The Center for High Frequency Electronics (CHFE) is an interdisciplinary research center equipped with the state of the art microwave and millimeter wave equipment. The center was endowed by HP, Hughes, TRW and other industrial partners (over $10 M) to establish a modern facility for training graduate students and perform pioneering research in RF, microwave and millimeter wave electronics. It has sources from DC to 1000 GHz, and many 8510B network analyzers operating up to 110GHz, microwave spectrum analyzers, and Cascade microwave probe stations. The center also operates an undergraduate teaching laboratory for microwave devices and circuits, which is unique in the country. The center operates with a recharge for the use of equipment. The users come from many different departments in the university as well as outside industries.
Over the years, the role CHFE plays, as a major high frequency research facility, has expanded in several aspects. In 2003, a spherical near field antenna chamber was added in the center. Since 2011, the Microlab backend processing facility of the EE department has merged into the center. Just recently in 2014, the department invested to acquire a state of the art NonlinearNetwork Analyzer PNA-X. The equipment has a direct frequency coverage of 50MHz to 67GHz and is capable of performing the measurements of nonlinear network parameters such as Xparameters. The Center has now grown to be a premium facility not only for test and measurements, but also for circuit prototyping, fabrication and packaging. With its powerful workstations and professional maintenance, the center also serves as a centralized computing resource for computation and design needs in high frequency electronics.
