and industrial processes
Electromagnetic compatibility converter optimization with wide band gap devices for frequency increase
Power Electronics systems aims at converting one shape of Energy into another. From very low power, such as USB power delivery (hundreds of watts) to high power, like electric vehicle drivetrain (hundreds of kW, power scale is large. Power Electronics systems are everywhere, this is why such systems must be optimized to be efficient, compact,...
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Advanced nano characterization
Quantification of strategic binary compounds by hard X-ray photoemission (HAXPES) and combined surface analysis
The main objective of the thesis is to provide reliable support to the processing of front-end materials for advanced FD-SOI technologies. To achieve this, methodologies for elemental quantification focused on the use of hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES) will be developed and validated through a collaborative framework at multiple levels, both internal and industrial. These...
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Instrumentation nucléaire et métrologie des rayonnements ionisants
architecture for embedded system of Automated and Reliable Mapping of indoor installations
The research focuses on the 3D localization of data from measurements inside buildings, where satellite location systems, such as GPS, are not operational. Different solutions exist in the literature, they rely in particular on the use of SLAM (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping) algorithms, but the 3D reconstruction is generally carried out a posteriori. In order...
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Cyber physical systems - sensors and actuators
Ultra-compact electronic actuation of micro-UAVs
Reducing the size of electronic systems for micro-drones is crucial for decreasing their weight, extending their battery life, and enhancing their maneuverability. This doctoral project aims to explore innovative solutions for energy management in integrated circuits designed for high-voltage actuation of micro-motors for very small drones (weighing about one gram and measuring a few mm³)....
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Factory of the future incl. robotics and non destructive testing
Simulation of ultrasonic waves interaction phenomena with metal microstructure for imaging and characterisation purposes
The interaction of waves with matter is highly dependent on the frequency of these waves and the scale of their wavelengths in relation to the properties of the medium under consideration. In the context of ultrasound imaging applications, particularly concerning metals, the scales considered are generally on the order of a millimeter (ranging from a...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Lithography process and design rules co-optimisation for advance microelectronics
Historically, the development of integrated circuit performance has been based on the reduction in size of individual components. The main driving force behind this miniaturization is photolithography, a key step in the semiconductor component manufacturing process. This process consists in reproducing the design of the circuits to be produced in a photosensitive resin. These complex...
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Advanced nano characterization
Line edge roughness extraction with a sub-nanometer resolution
Within the European Chips Act, CEA-Leti is strongly committed to support the reduction of component dimensions to reach the future technological nodes (below 10 nm). To detect and account the line edge roughness becomes critical for such small dimensions since ‘the few Angstrom error’ becomes critical (several % of error) for sub-10nm devices. This PhD...
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Photonics, Imaging and displays
Investigate electron and hole transport layers for high temperature stability III-V quantum dot photodiode devices
Colloidal Quantum Dots (QD) are novel building blocks for the fabrication of image sensors with high performance tunable light detection in the SWIR wavelength range but currently exhibit undesired degradation under high thermal stress. Thermal degradation can be significantly improved by optimizing the device materials (contacts, hole transport layer (HTL), electron transport layer (ETL) and...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
The impact of intrinsic and of extrinsic defects on the dynamic Ron and off-state leakage current of lateral GaN power devices
The intentional doping of lateral GaN power high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) with carbon (C) impurities is a common technique to reduce buffer conductivity and increase breakdown voltage. However, this comes at the cost of increased intrinsic defects together with degraded dynamic on-resistance (Ron) and current-collapse effects. The aim of this project is compare the...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Design of FD-SOI-specific True Random Number Generator
TRNGs are the essential block of any cryptographic system. Current standards, such as AIS-31, require a stochastic model, which directly relates the model of the physical source of randomness to the entropy of the generated random bits. TRNGs are benchmarked based on their throughput, efficiency and robustness. As such, FD-SOI (Fully Depleted Silicon on Insulator)...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Etch and integration of phase change materials for reconfigurable photonic
Chalcogenide glasses are materials of interest for many applications: in phase-change memories, for example optical storage (CD-RW, DVD-RAM, Blu-ray Disks) or more recently Storage Class Memory, as a selector in 3D architecture resistive memories (OTS selector) or as an active medium for non-linear optics and reconfigurable photonics. In the latter case, the production of metasurfaces...
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Advanced nano characterization
Understanding Dopant Incorporation Mechanisms in Heavily-Doped Semiconductors using combinations of high resolution (S)TEM techniques
Context: There is a need for very highly-doped semiconductor specimens for the continued development of Si/Ge CMOS devices and for doping III-V materials where the ionisation energy leads to a low concentration of carriers. In order to provide these highly doped specimens, new growth and implantion methods are required. These need to be better understood...
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Factory of the future incl. robotics and non destructive testing
Study and exploitation of Barkhausen noise spectral information for the characterization of steels
The use of magnetic Barkhausen noise (MBN) measurements for assessing the structural health of magnetic materials has become an important industrial technique the last years. The interest in the application of this technique stems from the strong dependence of the MBN signals on the material microstructure as well as its stress level and its chemical...
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Advanced nano characterization
Enabling patterning fidelity analysis over millimetric distances for curvilinear mask data-preparation : application to photonics devices.
Integrated silicon photonics, which consists of using manufacturing processes from the microelectronics industry to produce photonic components, is considered a critical future technology for very high-speed communications and computing applications. The creation of silicon photonics devices requires the manipulation of fully curved designs (so-called non-Manhattan). This gives rise to numerous challenges during their manufacturing, and...
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Cyber security : hardware and sofware
Scenario-Based Testing for Automated Systems: Enhancing Safety and Reliability in Compliance with Regulations and Standards
This research aims to investigate the effectiveness of scenario-based testing as a comprehensive and robust approach for evaluating ASs' performance while enhancing their safety and reliability with respect to regulations and standards. The primary objective of this thesis will be to investigate the benefits of scenario-based testing for automated systems and its compliance with regulations...
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Cyber security : hardware and sofware
Horizontal Magnetic Pulses and the Impact of Ultrafast Transient Current on Hardware Security of SoCs
Work carried out within the CEA-Leti has shown that physical attacks can be a threat to the security mechanisms of SoCs (System-On-Chips). Indeed, fault injections by electromagnetic disturbance have already led to an elevation of privileges by authenticating with an illegitimate password, or more recently have made it possible to circumvent one of the highest...
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Cyber security : hardware and sofware
Security-by-design for embedded deep neural network models on RISC-V
With a strong context of regulation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the European scale, several requirements have been proposed for the "cybersecurity of AI". Among the most important concepts related to the security of the machine learning models and the AI-based systems, "security-by-design" is mostly linked to model hardening approaches (e.g., adversarial training against evasion...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Semiconductor perovskites for the future of medical radiography: experimental analysis of doping and link to electrooptical performance
X-rays is the most widely used medical imaging modality for the detection of pathologies, the monitoring of their evolution and during certain surgical procedures. The objective of this thesis is to study a new semiconductor material based on perovskites for direct X-ray detection. Their use in the form of photoconductive devices in matrix imagers should...
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Photonics, Imaging and displays
Inscription of Optical Waveguide in Silica or Saphirre Optical Fbers and Characterization at High Temperature
Fiber Bragg Gratings are structures, photo-inscribed with femtosecond laser, inside the fiber core and can be used as band pass optical filters (centered around the Bragg wavelength). Bragg wavelengths are easily multiplexed and they give to us the necessary information. Silica-based fiber Bragg gratings are point sensors and can measure temperature up to 1200°C. For...
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Photonics, Imaging and displays
High speed III-V on Silicon modulators for optical communications and sensing
Worldwide demand for digital interconnections is driven both by increasing data exchanges and by an increasing number of human and non-human users. Optical communications are commonly used to answer this demand, exploiting the network of optical fibers deployed to interconnect data centers and users alike. The data streams across this planet-scale infrastructure are routed at...
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Photonics, Imaging and displays
Development of a fully passive plenoptic thermal imaging system
Low-resolution plenoptics is becoming widespread in visible imagers for applications such as autofocus, image post-processing and sometimes depth estimation. Its principle is based on the association of three main constitutive elements, a pixels-sized microlens array, a focal plane array of detectors and reconstruction algorithms. Through this thesis, we would like to evaluate the possibility of...
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Communication networks, IOT, radiofrequencies and antennas
Wideband Hybrid Transmitter for Future Wireless Systems
This research is part of an effort to reduce the energy consumption and carbon footprint of future wireless systems by investigating innovative transmitter (TX) architectures with improved energy efficiency. Objective of the thesis is to elaborate a novel TX architecture for beyond 5G and 6G standards. Efficiency enhancement design techniques such as supply modulation or...
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Photonics, Imaging and displays
Study of new photodiode architecture for IR imagers
CEA-LETI play a leading role in the development of the HgCdTe material, which now performs to such an extent that it is on board the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), enabling the observation and study of deep space with a precision unrivalled to date. However, we believe that it is still possible to take an...
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Cyber security : hardware and sofware
Formalization and Analysis of Countermeasures Against Fault Injection Attacks on Open-source Processors
Join our dynamic research team at CEA-List within the DSCIN division for a PhD opportunity in the field of hardware security and formal analysis of processor micro-architectures. The focus of this research is the formalization and analysis of countermeasures against fault injection attacks on open-source processors. Operating at the cutting edge of cyber-security for embedded...
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Communication networks, IOT, radiofrequencies and antennas
Metamaterial for Miniature Antenna
Research at CEA-Leti has highlighted the need for miniaturised antennas as a significant factor in promoting them to the scientific and industrial communities. Among the many types of antenna available, a number are designed to use materials that can be artificially manipulated to provide RF characteristics to the immediate surrounding environment (metamaterials). These materials can...
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Cyber physical systems - sensors and actuators
Bioinspired magnetic navigation
GPS is widely used today for land, sea and air navigation. However, it has several disadvantages: it requires a very heavy infrastructure (constellation of 24 satellites in orbit), it does not work in an “indoor” or underwater environment and above all it can be jammed. This is why “magnetic” navigation, i.e. exploiting the earth’s magnetic...
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Communication networks, IOT, radiofrequencies and antennas
Distributed Passive Radar
Our objective is to detect and locate drones entering an urban area to be protected by observing the signals emitted by cellular stations. Studies have shown that it is possible to locate a drone if it is close to the listening system and the cellular station (i.e. the base station). When the situation is more...
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Communication networks, IOT, radiofrequencies and antennas
Backscattering transceiver for IoT sustainable devices
In modern communications, and especially in IoT domain with massive deployment constraints, power consumption and cost are constantly push to lower limits. In same time, sustainable solutions are recently investigate for next IoT devices generations for eco-design approach and maintenance-free aspects saving costs. To improve communication efficiency without requiring active RF transmission, RFID technics could...
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Communication networks, IOT, radiofrequencies and antennas
Faster-Than-Nyquist transceiver: application to physical layer security
Transmission security is a major concern in an increasingly connected world, where electronic devices play a central role in our daily lives. Rapid technological advances have led to a growing dependence on connected objects, from smartphones to medical devices to autonomous vehicles. This issue is also reflected in global geopolitics, with various attempts to intimidate...
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Communication networks, IOT, radiofrequencies and antennas
Super-gain miniature antennas with circular polarization and electronic beam steering
Antenna radiation control in terms of shape and polarization is a key element for future communication systems. Directive compact antennas offer new opportunities for wireless applications in terms of spatial selectivity and filtering. This leads to a reduction in electromagnetic pollution by mitigating interferences with other communication systems and reducing battery consumption in compact smart...
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Factory of the future incl. robotics and non destructive testing
Study of inversion methods based on simulation and machine learning for defect characterisation in ultrasonic array imaging
The thesis work is part of the activities of CEA-List department dedicated to Non-Destructive Testing (NDT), and aims to study simulation-based inversion methods to characterise defects from ultrasonic images, such as TFM (Total Focusing Method) or PWI (Plane Wave Imaging) images. The inversion methodology will rely on machine learning algorithms and numerical training databases generated...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Development of optomechanical clocks with integrated electronics
Time references (clocks) are components used in the majority of electronic circuits. CEA-Leti is a pioneer in the development of high-frequency/high-performance clocks using optomechanics, which combines two cutting-edge technologies: microelectromechanical resonators (MEMS) and silicon photonics. This breakthrough approach allows overcoming the constraints of current clock technologies. CEA-Leti has developed optomechanical components with state-of-the-art performance and...
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Cyber security : hardware and sofware
Trusted imager: integrated security based on physically unclonable functions
Images, and therefore the sensors that generate them, must respond to the challenges posed by their illicit use, either to divert their content through deep fakes, or for unauthorized access. The concept of trusted imagers responds to the need to ensure the security, authentication or encryption of images as soon as they are acquired. Based...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Intrafield placement error optimisation for advanced integration nodes
As part of the microelectronics growth plan, driven by the European directive France 2030, CEA Leti is acquiring new state-of-the-art tools and developing new technologies for future applications. The challenge is to develop several technological building blocks enabling the industrial transfer of microelectronic processes down to the 10nm technology node. Lithography is the most critical...
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Instrumentation nucléaire et métrologie des rayonnements ionisants
Development of a neutron/gamma coincidence measurement system for the characterization of radionuclide neutron sources
This PhD work is part of sources calibration activities at the LNHB-MA and R&D activities within the SIMRI aimed at developing neutron measurement systems for the CEA and the nuclear industry. The objective of the PhD work is to develop a new measurement system using neutron/gamma coincidences to enable the characterization of the (alpha,n)-type neutron...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Semi-polar GaN epitaxy for high frequency µLEDs
Semiconductor nitride-based LEDs have reached a high level of maturity due to their use in the field of lighting. While the internal electric field present in InGaN quantum wells does not limit the efficiency of blue LEDs, it does induce the confined quantum Stark effect (QCSE), which limits the bandwidth of the LEDs and thus...
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Photonics, Imaging and displays
New architectures in inverse geometry for spectral X-ray imaging
Emerging technologies in the field of X-ray sources and detectors open up possibilities for envisioning new breakthrough systems in 3D imaging. In conventional tomography, a large-area detector captures images of an object exposed to X-rays from a point source. The latest generations of medical scanners also incorporate spectrometric semiconductor detectors, providing a real improvement in...
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Photonics, Imaging and displays
Integrated High Speed optical Link System
Nowadays, billions of digital data are exchanged in the world. Hence, Digital data transfer is a key technical issue within High Performance Computing (HPC) systems. They have to be very fast (faster and faster) and low power (lower and lower). Communication through Optic Fibers, well known for long distance communications, is also well suited for...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Study of innovative MOS gate stack for energy efficient SiC power transistors.
Les composants en carbure de silicium (SiC) représentent l'avenir de l'électronique de puissance, surpassant les technologies silicium en termes de tolérance à la température et de capacité de gestion de la puissance. Au coeur de cette évolution, le CEA Leti joue un rôle clé dans le développement de ces composants de nouvelle génération, essentiels pour...
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Communication networks, IOT, radiofrequencies and antennas
Méthodologie de test en rayonné pour applications sans-fil de communication et « sensing »
The PhD thesis here proposed is in the field of channel propagation modeling for wireless communication and sensing systems. Over-the-air (OTA) radiated testing is conducted without the need for a radio frequency (RF) cable connection to the Device Under Test (DUT), ensuring that the DUT remains intact and unaltered during testing." Efficient beamforming and management...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Design and construction of a snubber circuits associated with a power transistors in order to reduce disturbances during fast switching.
The thesis topic is aligned with the European Common Interest Project IPCEI ME/CT, which aims to enhance the value of the European semiconductor sector. It particularly investigates protection systems for direct current (DC) electrical networks against power overloads, short circuits, and electric arc incidents. These complex systems rely on power transistors to manage controlled disconnection...
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Advanced nano characterization
3D chemical investigation of 10 nm FDSOI CMOS devices.
The development of 10 nm FDSOI (Fully Depleted Silicon On Insulator) technology leads to new constraints on the architecture of transistors. The gate width (10 nm) requires a specific integration of the gate that controls the threshold voltage. The variability of the threshold voltage depends on the concentration, spatial distribution and chemical nature of dopants...
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Communication networks, IOT, radiofrequencies and antennas
Integration of communication and localization/sensing in distributed wireless networks
The proposed PhD study focuses on the integration of sensing and communication (ISAC) functionalities in next-generation wireless networks. According to this new ISAC paradigm, communication networks should be “spatially aware”, i.e. capable of autonomously retrieving information regarding their operating context and/or physical environment, such as the positions/velocity of end-user terminals and non-connected objects, the room...
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Factory of the future incl. robotics and non destructive testing
High mobility mobile manipulator control in a dynamic context
The development of mobile manipulators capable of adapting to new conditions is a major step forward in the development of new means of production, whether for industrial or agricultural applications. Such technologies enable repetitive tasks to be carried out with precision and without the constraints of limited workspace. Nevertheless, the efficiency of such robots depends...
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Communication networks, IOT, radiofrequencies and antennas
Analysis, compensation and use of beam-squint for wideband mmWave/sub-Thz communications
The ever-increasing demand for data traffic pushes communication systems to upgrade, networks to densify and thus being more and more power-hungry. How to satisfy this need of high connectivity while limiting the carbon footprint of telecommunication systems? To this end, the combination of the rise in frequency into the upper spectrum (mmWave/sub-Thz) and hybrid (analog/digital)...
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Advanced nano characterization
Electrical characteization and Reliability of NextGeN FDSOI MOSFETs
Global demand on semiconductor solutions (device, circuit, system) has skyrocketed during the last few years, especially in reliation with COVID worldwide crisis. This industry has revealed its significance in the present world has well as its weaknesses. The European council decided to launch an ambisious program called 'Chip Act' to develop a solid semiconductor european...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Development of advanced gallium oxide (Ga2O3) on polycrystalline silicon carbide (SiC) bilayer substrates for power electronics
Enhancing the efficiency of energy-conversion devices is a primary goal for numerous international organizations [1]. As a result, the power electronics and wide-band-gap materials industries require significant development effort to align with these objectives. Particularly, recent progress in silicon carbide (SiC) processing technologies [2]–[4] show that innovative substrate architectures have the potential to offer state-of-the...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Integration of new materials with strong spin-orbit coupling (van der Waals tellurides) for SOT-MRAM memories
The new concepts offered by “spinorbitronics” make it possible to envisage more frugal electronics. In particular, for writing a magnetic memory (MRAM), a new concept of magnetization reversal by a spin-orbit couple is emerging. Its principle permits a significant decrease in memory writing energy and enhanced endurance. Its operation is based on the conversion of...
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Cyber security : hardware and sofware
Signal processing in cybersecurity: development of frequency tools for side-channel attacks and application to voice biometrics
Embedded cryptography on smartcards can be vulnerable to side-channel attacks, based on the interpretation of the information retrieved during the execution of the algorithm. This information leak is generally measured at the hardware level thanks to a consumption signal or electromagnetic radiation. Many methods, based mainly on statistical tools, exist to exploit these signals and...
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Advanced nano characterization
MEMS chaotic motion for high sensitivity
Improving the resolution of MEMS sensors always means increasing the cost of the component (surface area) or his electronics (complexity and power consumption). In view of the current challenges of energy sobriety, it is essential to explore new disruptive ways to reduce the impact of high-performance sensors. Chaos is a deterministic phenomenon exponentially sensitive to...
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Cyber security : hardware and sofware
Artful guidance of test generation tools
Fuzzing is an automatic test generation technique. It consists in repeatedly executing a program with automatically generated inputs, in order to trigger crashes, symptoms of underlying bugs in the code, which can then be fixed. A major challenge in this area is moving from indiscriminate exploration of how programs work to artful guidance towards the...
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Advanced nano characterization
Performance and Reliability Evaluation of Ferroelectric Memories Based on Hafnium Oxide for Integration into Advanced Nodes.
An explosion in global data production is observed today, largely attributed to the emergence of 5G and the Internet of Things. Faced with the challenges of managing vast amounts of data and to avoid a significant increase in global electricity consumption due to data storage, it is necessary to develop efficient, energy-efficient, and dense non-volatile...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
AI for SEM metrology: image generation and 3D reconstruction applied to microelectronic devices
Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) imaging is the current reference method for quality control in the microelectronic industry, due to the size of the objects involved and to the yield expected when these tools are used in production lines. In order to improve our knowledge on physics in play during imaging and to develop more performant...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Towards sustainable electronics: impact and understanding of the substitution of high GWP gases on plasma etching processes
To address environmental concerns in the microelectronics industry, CEA-LETI is committed to an eco-innovation approach [1]. In this context, the development of eco-responsible processes that reduce PerFluoro-Carbon (PFC) emissions is crucial [2]. Plasma etching processes are a major emitter of PFCs because they traditionally use high GWP gases. The aim of this thesis will be...
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Cyber security : hardware and sofware
Proof of functional equivalence of binary codes in the context of embedded program hardening
The general context of this thesis is the cyber-security of embedded systems. The research background of this thesis is tied to the automatic application of counter-measures against the so-called physical attacks, which encompass observation attacks (side-channel attacks) and perturbation attacks (fault-injection attacks). The CEA List is working on COGITO, a compiler toolchain based on LLVM...
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Cyber security : hardware and sofware
Combining over and under-approximations for low-level code analysis
Because program analysis is an undecidable problem, static analyzes fall into 2 categories: - Sound analyses, which calculate an over-approximation of all the program's behaviors, and make it possible to verify the absence of errors. - Complete analyses, which calculate an under-approximation of the possible behaviors of the program, and allow errors to be found....
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Energy efficiency for smart buildings, electrical mobility and industrial processes
Non-invasive characterization of power circuits by near-field probes
The optimization of power modules is made complex by the parasitic elements of the circuits (inductances, capacitances, resistance) which, when subjected to switching of high currents and voltages with high speeds (di/dt, dV/dt ), cause overvoltages or current oscillations which can be damaging to the system and components (accelerated aging, early failures, breakdown, thermal runaway,...
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Photonics, Imaging and displays
Contribution of metal-semiconductor interfaces to the operation of the latest generation of infrared photodiodes
This thesis concerns the field of cooled infrared detectors used for astrophysical applications. In this field, the DPFT/SMTP (Infrared Laboratory) of CEA-LETI-MINATEC works closely with Lynred, a world leader in the production of high-performance infrared focal planes. In this context, the infrared laboratory is developing new generations of infrared detectors to meet the needs of...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
In situ study of the impact of the electric field on the properties of chalcogenide materials
Chalcogenide materials (PCM, OTS, NL, TE, FESO, etc.) are the basis of the most innovative concepts in microelectronics, from PCM memories to the new neuromorphic and spinorbitronic devices (FESO, SOT-RAM, etc.). Part of their operation relies on out-of-equilibrium physics induced by the electronic excitation resulting from the application of an intense electric field. The aim...
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Energy efficiency for smart buildings, electrical mobility and industrial processes
Development of integrated GaN functions for electrical energy conversion
The integration of GaN (Gallium Nitride) components in power applications requires take into account the very fast switching speed of these transistors. Furthermore, if we wish switching currents of the order of several tens of amperes it is essential to bring them as close as possible the power element control circuit. This rapprochement can be...
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Cyber security : hardware and sofware
Advanced type-based static analysis for operating system verification
In recent work [RTAS 2021], we have demonstrated the benefits of a static analysis guided for analyzing low-level system programs, going so far as to be able to automatically verify the absence to the point of being able to automatically verify the absence of privilege escalation in an embedded operating system kernel as a consequence...
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Communication networks, IOT, radiofrequencies and antennas
Scalability of the Network Digital Twin in Complex Communication Networks
Communication networks are experiencing an exponential growth both in terms of deployment of network infrastructures (particularly observed in the gradual and sustained evolution towards 6G networks), but also in terms of machines, covering a wide range of devices ranging from Cloud servers to lightweight embedded IoT components (e.g. System on Chip: SoC), and including mobile...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Photonic Spiking Neural Networks based on Q-switched laser integrated on Silicon
Neuromorphic networks for signal and information processing have acquired recently a renewed interest considering the more and more complex tasks that have to be solved automatically in current applications: speech recognition, dynamic image correlation, rapid decision processing integrating a plurality of information sources, behavior optimization, etc… Several types of neuromorphic networks do exist and, among...
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Communication networks, IOT, radiofrequencies and antennas
Disruptive RF Transceivers for Full Duplex 6G Communications
This thesis is an opportunity to participate in the development of future telecommunications systems in the 10-15 GHz band, in partnership with the best research centers in Europe working on the subject. Over the past 20 years, wireless communications systems have continued to evolve and offer new services. Today, such is their success that frequency...
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Cyber physical systems - sensors and actuators
Design of algorithms to optimize RADAR beam control
The arrival on the market of a new generation of Imaging Radars 4D brings new opportunities and challenges for the development of data processing algorithms. These new sensors, geared towards the autonomous vehicle market, offer greater resolution thanks to a larger number of antennas. However, this implies an increase in the amount of data to...
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Communication networks, IOT, radiofrequencies and antennas
Advanced RF circuit design in a system and technology co-optimization approach
This thesis addresses the two major challenges facing Europe today in terms of integrating the communication systems of the future. The aim is to design RF integrated circuits using 22nm FDSOI technology in the frequency bands dedicated to 6G, which will not only increase data rates but also reduce the carbon footprint of telecoms networks....
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Towards sustainable and reliable piezoelectric technology for MEMS actuator and sensor devices
Proven or predictable shortages of materials and the necessary frugality associated with the energy transition create a constrained framework for the sustainable deployment of microelectronics and microsystems technologies. This thesis is thus part of an approach that aims to significantly reduce the environmental footprint of piezoelectric MEMS actuator/sensor technology. The latter is based on the...
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Cyber security : hardware and sofware
Secure Hardware/Software Implementation of Post-Quantum Cryptography on RISC-V Platforms
Traditional public-key cryptography algorithms are considered broken when a large-scale quantum computer is successfully realized. Consequently, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the USA has launched an initiative to develop and standardize new Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) algorithms, aiming to replace established public-key mechanisms. However, the adoption of PQC algorithms in Internet of...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Ecodesign of sintered interonnects : reliability and repairability improvement
Metallic sintering, particularly silver-based or copper-based sintering, is a component interconnects technique alternative to soldering, used in particular in the field of power electronics. The main advantages of this technique are first of all its very high thermal and electrical conductivity, but also the fact that the sintered interconnection (with a process realized for example...
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Additive manufacturing, new routes for saving materials
Electrothermal optimization of Wide band gap power modules by functionalization of 3D ceramic substrates made by 3D ceramic printing (Al2O3/AlN)
In order to take advantage of Wide band gap components (GaN and SiC), it has been demonstrated that it is necessary to reduce the parasitic elements in the switching cells and therefore in the power modules. The 'trivial' solution is to make the power modules more compact to solve this problem of parasitic elements. However,...
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Additive manufacturing, new routes for saving materials
Robustness of thick metallizations made on 3D ceramic substrates.
A robust and high quality metallization of 3D ceramic substrates is a key element of the success of this project and a necessity for a future industrial development of the research work that will be carried out during these two theses. The work in progress on the material platform of the CEA of Toulouse already...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Qubit conditioning circuit based on Single Electron Transistor electronics
A new research direction has emerged that consists in the design of cryogenics integrated circuits (cryo-CMOS) to address the needs of many scientific experiments in astronomy, in physics of particles or in quantum physics. Nevertheless, the power consumption of such solutions is still high and prevent their use in applications that necessitate the conditioning of...
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Photonics, Imaging and displays
Advancing image sensor security: using deep learning for simultaneous robust and fragile watermarking
This PhD project aims at advancing the field of image sensor security through a comprehensive exploration of recent deep learning techniques applied to both robust and fragile invisible watermarking. In the specific context of embedded image rendering pipelines, this study aims to address the dual challenges of ensuring resistance against intentional attacks to break the...
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Communication networks, IOT, radiofrequencies and antennas
Linearisation of optical micro-sources for communications
Would you like to play a part in the future of optical transmission for high-speed communications? This PhD will play a key role, focusing on performance and energy efficiency, with a particular focus on encouraging the emergence of optical solutions with low carbon costs and low dependence on rare materials. The field of non-coherent optical...
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Smart Energy grids
Environmental monitoring of pollutant dispersion: optimal placement of mobile sensors
Do you feel concerned by environmental pollution issues? This research will enable optimal deployment of mobile sensors for monitoring air quality in urban environments. Complex urban geometries [1] and dynamic pollutant dispersion scenarios are the scientific challenges to be met in order to better estimate local air pollution, identify sources and anticipate exposure peaks. Our...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Study of InP and AsGa wafer bonding mechanisms
Direct bonding consists of bringing sufficiently smooth and clean surfaces into contact, in order to create adhesion between them without adding any external material. This technology presents many advantages for the production of stacked structures for microelectronics and micro-technologies and has given rise to numerous innovations (manufacturing of SOI by SmartCutTM, manufacturing of SmartSiCTM, production...
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Photonics, Imaging and displays
Anisotropies and deformations induced by doping in the latest generation of infrared photodiodes
This thesis concerns the field of HgCdTe infrared detectors for astrophysical applications, for which the Infrared Laboratory of CEA -Leti is one of the world leaders. The candidate will join the infrared laboratory, which includes the entire detector production process. As a participant in all discussions on the development of CdHgTe samples, he will produce...
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Cyber security : hardware and sofware
Design and Analysis of Side-Channel Feedback for Vulnerability Discovery
Fuzzing is a dynamic testing technique that enables vulnerabilities to be discovered very efficiently. Hundreds or even thousands of vulnerabilities are detected (and repaired) every year in the software we use. When we try to transpose the fuzzing approach to embedded systems, we are faced with a number of problems: the source code is not...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
“Remote epitaxy" of Cd(Hg)Te
A new way of considering epitaxy has recently appeared thanks to the development of 2D materials. Whereas conventional epitaxy involving covalent bonds is limited in particular to a lattice parameter matching between the substrate and the epitaxial membrane, it appears that this constraint can be significantly released if the epitaxial growth is done by van...
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Cyber physical systems - sensors and actuators
Power and data transmission via an acoustic link for closed metallic environments
This thesis focuses on the transmission of power and data through metal walls using acoustic waves. This technology will eventually enable the powering, reading and control of systems placed in areas enclosed in metal: pressure vessels, ship hulls and submarines, etc. As electromagnetic waves are absorbed by metal, it is necessary to use acoustic waves...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Characterization and design of radiation-hardened HfO2-based non-volatile memories
This project concerns the characterization and design of radiation-hardened non-volatile memory circuits based on HfO2 material. This material is immune to both natural (space) and artificial (man-made) radiation, and can be used to enhance the reliability of data storage in harsh environments. What's more, when combined with FD-SOI CMOS technology, which also offers a certain...
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Communication networks, IOT, radiofrequencies and antennas
A formal framework for the specification and verification of distributed processes communication flows in clouds
Clouds are constituted of servers interconnected via the Internet, on which systems can be implemented, making use of applications and databases deployed on the servers. Cloud-based computing is gaining in popularity, and that includes the context of critical systems. As a result, it is useful to define formal frameworks for reasoning about cloud-based systems. One...
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Cyber security : hardware and sofware
Security blind spots in Machine Learning systems: modeling and securing complex ML pipeline and lifecycle
With a strong context of regulation of AI at the European scale, several requirements have been proposed for the "cybersecurity of AI" and more particularly to increase the security of AI systems and not only the core ML models. This is important especially as we are experience an impressive development of large models that are...
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Factory of the future incl. robotics and non destructive testing
Smart & Scalable Orchestration to ensure system performance and reliability throughout Cloud Native ecosystems
The Cloud Computing paradigm has brought a new way of building application systems by strongly decoupling applications and the platforms on which they operate. This is particularly thanks to virtualization techniques (virtual machines, containers, and soon WASM) and the associated orchestration technologies (OpenStack, Kubernetes, and CloudWASM), which make it possible to port, deploy, and manage...
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Cyber security : hardware and sofware
Seamless FHE swithching over algorithm partitions
Nowadays, we have four FHE cryptosystems, namely TFHE, BFV/BGV and CKKS, which are becoming a kind of standards for FHE use in practice. However, each of these schemes suffer from some kind of limitations of their own. Some allow for computations over large plaintexts, while some allow for unbounded number of operations. In some schemes...
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Cyber security : hardware and sofware
Laser fault injection exploration on System-on-Chip
The goal of this PhD subject is to study the capabilities of laser fault injection to extract cryptographic secret or to by-pass security mechanisms. This study will focus on System-on-Chip targets. First, the PhD student will explore new methods to optimize laser fault injection on System-on-Chip. The next topic that will be addressed by the...
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Cyber security : hardware and sofware
Dynamic Assurance Cases for Autonomous Adaptive Systems
Providing assurances that autonomous systems will operate in a safe and secure manner is a prerequisite for their deployment in mission-critical and safety-critical application domains. Typically, assurances are provided in the form of assurance cases, which are auditable and reasoned arguments that a high-level claim (usually concerning safety or other critical properties) is satisfied given...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Quantum Cascade III-V/Si laser micro-sources
This thesis project focuses on the development of innovative micro-laser sources by combining III-V Quantum Cascade materials with Silicon Photonic Crystals. By integrating these advanced technologies, we aim to create hybrid lasers emitting in the middle infrared. This approach has significant advantages for medium-infrared spectrometry (MIR), a crucial technique for the chemical detection of gaseous,...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Epitaxial layer on GaAs or Ge transfer to sapphire or silicate for gravitational waves mirror realization
Gravitational waves were predicted by the theory of general relativity, they are created in the universe by extreme cosmic events. Their measurement on earth in large instruments such as VIRGO in Italy is a challenge in terms of measurement sensitivity. These instruments are large interferometers (several kilometers), and the entire optical chain must minimize noise...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Study of co-integrated TeraHertz source arrays in Silicon and III-V photonics technology
TeraHertz (THz) radiation is of growing interest for imaging and spectroscopy in various application fields such as safety, health, environment and industrial control, since in this frequency range many dielectric materials are transparent and many molecules present unique spectral signatures for their identification. However, the limitations of the current sources, required for this active Imaging,...
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Factory of the future incl. robotics and non destructive testing
High speed/High capacity distributed Fiber Bragg Grating sensing technique for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) applications
Schedule-driven Non-Destructive Evaluations (NDE) are carried out during structure/equipment’ life to detect major degradations endangering safety and impairing service availability. In addition to NDE, Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) involves the use of in-situ Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensing systems and algorithms to evaluate structure worthiness. FBGs are mostly used as strain/temperature sensors but are also...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Innovative dry etching process of exotic materials
The advantageous properties (electro-optical, - acoustic, -mechanical) of new materials such as Sc-doped ALN, LNO, LTO or KNN make them essential to meet the development needs of integrated optics, RF telecommunication and microsystems. The production of patterns with submicron dimensions with a significant etch rate (>100nm/min), a vertical profile and a reduced roughness of the...
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Advanced nano characterization
Scatterometry measurement of the exposure focal length of photolithography tools
Since the late 2000s with the advent of 45nm CMOS nodes, the control of critical dimensions (CD) of the structures in the photolithography stage has become critical to the reliability of printed circuit boards. Optical photolithography remains the most economical and widespread technique for high volume production in the semiconductor industry. For this type of...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Development of deposit/etch processes for SADP integration to FD10 node
Developement of new technologic nodes involves both a pattern dimension shrink and a pattern density increase. For the last years, development of multi-Patterning strategies with in particular Spacer Patterning (also called SADP) has signifcantly increased. This approach is based on a sacrificial pattern on which a material is depsosited with a conformal configuration to be...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Realization of MOSFET gates at the sub-10nm node on FD-SOI
As part of the NextGen project and the European ChipACT to ensure the sovereignty and competitiveness of France and Europe in terms of electronic nano-components, CEA-LETI is launching the design of new FD-SOI chips. Already present daily in the automotive or connected object areas, 28-18nm FD-SOI transistors are produced in large volumes by microelectronics founders...
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Emerging materials and processes for nanotechnologies and microelectronics
Could convolutional neural network bring benefits in nanometrics etch processing?
The development and production of energy-efficient electronic components is a major challenge for the microelectronics sector. To answer such a challenge, CEA-Leti and CNRS-LTM does not only focus on building, making and testing new architecture. We also focus on developing greener process and investigating novative solutions to reduce the environmental impact. Precedent works on process...
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Communication networks, IOT, radiofrequencies and antennas
Exploring the Future of Satellite Communications: Dual-Band Electronically Reconfigurable Flat Lens Antennas with Ultra-Wide Scan Range
CEA Leti offers a PhD topic to develop new electronically scanning antennas for efficient data transmission in satellite communications (Satcom). Novel efficient electronically scanning antennas are essential for future satellite communications (Satcom). Electronically reconfigurable flat lens antennas, also known as transmitarrays, are a promising architecture to achieve high scanning performance. Each element of the flat...
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