Research Fellow - School of Engineering - 103985 - Grade 7

Millimetre-Wave and Sub-terahertz have found increasing industrial and scientific applications in astronomy, communications, imaging and sensing. However, there is a shortage of traceable power standards at these frequencies due to technological difficulties of scaling conventional power standards up in frequency. University of Birmingham has received funding to develop new power sensors and power transfer standards for frequencies beyond 110 GHz in a consortium project funded by EU Metrology Partnership Research and Innovation Actions, involving multiple national metrology organisations and industrial partners.

The position is for a motivated researcher to deliver a set of research objectives defined in this consortium project. It will involve devising and implementing new advanced sensing modes, comprehensively modelling the devices in both electromagnetic and thermal domain, prototyping and experimental verification.

The researcher will primarily work within the Emerging Device Technology (EDT) Lab, a member of the Communications & Sensing Research Group at the School of Engineering. The researcher is expected to deliver research objectives in a timely manner. He/she will also contribute to disseminating the research outputs in the form of technical reports, presentations, and research papers.

Relevant literature from the EDT group:

• H. Kamble et al., "D-Band Thin-Film Resistive Line Bolometer as Transfer Standard," in IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 71, no. 11, pp. 4882-4892, Nov. 2023, doi: 10.1109/TMTT.2023.3269535.


• M. Salek, et al., "Design, Fabrication and Characterization of a D Band Bolometric Power Sensor", IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, vol. 71, pp. 1-9, 2022, Art no. 8002509, doi: 10.1109/TIM.2022.3159009.


Role Summary

• Work within specified research projects


• Operate within area of specialism


• Analyse and interpret research findings and results


• Contribute to public understanding of the discipline or similar and/or licensing or spin out deals with demonstrated commercial success


• Contribute to exploring new funded or unfunded project opportunities (including writing bids)


Main Duties

The responsibilities may include some but not all of the responsibilities outlined below.

• Deliver research objectives for the specified research project


• Deal with problems that may affect the achievement of research objectives and deadlines


• Apply knowledge in a way which develops new intellectual understanding


• Analyse and interpret data


• Disseminate research findings through publications, technical reports, conferences etc


• Supervise students on research related work and provide guidance to PhD students where appropriate to the discipline


• Contribute to developing new concepts, techniques and methods


• Undertake management/administration arising from the research project


• Contribute to writing bids for research funding
  
  First degree in area of engineering or related science, and a higher degree relevant to microwave engineering or equivalent qualifications


• Extensive experience with microwave devices and demonstrable track record in high-quality research publications


• Fluency in the use of relevant design and modelling tools, fabrication and measurement techniques for high millimetre-wave and sub-terahertz frequencies, and ability to contribute to developing new ones


• Ability to select and optimise materials and fabrication techniques for the development of new and novel devices


• Good knowledge of microwave metrology, especially for power measurements


• Ability to communicate technical information effectively


• Good level analytical capability


• Ability to assess resource requirements and use resources effectively


• Contribute to the planning and organising of the research project Co-ordinate own work with others, both within the research team and with external partners, to ensure timely delivery of the tasks, avoid conflict or duplication of effort


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