II-New: Infrastructure for THz Computing and Signal Processing Organization

在电磁频谱中，太赫兹（THz）频域，范围从300千兆赫到10太赫兹，由于缺乏使能的电子和光子技术，在计算、通信和信号处理方面仍然难以捉摸、不发达和未充分利用。实现太赫兹通信和信号处理在电气和计算机工程中提出了一个长期的，尚未解决的巨大挑战，需要协调和持续的努力来发现太赫兹技术可以带来的机会。太赫兹无线和信号处理有望改变家庭、商业和诊所中便携式设备的性能；在不可能实现有线连接的基础设施部署中，提高可实现的数据速率；增强甚至取代数据中心昂贵的交换基础设施。为了实现这种变革性的工程系统，该项目将建立一个机构基础设施，以促进计算机科学、电气工程、医学和生物学的跨学科研究。拟议的太赫兹信号处理基础设施有望刺激许多横切实验研究。该项目的研究人员一直在进行太赫兹技术的尖端实验研究，从电磁（EM）频谱的电子和光学两端推动设备速度的边缘。具体来说，CRI拨款购买的设备将用于测试(i)新兴的太赫兹光子器件，以及（ii）使用GaN， SiGe和石墨烯等新材料的电子技术。此外，该设备将用于（iii）硫族化物和过渡金属材料（TMD）中超高速传输现象的实验表征，以及（iv）研究数据中心环境中特定应用的太赫兹网络的链路层和网络层协议。一方面，该项目将通过构建超高速EM数字逻辑和模数转换器来展示太赫兹光子学技术。另一方面，使能电子技术将产生亚毫米垂直和水平极化波束导向相位天线，工作在亚太赫兹波段和320 GHz锁相发射机，其转换效率超过最先进的硅太赫兹散热器。在计算机系统层面，将探索太赫兹信道与传统电子和光子互连的集成，以将数据通信速率提高到100 Gbps甚至更高。该设备还将允许研究人员研究材料激发的超快传输动力学及其与太赫兹电磁场的相互作用。最后，这些设备将用于研究和教育的整合，以培养未来的工程劳动力，这些劳动力来自美国社会的广泛领域，包括少数民族和女学生。通过利用NSF赞助的nanoHub存储库，从新的太赫兹工程课程中开发的教学材料将传播给研究社区和实践工程师。

In the electromagnetics spectrum, the terahertz (THz) frequency domain, ranging from 300 Gigahertz to 10THz, has remained elusive, underdeveloped, and underexploited for computing, communications, and signal processing due to a lack of enabling electronic and photonic technologies. Achieving THz communication and signal processing has posed a long-lasting, unresolved grand challenge in electrical and computer engineering that merits concerted and sustained endeavors to discover the opportunities THz technology can bring. THz wireless and signal processing hold the promise to transform the capability of portable devices in the home, in business, and in the clinic; to amplify achievable data rates in infrastructure deployments where wired connections are impossible; and to augment or even supplant expensive switching infrastructure in the data center. To realize such transformative engineered systems, this project will establish an institutional infrastructure to foster interdisciplinary research in computer science, electrical engineering, medicine and biology. The proposed infrastructure for THz signal processing is expected to spur numerous crosscutting experimental investigations.The investigators of this project have been conducting cutting-edge experimental research in terahertz technology by pushing the edge of device speed from both electronics and optics ends of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. Specifically, the equipment purchased with the CRI grant will be used in testing (i) emerging terahertz photonic devices, and (ii) enabling electronic technologies using newer materials such as GaN, SiGe and grapheme. Further, the equipment will be utilized in (iii) experimental characterization of ultra-fast transport phenomena in chalcogenide and transition metal materials (TMD), and (iv) investigation into link-layer and network-layer protocols for THz networking with specific applications in a datacenter environment. On one hand, the project will showcase the terahertz photonics technology by building the ultra-fast EM digital logic and analog-to-digital converter. On the other hand, the enabling electronic technology will engender sub-millimeter vertically and horizontally polarized beam-steering phase antennas operating in the sub-THz band and a 320 GHz phase-locked transmitter with conversion efficiency exceeding the state-of-the-art silicon THz radiators. At the computer system level, exploration into integration of THz channels with conventional electrical and photonic interconnects will be made to boost data communication rates to 100 Gbps and beyond. The equipment will also allow the investigators to study the ultrafast transport dynamics of material excitations and their interaction with the THz electromagnetic field. Finally, the equipment will be utilized in integration of research and education with a view to training future engineering workforce pulled in from a broad swath of the American society including minority and female students. Didactic materials developed from new engineering courses on terahertz will be disseminated to research communities and practicing engineers by leveraging the NSF sponsored nanoHub repository.