MSE Seminar: Paul Partyka (Qorvo)
Location
Kimball Hall B11
Description
Technology Characterization and Development at a Wireless Commmunications Company
Qorvo is a global wireless communications components supplier with about 10,000 employees worldwide. We supply cellular components such as amplifiers, switches and filters to all major phone makers worldwide, to base station manufacturers, to WiFi manufacturers and to the Department of Defense, for example. I will be talking about some of my responsibilities at Qorvo, primarily in benchmarking technologies. I focus on Power Amplifiers which can be made in GaAs, Si/SOI, GaN and InP technologies, some of which are internally produced, while others are from foundries. Much of my work centers on load pull measurements of individual transistors and single stage test vehicles made within these technologies, along with DC, pulsed IV and S-Parameter characterization.
Bio:
Paul Partyka received a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University in 1991 and a Ph.D. in the same field from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1997. His thesis focused on applying advanced X-ray diffraction techniques to characterizing lattice defects created in semiconductors by ion irradiation. Paul began his career as a device development engineer at Vitesse Semiconductor where he performed TCAD simulations and device characterization to help develop advanced GaAs MESFETs and InP HBTs. In 2006, Paul joined Qorvo (RF Micro Devices then) in Corporate R&D where he ran a group performing TCAD of GaAs pHEMTs and HBTs and GaN HFETs for the development of power amplifiers and switches. He also had roles in GaAs HBT characterization and modeling, including the development of improved thermal device models and benchmarking power amplifier technologies. With the merger of RF Micro Devices and Triquint Semiconductor to form Qorvo in 2014, Paul shifted his focus to enabling design teams to more accurately simulate PAs, while still retaining his benchmarking responsibilities. He has published a number of technical papers throughout his career and holds a U.S. patent.