ARPLab, a research laboratory of the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering at Politecnico di Milano, has just received the Best Student Paper Award (Second Place) at the IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFIC) Symposium 2025. This is one of the leading international events in the field of high-frequency electronics, held in San Francisco, California.

The award was given for the paper titled “A 28–38 GHz Digitally-Assisted Frequency Tripler with Background Calibration in 55nm SiGe BiCMOS”, which presents an integrated circuit that performs frequency multiplication of a signal. This is essential for generating high spectral purity frequency references at millimetre-wave, used in modern radar and wireless communication systems.

The main innovation lies in a digital calibration system of the tripler’s parameters. This calibration operates to optimize performance in terms of output power and spectral purity, ensuring high stability under environmental changes and variations in operating conditions.

The project was developed in the ARPLab laboratories and implemented using 55nm BiCMOS technology, within the framework of the European SHIFT project, funded by the Chips Joint Undertaking.