Arogyaswami J. Paulraj

Biography

Arogyaswami J. Paulraj’s development of multiple input-multiple output (MIMO) antenna technology for wireless communications has revolutionized both local area and mobile broadband communications, enabling high-speed access to multimedia services. Employing multiple antennas at both the transmit and the receive stations, the success of MIMO is its ability to provide both higher data rates and wider coverage areas. Dr. Paulraj first developed the idea of MIMO in 1992 while at Stanford University. Using the spatial multiplexing concept that exploits MIMO antennas, he demonstrated that spectral efficiency could be improved by transmitting independent data streams from each transmit antenna and then exploiting the distinct spatial signatures of each stream at the receive antennas to separate them. He was issued a patent for the MIMO concept in 1994, but he faced skepticism from industry and funding sources. However, he persisted and held annual workshops at Stanford on the technology that eventually helped interest in MIMO take hold in the late 1990s. Dr. Paulraj founded Iospan Wireless Inc. in 1998 as the first company to incorporate MIMO technology in a commercial system. The lessons learned at Iospan gave the wireless industry confidence to incorporate MIMO into emerging wireless standards. Iospan’s technology underpins today’s 4G wireless systems. Intel Corp. acquired part of Iospan in 2003 to help launch its own push into wireless broadband, further establishing the importance of Dr. Paulraj’s MIMO concept.

Dr. Paulraj is an IEEE Fellow, and in 2013 was awarded the Alexander Graham Bell Medal by the institute “For pioneering contributions to the application of multiantenna technology to wireless communication systems.” He is a Professor Emeritus at Stanford University, Calif. and a senior advisor to Broadcom Corp., Irvine, Calif.