GOALI: Transparent Beam Steering Antennas Enabled by Graphene Quantum Capacitance Varactors

GOALI：由石墨烯量子电容变容二极管实现的透明波束控制天线

• 批准号: 1708275
• 负责人: Steven Koester
• 金额: $ 33万
• 依托单位: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-09-01 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1708275&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: GOALI; Transparent; Beam; Steering; Antennas

The project intends to create a revolutionary transparent beam-steering antenna technology for use in self-driving vehicles. The project utilizes the artificial impedance surface antenna which is ideally suited for integration into automobile window glass due to its low cost and simple design. The key innovation is to utilize the nanomaterial graphene to create a variable capacitance tuning element that can be integrated directly onto the antenna to enable beam steering while maintaining high performance and transparency. This work will lead to a new fundamental understanding of both the performance limits of graphene varactors as well as the novel antenna design and operation. It will provide new understanding of the frequency limits of graphene devices, and could open the door to new design concepts for transparent, steerable antennas. The project will also advance a technology of vital national importance that has the potential to minimize traffic-related deaths, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enable unprecedented mobility for vision-impaired individuals, reduce traffic congestion, and improve business productivity. The project will also provide an ideal platform for outreach activities, with the industrial interaction providing a natural means to educate graduate students on the automotive applications of millimeter-wave components. This program will also aid in the incorporation of graphene into the undergraduate electrical engineering curriculum at Minnesota, and provides an excellent example of a cross-disciplinary problem, incorporating aspects of solid-state devices and electromagnetism. In addition, K-12 educational programs will be developed that include graphene-based hands-on activities as well as information about self-driving vehicles and automobile safety.This project will explore the creation of a transformative technology where graphene variable capacitors (varactors) are directly integrated onto artificial impedance surfaces to enable beam steering antennas operating at millimeter-wave frequencies. The project integrates two technologies that, to date, had not been previously combined: (1) artificial impedance surface antennas which have great potential for low cost and beam steering capabilities due to their simple design and (2) graphene varactors, which provide an elegant method to incorporate tuning elements for beam steering and are also transparent. The research scope and methods include the following aspects. A new fabrication process for short-channel-length graphene varactors will be developed to enable high-speed operation at millimeter-wave frequencies. A process will also be developed to monolithically integrate graphene varactors with artificial impedance surface antennas to create steerable antennas. Finally, transparent antennas will be fabricated and characterized using a metal meshing strategy and their performance will be compared to opaque antennas. The intellectual significance of this project is that it will lead to a fundamental understanding of high-speed graphene device and antenna technology. It will explore the performance limits of graphene varactors at millimeter-wave frequencies, and advance the technology with wider tuning range, higher quality factor, and improved uniformity. A new integrated platform for beam steering antennas at millimeter-wave frequencies will be created, with the potential for enhanced performance compared to conventional approaches and a path toward practical implementation in autonomous vehicles.

该项目旨在创造一种革命性的透明波束控制天线技术，用于自动驾驶汽车。该项目采用了人工阻抗表面天线，由于其成本低、设计简单，非常适合集成到汽车窗户玻璃中。关键的创新是利用纳米材料石墨烯来创建可直接集成到天线上的可变电容调谐元件，以便在保持高性能和透明度的同时实现波束控制。这项工作将使人们对石墨烯变容二极管的性能极限以及新型天线的设计和操作有一个新的基本认识。它将为石墨烯设备的频率限制提供新的理解，并可能为透明、可操纵的天线的新设计概念打开大门。该项目还将推进一项具有至关重要的国家重要性的技术，该技术有可能将与交通相关的死亡人数降至最低，减少温室气体排放，使视力受损的人能够前所未有地移动，减少交通拥堵，并提高企业生产率。该项目还将为外展活动提供一个理想的平台，行业互动为研究生提供了一种自然的手段，让他们了解毫米波组件在汽车上的应用。该项目还将帮助将石墨烯纳入明尼苏达州的本科电气工程课程，并提供了一个融合了固态设备和电磁学方面的跨学科问题的极好例子。此外，还将开发K-12教育项目，包括基于石墨烯的动手活动以及关于自动驾驶车辆和汽车安全的信息。该项目将探索创造一种变革性技术，将石墨烯可变电容器(变容二极管)直接集成到人造阻抗表面，使波束定向天线能够在毫米波频率下工作。该项目集成了两项以前从未结合过的技术：(1)人工阻抗表面天线，由于其简单的设计，具有极大的低成本和波束引导能力潜力；(2)石墨烯变容二极管，它提供了一种巧妙的方法来整合波束引导的调谐元件，并且也是透明的。本文的研究范围和方法包括以下几个方面。将开发一种新的短沟道长度石墨烯变容二极管的制造工艺，使其能够在毫米波频率下高速运行。还将开发一种工艺，将石墨烯变容二极管与人工阻抗表面天线单片集成，以创建可操纵的天线。最后，采用金属网格化方法制作透明天线，并与不透明天线进行性能比较。该项目的智力意义在于，它将使人们对高速石墨烯器件和天线技术有一个基本的了解。它将探索石墨烯变容二极管在毫米波频率下的性能极限，并以更宽的调谐范围、更高的品质因数和改善的均匀性来推进这一技术。将创建一个新的毫米波频率波束定向天线的集成平台，与传统方法相比，具有增强性能的潜力，并为自动驾驶汽车的实际实施开辟了一条道路。

项目成果

Backgated Graphene Varactors With Quality Factor–Frequency Product Above 300 GHz

品质因数超过 300 GHz 的背栅石墨烯变容二极管

• DOI: 10.1109/led.2022.3159491
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: IEEE Electron Device Letters
• 影响因子: 4.9
• 作者: Wen, Jiaxuan;Chaganti, V. R.;Koester, Steven J.
• 通讯作者: Koester, Steven J.