About Electrical and Electronic Engineering, PhD - at Newcastle University

The School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering offers postgraduate research degrees at PhD level in all of our major research areas. You are encouraged to view our research group expertise for details of our research areas and opportunities to develop research in a chosen subject.

Our research groups cover four areas of expertise:

Nanomaterials and electronics

Our research in this area includes:

• strained Si technology for high-speed low-power integrated circuits
• SiC for high-temperature, high-power electronics
• reliability of interconnects
• high-k dielectrics and developing novel electrical characterisation
• ferroelectric materials for tunable capacitance and integration with silicon technology
• biomedical devices
• sensors and electronics for hostile environments
• Si-based photovoltaics
• nm scale material characterisation
• diffusion in semiconductors
• Atomic Layer Deposition
• device fabrication
• technology CAD
• molecular electronics
• integrative systems and applications
• first-principles simulation of defects in semiconductors
• theoretical modelling of the properties of materials

The group has many international collaborative research programmes and has been successful in placing PhD students at other world-leading research laboratories for periods of three to nine months, including IMEC and SEMATECH.

Microelectronic system design

Our research in this area includes:

• asynchronous systems design and test
• design automation, synthesis and verification
• concurrent systems modelling and implementation
• metastability modelling and characterisation
• on-chip synchronisation
• dynamical systems methods in IC design
• networks-on-chip
• wireless sensor design
• secure IC design
• logarithmic scale computing
• self-timed FPGAs
• variability analysis and variation-tolerant IC design
• power scavenging and power elastic computing
• fault tolerant systems
• design for testability and testing
• biomedical interface electronics
• optical-electronic interface
• 3D stacked IC design

The group has international leadership in asynchronous systems design and a successful track record of research collaboration with industry. This includes multinational microelectronics giants, EDA start-ups, and world leading laboratories such as IMEC, where the group's students have three to nine month placements. All students have access to Europractice CAD tool training and chip fabrication facilities.

Power electronics, drives and machines

The group's activity is principally directed in the renewable energy, aerospace, automotive and consumer product sectors. All aspects of power electronics and drive systems are covered including:

• stand-alone and grid-connected converters for renewable generation
• fault-tolerant machines and drives
• ultra high-speed machines/low cost drives
• exploitation of insulated, compacted iron-powder for novel and improved performance machines
• novel power converter topologies and thermal management
• novel energy storage systems
• sensors and drive controllers for safety-critical applications
• power semiconductors
• drive configurations
• advanced nonlinear modelling, control and optimisation strategies and applications

The group is recognised as one of the leading European research groups in this sector, working in areas from 'blue sky' research to product applications. Projects may involve one or more of the following themes: electrical machines, power electronics or control engineering.

Communications and Signal Processing (CSP)

Major research themes in the group fall into the following areas:

• Communications and networks
• Signal processing and applications
• Sensor systems and applications
• Biometrics and biomedical engineering

The group has an excellent track record for attracting overseas researchers and international visitors, with rich national and international collaborative research programmes. We are active in world-class multidisciplinary research, balancing technology-driven and application-driven research.

Delivery

Postgraduate induction

Both the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering (SAgE) run induction programmes for new postgraduates during the first few weeks of the academic year. The School induction programme takes place during Induction Week commencing with a general introductory talk, a tour of the School and a postgraduate reception. This event is open to all postgraduates and your supervisors and is intended to be an opportunity to meet fellow students and staff.

Postgraduate Annual Research Conference (ARC)

The postgraduate research conference is an annual event run by the School. It aims to:

• allow all postgraduates to become familiar with research projects in the School
• give all postgraduates experience of giving technical presentations
• produce a regular summary of the postgraduate research carried out in the School
• give experience of writing paper and poster presentations in a typical conference and journal format

The conference forms part of progression through the programme and training credits will be given. All postgraduate researchers must give a presentation or a poster. The presentation is assessed and confidential feedback given, covering both presentation skills and technical content.

International conferences

You submit a technical paper to an international conference in the second year of your studies. Where possible, you will attend the conference and present the paper. Your supervisors will give guidance on appropriate conferences and on paper preparation.

Journal papers

You are encouraged to submit one or more journal papers before the end of your studies. The most highly regarded journals are managed by professional institutions such as the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and the Institute of Physics (IOP). These journals should form your main targets. Further details of the journal publications most suited to your area of research are available from your supervisors.

Data based on responses from 140 UK, EU and International postgraduate leavers (2011/12, 2012/13) studying in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. See more about what our graduates do.

Facilities

All four research groups carry out pioneering fundamental and applied research using specialist equipment housed in a purpose-built research laboratory. We regularly invest in updating our equipment in order to maintain a world-class facility.

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Entry requirements for this course

Contact Newcastle University to find course entry requirements.

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