Best Grad Schools in U.S. for RF/Microwave ?

[GeekWizard]

Hello all,

Which universities would be the best in U.S. to work for a PhD in RF/Microwave area?

 

[savedadogs]

I think this question has been asked several times. Well, here is my opinion:

East Coast: Georgia Tech (heard they are good) and MIT (maybe)

Mid-West: UIUC (best for numerical methods) and University of Michigan (heard they are good)

West Coast: UCLA (left-handed metamaterials)

 

[heedavid]

Ohio Tech have spme very well-known researchers.

BR,
Dave

 

[jcwen]

I think UC Berkeley and Stanford University is also very good. and UC San Diego is very excellent in RF Power Amplifier Design.

 

[GeekWizard]

What factors have you guys considered in judging these schools?

Just looking at teachers, Razavi is at UCLA (isn't he?)

 

[mpero]

Univ Colorado Boulder is good too, with Professor Zoya Popovic. Power Amplifiers, antennas, MEMS.

 

[GeekWizard]

What about UPenn? Anyone have an opinion about that?

 

[savedadogs]

UPenn - Mittra is there, he is well known for numerical methods in electromagnetics

UCLA - Itoh is there

 

[rautio]

Actually U Penn is in Philadelphia, Prof. Mittra is not there. (I got my masters there. As far as I know they have no microwave courses.) Mittra is at Penn State (as I recall), in State College, PA. Syracuse Univeristy, very near me, has a nice hands-on sequence of courses for microwave design. (That is where I got my Ph. D.) One of our employees is presently going through that sequence for his masters. The quality of the courses is very good.

 

[GeekWizard]

I think this question has been asked several times

Can you please paste the link as I couldn't find any such discussion.

Many Thanks.

 

[Puppet1]

UMass-Amherst - Circuit Level, Practical, MMIC

Cornell - Circuit Level, RFIC/MMIC Group, Theoretical, Practical

UC-Santa Barbara - Theoretical, MMIC, Devices

University of South Florida - Practical, MMIC, MMIC Test, PAs, RFIC

University of Florida - MMIC (Silicon), RFIC, Practical

Virginia Tech - RFIC - Practical

Michigan - MMIC - Very Theoretical

Georgia Tech - Analog Mixed Signal, RFIC, MMIC - Practical and Theoretical -- Largest RFIC Group in USA

UC Berkeley - RFIC, Analog Mixed Signal - Theoretical but Practical

Stanford - RFIC, Analog Mixed Signal - All Theoretical

UC San Diego - RFIC Group, Device Physics, MMIC, Both Theoretical, Practical

Kansas State - RFIC Group, Practical

MIT - RFIC, MMIC, Device Physics, Circuit Level - Very, Very Theoretical

University of Illinois - Urbana - MMIC, RFIC, Device Physics - Theoretical - Physics

 

[GeekWizard]

So by going with experts UCLA would be the no.1 choice with Razavi, Itoh and Abidi being there... ?

 

[Puppet1]

depends what kind of microwave you want ? do you want IC Design or Microwave MIC design -- board level design and discrete transistors ?

It depends on which one. If so UCLA is good but razavi only does cmos. other schools do sige bipolar if that matters to you.

 

[wpchan05]

If you are looking for PhD funding and research opportunities, North Carolina State University (NCSU) is also a good choice. So far as I know, Prof Micheal Steer has received more than 19 millions in government grant as a principal investigator to do RF research. The latest project from last year has received more than 5 millions for a ~ 5 year project.

Of course, if you believe you are good enough to go for those Ivy League or top national universities, forget about NCSU.

 

[Puppet1]

Do you go to NCSU -- is it good ?

 

[madengr]

If you want to gain a broad experience in RF harwdare design, signal processing, and field experiments then look at KU for radar. They recently received a $19M grant. Tution is cheap, in-state if you are a research assistant or free if you are a teaching assistant (at least when I was there).


http://www.oread.ku.edu/Oread05/Apr22/nsf.html

**broken link removed**

 

[Gatts]

What about UPenn? Anyone have an opinion about that?

Penn has one Professor - Nader Engheta who does some great work in left handed materials, but his work is mostly theoretical research....as in no big labs for hands on experience.

 

[Jerzyg]

So by going with experts UCLA would be the no.1 choice with Razavi, Itoh and Abidi being there... ?

UCLA does also a great job in antenna design, group of Yahya Rahmat-Samii

 

[eezou]

stanford and UCLA

 

[ppenday]

UCLA is best school for RF