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

在电磁频谱中，从300千兆赫到10太赫兹的太赫兹(THz)频域仍然难以捉摸，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、不发达和未得到充分利用。实现太赫兹通信和信号处理在电气和计算机工程领域提出了一个长期的、尚未解决的重大挑战，值得我们共同和持续地努力发现太赫兹技术所能带来的机遇。THz无线和信号处理有望改变家庭、企业和诊所中便携设备的功能；在无法实现有线连接的基础设施部署中提高可实现的数据速率；以及增加甚至取代数据中心中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推动大量交叉实验研究。该项目的研究人员一直在通过从电磁(EM)频谱的电子和光学两端推动器件速度的边缘来进行太赫兹技术的前沿实验研究。具体地说，用CRI赠款购买的设备将用于测试(I)新兴的太赫兹光子设备，以及(Ii)使用GaN、SiGe和石墨烯等较新材料的电子技术。此外，该设备将被用于(Iii)硫化物和过渡金属材料(TMD)中超快传输现象的实验表征，以及(Iv)在数据中心环境中结合具体应用研究太赫兹联网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工作在亚太赫兹频段的垂直和水平极化波束控制相位天线和320 GHz锁相发射机，其转换效率超过最先进的硅太赫兹辐射器。在计算机系统层面，将探索将太赫兹通道与传统的电气和光子互连相结合，以将数据通信速率提高到100Gbps或更高。该设备还将使研究人员能够研究物质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，以期培养来自美国社会广泛领域的未来工程劳动力，包括少数族裔和女性学生。从新的太赫兹工程课程开发的教学材料将通过利用NSF赞助的NanHub储存库传播给研究社区和执业工程师。

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.