To all full-time University Students:  

All eligible students or student teams are invited to consider taking part in the Student Design Competitions (SDC) during the 2016 International Microwave Symposium (IMS2016) week in San Francisco, CA, USA.  The SDC is one of the most exciting part of the microwave symposium.  This is the only IMS event that students get to put theories into real hardware and software designs. 

Click here to download the Student Design Competition Information

Click here to download the instruction for application submission

Click here to download the competition table layout

Design Competition Topics:  Design details can be download from below links.

1. 1. 1. Computer-aided design of microwave passive circuits using novel optimization algorithms
      2. BAW Based PA Duplexer Module
      3. High Efficiency Power Amplifier Student Design Competition
      4. Statistical 5G Mobile Com Receiver Module
      5. Microwave Photonic Link Receiver
      6. Packaged Substrate Integrated Waveguide Ultra-Wideband (SIW-UWB) Filter
      7. Power Amplifier Linearization through Digital Pre-distortion (DPD)
      8. Wideband Baluns
      9. Switchable RF-MEMS filter
      10. Low Phase Noise 100 MHz Crystal Oscillator
      11. UHF RFID Tag Performance
      12. Apps for Radio-Frequency Nanotechnology
      13. Wireless Energy Harvesting (WEH) 

Students interested to participate in the Student Design Competition are encouraged to contact the organizers in each topic directly. A submission site is set up for students to sign-up for the competition. Please refer to the "Click here to download the instruction for application submission". The submission deadline is March 20th, 2016.

All student design competitions will take place on Tuesday, May 24, 2016, with the competition winners recognized at the Student Awards Luncheon on Thursday, May 26, 2016. Student competitors should be aware that the IMS will not assist participants in getting necessary equipment or designed circuits/systems into the United States.

General Rules and Requirements:

a) There may be between 1 and 4 people working together on a project.

b) You and any team partners must be full-time students while you are working on the project.

c) At least one of you must register for IMS2015 and attend. One or more of you will be standing with your project and answering questions while it is being tested/judged on Tuesday.

d) You must notify the student design competition organizers a week before the date of the judging if you need to withdraw from the competition or will not be able to participate in person. Failure to participate in person may prevent you from being accepted for future participation.

e) Your professors and advisors must certify that this is your work, not theirs.

f) You may only enter one project. It may be either an entry in one of the Student Design Competitions or a separate live Student Design Demonstration.

g) You must submit a demonstration or competition application form along with the form from your professor or advisor absolutely no later than March 20th, 2016. You are encouraged to contact the coordinators of the competition of your interest to ensure a full understanding of the design specifications and judging criteria before your submission.

h) Travel visas and possibly shipping of your project equipment are your responsibility.

Student Design Competitions are sponsored by the 27 Technical Committees of the MTT. Each committee has been given $2000 in prize money if they choose to sponsor a competition in their technical area. Not all technical committees participate in the competition every year. Each will make their own rules for the competitions that they sponsor.

Contact Information: Please submit any suggestions or questions via e-mail to,

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