Chenhao Chu

Postdoctoral Scholar

ETH Zurich

Chenhao Chu

I am currently a postdoc at Integrated Devices, Electronics, And Systems Group (IDEAS), working with Prof. Dr. Hua Wang from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH Zürich).

I received my Ph.D. from RF & Microwave Research Group at University College Dublin (UCD), advised by Prof. Anding Zhu, and I obtained my master's degree from City University of Hong Kong, advised by Prof. Quan Xue.

My research interests include energy-efficient, linear, and wideband power amplification in III-V and silicon technologies. I am also working on the AI-assisted rapid end-to-end design synthesis of RF/mm-Wave circuits. I received three awards in the IEEE MTT-S High-Efficiency Power Amplifier Student Design Competitions (HEPA-SDC), including second place at IMS2021, first place at RWW2022, and third place at IMS2022.

Education

Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering

University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland (Sep 2018 – Oct 2022, Advisor: Prof. Anding Zhu)

M.Sc. in Electronic Information Engineering (Distinction)

City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China (Sep 2016 – Oct 2017, Advisor: Prof. Quan Xue)

Research Area

  • Energy-efficient, high-linearity, and wideband power amplification in silicon and non-silicon technologies
  • AI-assisted reconfiguration and rapid end-to-end design synthesis of RF/mm-Wave circuits and devices
  • Broadband and reconfigurable RF/mm-Wave III-V/Si circuit co-designs
  • Wide/multi-band mm-Wave antenna-in-package (AiP) for phased arrays

News

2025
April: Elected Affiliated Member, IEEE MTT-S TC-12

I was officially elected as an Affiliated Member of IEEE MTT-S TC-12 (Microwave High-Power Techniques Committee). [TC-12]

Mar: Selected as IEEE MTT-S Volunteer Spotlight

I was featured as the IEEE MTT-S Volunteer Spotlight in the March 2025 issue of the MTT-S newsletter. [Newsletter]

Mar: Presented at German Microwave Week, Dresden

I attended German Microwave Week 2025 in Dresden and presented our paper "Deep Learning-Assisted RFIC Design With Dual-Metal-Layer Passive Matching Networks: A 15–22 GHz CMOS PA for 6G in 22nm FDX+" at GeMiC 2025.

Feb: Paper accepted for IMS 2025 – AI-Assisted Multi-Layer On-chip Passives

Our paper "AI-Assisted Template-Seeded Pixelated Design for Multi-Metal-Layer High-Coupling EM Structures: A Ku-Band 6G FR3 PA in 22nm FDX+" was accepted for presentation at IEEE IMS 2025.

Jan: Attended IMS 2025 DPRC meetings, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Participated in the IMS 2025 TPRC meetings in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Jan: Presented at IEEE RWW 2025

Presented our latest work on "10-16 GHz High Efficiency Power Amplifier MMIC Using GaN HEMT for 6G Applications" IEEE Radio & Wireless Week (RWW 2025).

2024
Jun 18: I presented our conference paper at IMS 2024.

The paper is entitled "Transfer Learning Assisted Fast Design Migration Over Technology Nodes: A Study on Transformer Matching Network".

  • Proposed a methodology using transfer learning from a pre-trained source synthesis NN model to target domain for 1:1 on-chip transformer design.
  • Generated source (GF 45SOI) and target (GF 22FDX+) grid data at different frequencies and metal layers with different data densities.
  • Proved transfer learning can both accelerate the training process in the target domain and improve the R2 (R-squared) values of the models.
  • Demonstrated a notable reduction of 4X in the necessary dataset size when using transfer learning to mm-Wave passive network design.
  • Can accelerate design migrations across technology nodes to facilitate rapid time-to-market prototyping and productization.
2023
Jan 3: I started my postdoctoral journey in IDEAS Group at ETH Zurich.

I am excited to share that I started my postdoctoral program in the IDEAS Group at ETH Zurich. I am honored to work with Prof. Dr. Hua Wang and look forward to contributing to the field of AI for RFIC and III-V/Si circuit co-designs.

2022
Oct 14: I successfully defended my PhD.

I am thrilled to announce that I have successfully defended my PhD thesis at University College Dublin.

Teaching

Teaching Activities

Coordinator, ETH Master's course Radio-Frequency Electronics I (Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025)
Prepared course slides and notes, designed homework and final exams, managed grading.
Teaching Assistant, UCD course Digital Electronics: from gate to system (Fall 2018 – Fall 2022)
Guided students in digital electronics concepts, supported labs, graded assignments/reports.
Teaching Assistant, UCD course Robotics Design Project (Fall 2018 – Fall 2022)
Supervised student projects, supported labs, graded assignments, reports, and presentations.

Supervision and Mentoring of Graduate Students

Supervising 8 ETH Master’s students across 11 theses (Jan 2023 – Present) — GaAs MMIC designs, AI-assisted mm-Wave circuits, satellite communication modules.
2024
  • Jaquiéry MarcelMaster Student at ETH
    Semester Thesis (Fall): High-Performance GaAs Ku-Band LNA (10.7 – 12.75 GHz) Designs and Testing for Next-Generation Satellite Communications
  • Veselaj GentMaster Student at ETH
    Semester Thesis (Fall): Watt-Level GaAs Ku-Band PA (10.7 – 12.75 GHz) Designs and Testing for Next-Generation Satellite Communications
  • Zhuoran LiMaster Student at ETH
    Semester Thesis (Fall): Advanced GaAs V-Band PA (47.7 – 50.2 GHz) for Designs and Testing for Next-Generation Satellite Communications
  • John DornbiererMaster Student at ETH
    Semester Thesis (Spring): Power Amplifier Design for a UHF-to-S Band Linear Transponder in a CubeSat
2023
  • Filippo SveltoMaster Student at ETH (now Ph.D. Student in IDEAS Group, ETH)
    Semester Thesis (Spring): AI-Assisted Complex Load Mismatch Prediction by Mm-Wave Reconfigurable Doherty Power Amplifier
Supervised 1 Master’s and 1 Ph.D. student at UCD (Jan 2021 – Dec 2022) — high-efficiency and linearity-enhanced RF power amplifiers.
2022
  • Monjed Al-TarifMaster of Engineering Student at UCD
    Master Thesis (Spring, Fall): High Efficiency RF Power Amplifiers for 5G Wireless Communications
  • Yicun GuoPh.D. Student at UCD
    Project (Spring): High Efficiency Power Amplifier with Enhanced IMD3 Performance

Awards

IEEE T-MTT Most Popular and Downloaded Paper (2022-2023) Series,
"Broadband Sequential Load Modulated Balanced Amplifier With Extended Design Space Using Second Harmonic Manipulation" (LinkedIn post)
Oct 2024
IEEE T-MTT Most Popular and Downloaded Paper (2022-2023) Series,
"High Efficiency Class-iF⁻¹ Power Amplifier With Enhanced Linearity" (LinkedIn post)
Aug 2024
Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad (1 of 650 global awardees.)
Jul 2023
Best Student Paper Award (1st Place), 19th Royal Irish Academy/International Union of Radio Science (RIA/URSI) Research Colloquium on Radio Science & Communications
Oct 2022
First Place Award in both ACPR-FoM and EVM-FoM, IEEE MTT-S High Efficiency Power Amplifier Student Design Competition (HEPA-SDC), IEEE Radio & Wireless Week (RWW) 2022 (Competition page)
Jan 2022
Second Place Award, IEEE MTT-S 17th HEPA-SDC, International Microwave Symposium (IMS) 2021 (Competition page)
Oct 2021
Third Place Award, IEEE MTT-S 18th HEPA-SDC, IEEE IMS 2022
Jun 2022
Finalist, Student Paper Competition, IEEE RWW 2022
Jan 2022
Finalist, Three Minute Thesis Competition (3MT), IEEE IMS 2022
Jun 2022
Distinction, Master of Science in CityU
Oct 2017
IEEE MTT-S 2025 Volunteer Spotlight [Newsletter]
Mar 2025
IEEE MTT-S 2023 Ambassador
Apr 2023

Research Grants & Funded Projects

CMOS/GaN Combined Circuit Techniques
Project Leader, ETH Zurich | Jan 2023 – Present
Investigating advanced RF PA architectures integrating GaN and CMOS, leveraging AI-assisted template-seeded pixelated layout and deep learning techniques.
Progress: Two GaN MMIC tape-outs (delivered/published at IEEE RWW 2025), 6+ CMOS tape-outs (cm-/mm-Wave PAs, CMOS driver for GaN PAs; published at GeMiC 2025, IEEE IMS 2025).
5GMMPA: Digitally Linearized High Efficiency Millimeter-Wave Power Amplifiers for Next Gen High-Speed Wireless
Science Foundation Ireland | Main Researcher, UCD | Sep 2018 – Dec 2022
Developed advanced PA architectures (Class-iF⁻¹, S-LMBA, broadband GaN MMIC) for high-efficiency, high-linearity RF/microwave PAs.
Outcomes: 10+ papers in top journals/conferences (IEEE JSSC, T-MTT, IMS), 2 “Most Popular and Downloaded Papers” (IEEE T-MTT 2022–2023).
RFIC-TL: Transfer Learning Assisted Fast Design Migration Over Technology Nodes
ETH Zurich Internal | Project Leader | Nov 2023 – Present
Developed transfer-learning framework for rapid RFIC migration (45 nm RFSOI to 22 nm FDX+), reducing required dataset size by 4×.
Outcomes: Published at IEEE IMS 2024. Open-source platform for AI-for-RFIC (github.com/ETH-IDEAS/RFIC-TL).
Advanced High-Performance GaAs RF/mm-Wave Front-End IC Designs and Testing for Next-Gen SATCOM
ETH Zurich Internal | Project Leader | Sep 2024 – Present
Compact/highly integrated RF front-end ICs (PA, LNA) in 0.15-µm GaAs pHEMT for high-frequency SATCOM bands (Ku-/Ka-/Q-/V-bands).
Progress: Supervising 5 ETH master’s students. Preparing tape-outs with Win Semiconductors, measuring at E-/W-/D-band.

Experience

Working Experience
Postdoctoral Researcher
D-ITET, ETH Zurich
Zurich, Switzerland
January 2023 – Present · Zurich, Switzerland
AI for RFIC and III-V/Si Circuit Co-Designs in the Integrated Devices, Electronics, and Systems (IDEAS) Group with Prof. Hua Wang.
Ph.D. Researcher
University College Dublin
September 2018 – October 2022 · Dublin, Ireland
RF Power Amplification Techniques in UCD's RF & Microwave Research Group with Prof. Anding Zhu.
Research Assistant
October 2017 – August 2018 · Hong Kong, China
mm-Wave Antenna-in-Package for phased arrays at 28/39/60 GHz with Prof. Quan Xue.

Memberships In Societies And Scientific Reviewing Activities

Affiliated Member, IEEE MTT-S Technical Committee 12 on Microwave High Power Techniques Committee (TC-12)

Feb 2025 – Present

Technical Paper Review Committee (TPRC), IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IMS)

Oct 2024 – Present

TPRC Member, IEEE Radio Wireless Week (RWW)

July 2024 – Present

Vice-Chair, Electronic Information Committee (EICO), IEEE MTT-S

Jan 2025 – Present

Member, Electronic Information Committee, Inaugural 2024 World Microwave Congress (WMC2024)

May 2024

Member, IEEE, IEEE Young Professionals, MTT-S, AP-S, SSC-S

Aug 2018 – Present

Journal Reviewer

IEEE T-MTT, TCAS-I, TCAS-II, T-BioCAS, MWTL, AWPL, Microwave Magazine, Scientific Reports, Engineering, Micromachines, Results in Engineering, etc.

Aug 2018 – Present


Skills

Circuits and Systems

Design, layout, and simulation of RF integrated circuits using Cadence Virtuoso, Keysight ADS, Ansys HFSS, AutoCAD, and Cadence Microwave Office (AWR).

Programming

Python, LaTeX, MATLAB, LabVIEW.

Measurement Equipment

Vector network analyzer, PNA network analyzer, spectrum analyzer, power sensor/meter, signal generator, power supply, arbitrary waveform generator.

Device Packaging

PCB assembly, wire bonding, LPKF ProtoLaser machine.

Foundry Platforms and Tape-out Experience

CMOS: GlobalFoundries (GF) 22 nm FD-SOI, 45 nm SOI.
GaN: Win Semiconductors GaN NP12-01 (0.12 µm, 28 V), NP15-00 (0.15 µm, 28 V), NP25-00 (0.25 µm, 28 V), NP25-02 (0.25 µm, 28 V), Mitsubishi GaN (0.15 µm, 28 V), UMS-RF GH15 (0.15 µm HEMT, 20 V/25 V).
GaAs: Win Semiconductors 4V PQG3-0C, 6V PQG3-AF (0.15 µm E/D-pHEMT).
Others: High-density interconnect (HDI) PCB, low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC).

Languages

Mandarin (native), English (proficient), Cantonese (advanced), German (basic).

Publications

Journal Articles
1. Active and integrated electronic metadevices for future telecommunication circuits
Communications Engineering (Nature Portfolio), 4, 49 (2025).
Mahammed Samizadeh Nikoo, Chenhao Chu, Boce Lin, Yuqi Liu, Youngin Kim, Hua Wang
2. High Efficiency Class-iF⁻¹ Power Amplifier with Enhanced Linearity
IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 71, no. 5, pp. 1977-1989, May 2023. Most Popular and Downloaded Papers (2022-2023) Series. doi: 10.1109/TMTT.2022.3224132
Chenhao Chu, Vivek Tamrakar, Sagar K. Dhar, Tushar Sharma, Jayanta Mukherjee, Anding Zhu
3. Broadband Sequential Load Modulated Balanced Amplifier With Extended Design Space Using Second Harmonic Manipulation
IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 71, no. 5, pp. 1990-2003, May 2023. Most Popular and Downloaded Papers (2022-2023) Series. doi: 10.1109/TMTT.2022.3226440
Chenhao Chu, Jingzhou Pang, Ramzi Darraji, Sagar K. Dhar, Tushar Sharma, Anding Zhu
4. Waveform Engineered Sequential Load Modulated Balanced Amplifier With Continuous Class-iF⁻¹ and Class-J Operation
IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 70, no. 2, pp. 1269-1283, Feb. 2022, doi: 10.1109/TMTT.2021.3123678
Chenhao Chu, Tushar Sharma, Sagar K. Dhar, Ramzi Darraji, Xiaoyu Wang, Jingzhou Pang, Anding Zhu
5. Young Professionals’ Experience During High Efficiency Power Amplifier Student Design Competition [Young Professionals]
IEEE Microwave Magazine, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 85-88, March 2023, doi: 10.1109/MMM.2022.3226552
Chenhao Chu, Sagar K. Dhar, Xinyu Zhou
6. Broadband GaN MMIC Doherty Power Amplifier Using Continuous-Mode Combining for 5G Sub-6 GHz Applications
IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 57, no. 7, pp. 2143-2154, July 2022, doi: 10.1109/JSSC.2022.3145349
Jingzhou Pang, Chenhao Chu, Jiayan Wu, Zhijiang Dai, Mingyu Li, Songbai He, Anding Zhu
7. Broadband RF-Input Continuous-Mode Load-Modulated Balanced Power Amplifier With Input Phase Adjustment
IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 68, no. 10, pp. 4466-4478, Oct. 2020, doi: 10.1109/TMTT.2020.3012141
Jingzhou Pang, Chenhao Chu, Yue Li, Anding Zhu
8. A Compact Doubly Neutralized Ku Band Power Amplifier with 39% Peak PAE and 23 dBm Output Power in 22FDX+ EDMOS for 6G FR3
In press, IEEE Microwave and Wireless Technology Letters.
Jinglong Xu, Mohamed Eleraky, Tzu-Yuan Huang, Chenhao Chu, Hua Wang
9. Linearization Angle Widened Digital Predistortion for 5G MIMO Beamforming Transmitters
IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 69, no. 11, pp. 5008-5020, Nov. 2021, doi: 10.1109/TMTT.2021.3098600
Qing Luo, Xiao-Wei Zhu, Chao Yu, Dan-Dan Teng, Xiaoyu Wang, Chenhao Chu, Wei Hong, Anding Zhu
10. Low-Profile Wideband and High-Gain LTCC Patch Antenna Array for 60 GHz Applications
IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 68, no. 4, pp. 3237-3242, April 2020, doi: 10.1109/TAP.2019.2949913
Jianfeng Zhu, Yang Yang, Chenhao Chu, Shufang Li, Shaowei Liao, Quan Xue
11. mm-Wave High Gain Cavity-Backed Aperture-Coupled Patch Antenna Array
IEEE Access, vol. 6, pp. 44050-44058, 2018, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2859835
Jianfeng Zhu, Chenhao Chu, Li Deng, Chen Zhang, Yang Yang, Shufang Li

Conference Papers
1. AI-Assisted Template-Seeded Pixelated Design for Multi-Metal-Layer High-Coupling EM Structures: A Ku-Band 6G FR3 PA in 22nm FDX+
Accepted, 2025 IEEE/MTT-S International Microwave Symposium – IMS 2025
Chenhao Chu, Jinglong Xu, Yuqi Liu, Jianping Zeng, Adam Wang, Takuma Torii, Shintaro Shinjo, Koji Yamanaka, Hua Wang
2. Deep Learning-Assisted RFIC Design With Dual-Metal-Layer Passive Matching Networks: A 15–22 GHz CMOS PA for 6G in 22nm FDX+
16th German Microwave Conference (GeMiC), Dresden, Germany, 2025, pp. 76-79
Chenhao Chu, Edward Liu, Yuqi Liu, Mohamed Eleraky, Basem Abdelaziz, Mohsen Ghorbanpoor, Tong Huang, Ang Wang, Hua Wang
3. 10–16 GHz High Efficiency Power Amplifier MMIC Using GaN HEMT for 6G Applications
2025 IEEE Topical Conference on RF/Microwave Power Amplifiers for Radio and Wireless Applications (PAWR), San Juan, PR, USA, 2025, pp. 33–36
Chenhao Chu, Takuma Torii, Shuji Shinjo, Koji Yamanaka, Hua Wang
4. Transfer Learning Assisted Fast Design Migration Over Technology Nodes: A Study on Transformer Matching Network
2024 IEEE/MTT-S International Microwave Symposium - IMS 2024, Washington, DC, USA, 2024, pp. 188–191
Chenhao Chu, Yuhao Mao, Hua Wang
5. Investigation of Input Nonlinearity in Sequential Load Modulated Balanced Amplifiers
2022 IEEE/MTT-S International Microwave Symposium - IMS 2022, Denver, CO, USA, 2022, pp. 414–417
Chenhao Chu, Tushar Sharma, Sagar K. Dhar, Ramzi Darraji, Anding Zhu
6. Phase Compensated Sequential Load Modulated Balanced Amplifier Using Harmonically Tuned Control Amplifier
2021 51st European Microwave Conference (EuMC), 2022, pp. 346–349
Chenhao Chu, Tushar Sharma, Sagar K. Dhar, Ramzi Darraji, Jingzhou Pang, Anding Zhu
7. Class-iF⁻¹: Linearity Enhanced High Efficiency Power Amplifier
2022 IEEE Topical Conference on RF/Microwave Power Amplifiers for Radio and Wireless Applications (PAWR), 2022, pp. 39–41
Chenhao Chu, Sagar K. Dhar, Tushar Sharma, Anding Zhu
8. Dual-Polarized Substrate-Integrated-Waveguide Cavity-Backed Monopulse Antenna Array for 5G Millimeter-Wave Applications
2019 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Conference on Hardware and Systems for 5G and Beyond (IMC-5G), 2019, pp. 1–3
Chenhao Chu, Jianfeng Zhu, Shufang Li, Quan Xue, Anding Zhu
9. AI-Assisted Complex Load Mismatch Prediction by Mm-Wave Reconfigurable Doherty Power Amplifier and Input/Output Power Sensors
16th German Microwave Conference (GeMiC), Dresden, Germany, 2025, pp. 475–478
Filippo Svelto, Chenhao Chu, Edward Liu, Hua Wang
10. A Metasurface-Loaded ±80°-Scanning Phased Array Antenna with Active VSWR ≤ 2 for SATCOM Applications
In press, 2025 19th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP2025)
Jianping Zeng, Chenhao Chu, Tzu-Yuan Huang, Hua Wang
11. High-Efficiency Wideband GaN Power Amplifier MMICs for 6G and SATCOM
Invited paper, 2025 IEEE International Symposium on Radio-Frequency Integration Technology (RFIT), Kagoshima, Japan, 2025
Takuma Torii, Shintaro Shinjo, Chenhao Chu, Hua Wang
12. Efficiency and Linearity Enhanced Three Way Doherty Power Amplifier with Digital Adaptive Bias Control
2024 IEEE Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC), Bali, Indonesia, 2024, pp. 184–186
Takuma Torii, Akihito Hirai, Shintaro Shinjo, Koji Yamanaka, Chenhao Chu, Hua Wang
13. A Compact Doubly Neutralized Ku Band Power Amplifier with 39% Peak PAE and 23 dBm Output Power in 22FDX+ EDMOS for 6G FR3
Accepted, 2025 IEEE/MTT-S International Microwave Symposium – IMS 2025
Jinglong Xu, Mohamed Eleraky, Tzu-Yuan Huang, Chenhao Chu, Hua Wang
14. An Ultra-Compact Ku-Band Doherty Power Amplifier with a Single-Footprint Triple Two-Turn Asymmetric Doherty Combiner for 6G FR3
Accepted, 2025 European Microwave Integrated Circuit – EuMIC 2025
Jinglong Xu, Edward Liu, Mohamed Eleraky, Tzu-Yuan Huang, Chenhao Chu, Hua Wang
15. 28/38 GHz Dual-band Dual-polarized Highly Isolated Antenna for 5G Phased Array Applications
2019 IEEE MTT-S International Wireless Symposium (IWS), 2019, pp. 1–3
Chenhao Chu, Jianfeng Zhu, Shufang Li, Anding Zhu, Quan Xue
16. Extend High Efficiency Range of Doherty Power Amplifier by Modifying Characteristic Impedance of Transmission Lines in Load Modulation Network
2020 IEEE/MTT-S International Microwave Symposium (IMS), 2020, pp. 707–710
Jingzhou Pang, Yue Li, Chenhao Chu, Jun Peng, Xin Yu Zhou, Anding Zhu
17. Accelerating Model Adaptation of Multi-Metric Digital Predistortion for RF Power Amplifiers Using Composited Quadratic Loss Function
2022 52nd European Microwave Conference (EuMC), Milan, Italy, 2022, pp. 345–348
Hang Yin, Chenhao Chu, Anding Zhu
18. Mm-Wave High Gain Substrate Integrated Cavity Excited Patch Antenna Array
2018 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC), 2018, pp. 591–593
Jianfeng Zhu, Chenhao Chu, Li Deng, Yang Yang, Shufang Li
19. 60-GHz High Gain Planar Aperture Antenna Using Low-Temperature Cofired Ceramics (LTCC) Technology
2019 IEEE MTT-S International Wireless Symposium (IWS), Guangzhou, China, 2019, pp. 1–3
Jianfeng Zhu, Yang Yang, Chenhao Chu, Shufang Li, Shaowei Liao, Quan Xue
20. Mm-Wave Low-Profile Wideband Antenna Array Using Low-temperature Co-fired Ceramics (LTCC) Technique
2019 International Conference on Microwave and Millimeter Wave Technology (ICMMT), Guangzhou, China, 2019, pp. 1–2
Jianfeng Zhu, Yang Yang, Chenhao Chu, Shufang Li, Shaowei Liao, Quan Xue

Survey
Power Amplifiers Performance Survey 2000-Present
Hua Wang, Mohamed Eleraky, Basem Abdelaziz, Bryan Lin, Edward Liu, Yuqi Liu, Mohsen Ghorbanpoor, Chenhao Chu, Andrea Ruffino et al.

Copyright © Chenhao Chu. Updated Aug 2024.