Functional Integrated Phononic Crystal Structures for Wireless Applications

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助的。这项研究的目标是利用声子晶体开发功能集成的无线结构。为了实现这一目标，计划在声子晶体中进行理论和实验相结合的工作，包括以下高级研究任务：1)开发PC平板中具有完全色散和模式工程可能性的低损耗、高质量的基本组件(波导和腔)，2)开发用于PC波导和腔中的色散工程的系统方法，并将这些设备组合以形成功能集成的无线结构，3)开发一种用于在最先进的无线频率范围内运行的PC结构的最佳工艺。声学晶体结构有望成为无线系统的片上信号调理和处理的一种变革性技术。这项技术可能为超小型单芯片光谱分析仪等新系统铺平道路。它还有望创建自适应滤波器，以便为不同的协议和不同的频段重新配置无线电。这将为灵活无线电奠定基础，这种无线电在某种程度上类似于微处理器。此外，所提出的声子晶体结构可用于声波的几种应用(例如，生物和化学传感)。这项拟议的研究为社会提供了重大的教育利益。两名博士生和几名本科生(特别是暑期本科工程/科学研究(SURE)项目中未被充分代表的少数族裔学生)将在多学科环境中接受培训。它还为一名高中生和一名高中教师提供暑期研究。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The objective of this research is to develop functional integrated wireless structures using phononic crystals. To achieve this goal, a combined theoretical and experimental effort in phononic crystals including the following high-level research tasks is planned: 1) the development of low-loss, high quality fundamental components (waveguides and cavities) in PC slabs with the possibility of full dispersion and mode engineering, 2) the development of a systematic method for dispersion engineering in PC waveguides and cavities and combining these devices to form functional integrated wireless structures, and 3) the development of an optimum procedure for fabricating PC structures for operation in the state-of-the-art wireless frequency range.Phononic crystal structures have the prospect of being a transformational technology for on-chip signal conditioning and processing for wireless systems. This technology could pave the way towards new systems such as ultra-compact single-chip spectral analyzers. It also has the prospect of creating adaptive filters for reconfiguring the radio for different protocols as well as different bands. This would lay the foundation for flexible radio which would be somewhat analogous to the microprocessor. In addition, the proposed phononic crystal structures can be employed in several applications of acoustic waves (e.g., biological and chemical sensing). The proposed research provides significant educational benefits for the society. Two Ph.D. students and several undergraduate students (especially underrepresented minority students through the summer undergraduate research in engineering/science (SURE) program) will be trained in a multi-disciplinary environment. It also provides summer research for one high school student and one high school teacher.