Master 1 and 2 internship offers - 1st semester 2023

Subject : Design and conception of Gallium Nitride-based microwave circuits for extreme thermal environments

Dr. Jeanne TREUTTEL (LERMA, Observatoire de Paris, Paris), jeanne.treuttel@obspm.fr

Dr. Martina WIEDNER (LERMA, Observatoire de Paris, Paris), martina.wiedner@obspm.fr

Dr. Mohammed Zaknoune (IEMN, Lille) mohammed.zaknoune@univ-lille.fr

Project context

During the last 15 years, LERMA-Observatoire de Paris associated with Center for Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies (C2N) work together on design and realisation of electronic devices, based on gallium arsenide (GaAs) Schottky diodes, in order to build the sensitive receivers working at THz frequencies for astronomy and astrophysics.
Recently, LERMA-C2N developed and fabricated the sources (frequency multipliers) at 300GHz and 600GHz, as well as the 1.2THz detector (frequency mixer), that have been installed on the Submillimeter Wave Instrument (SWI) for the Jupiter ICy moon Explorer (JUICE) mission of ESA, which will be launched in April of 2023 to study Jupiter and its Galilean moons. The performances of the mixers at 600Hz and 1.2THz
built by LERMA-C2N have defined a new state-of-the-art in the domain of heterodyne detectors at these frequencies.
The next ENVISION (NASA) and VERITAS (ESA) missions, selected in 2022, open a new decade of exploration towards the planet Venus. Venus has such an extreme environment that the strongest lander, the Soviet Venera 13 (1981), was only able to send data for 2:07. The average temperature of Venus is 464°C, the atmosphere is dense with sulfuric acid rains and the atmospheric pressure is 90 times that of
Earth.
A new step will be taken in partnership with IEMN-Lille, to replace silicon with a material with interesting thermal properties : Gallium Nitride, GaN. The first manufacturing and design stages have been completed, which will be reviewed and adapted to the new concepts of design circuit integrated in future extreme thermal environments missions during this(these) internship(s).

Objectives

In the field of millimeter waves, the absence of sources or sufficiently powerful compact electronic systems, resistant to high temperatures and strong radiations, is a brake for the development of scientific but also industrial applications. These applications concern the spectral analysis of radiation in the millimeter, sub-millimeter and Terahertz range with ultra-sensitive detectors for astrophysics, imagers for nuclear security, process engineering. While various technological approaches have been adopted, the most relevant seems to be to tackle the millimeter range in a hostile environment with solid state components that are much more able to resist.
The stage will consist in developing a new generation of GaN-based high-frequency (90 GHz or more) microwave circuit design. The student will use the latest results developed by the LERMA-IEMN collaboration group, in terms of 3D electromagnetic design, co-simulation and physical models of components, and will be based on the performance of GaN junctions developed at IEMN Lille.

Candidate

Required education level : Master 1 or equivalent degree in engineering. Knowledge in electronics, microwave electronics,, physics of solids, simulation tools.
Good knowledge of French is expected.

Contact persons : To apply please send your motivation letter, CV, and recommendation letters (optional) to :

Dr. Jeanne TREUTTEL (LERMA, Observatoire de Paris, Paris), jeanne.treuttel@obspm.fr

Dr. Martina WIEDNER (LERMA, Observatoire de Paris, Paris), martina.wiedner@obspm.fr

Dr. Mohammed Zaknoune (IEMN, Lille) mohammed.zaknoune@univ-lille.fr