EAGER: SAPPHIRE BASED INTEGRATED MICROWAVE PHOTONICS

EAGER：基于蓝宝石的集成微波光子学

• 批准号: 1745143
• 负责人: Samir El-Ghazaly
• 金额: $ 25.09万
• 依托单位: University of Arkansas
• 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 2021-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1745143&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; SAPPHIRE; BASED; INTEGRATED; MICROWAVE

Microwave photonics refers to a field that utilizes light as carrier to process high frequency electrical signals. It has shown great success in both defense and civilian applications. The future applications of microwave photonics demand a dramatic improve in performance while, in the same time, electronic devices should have more favorable features such as small size, lightweight, and low-power consumption. This project proposes to develop a new "Integrated Microwave Photonics chip" which could potentially integrate several functions of microwave photonic components on a single chip and also offer reduced size-weight-and-power at a very low cost. If successful, the developed technology would find tremendous applications in defense systems, such as Radar, and many civilian applications, such as cell phones, sensing, and datacom. The proposed research activities provide comprehensive training for graduate students in the areas of integrated photonics; semiconductor device design, simulation, fabrication, and characterization; as well as in preparation, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of scientific data and results. The project will be used to recruit undergraduate honor students who may use certain aspects of this research for their thesis. A strong interaction plan with a local Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Minority Institution has been formed to inspire underrepresented minority students to participate research.Integrated Microwave Photonics (IMWP) incorporates the functions of microwave-photonic components/subsystems in a monolithic or hybrid photonic chip, which offers reduced size-weight-and-power at a very low cost. This project proposes to utilize R-plane sapphire as a transformative, high-performance and self-consistent IMWP platform which provides a feasible approach for realizing fully-integrated MWP systems. The proposed approach enables the integration of complete sets of microwave and optical components such as light sources, analog and digital signal processing circuits, light detectors, control circuits, and Silicon on Sapphire (SOS) radio-frequency (RF) circuits all-in-one sapphire platform to achieve high-performance and low-cost mixed-signal optical links. Sapphire has a lower refractive index with an index difference of 0.3 with Si3N4. Therefore, it could leverage the mature Si3N4 low-loss waveguide technology to produce similar low-loss waveguide-based passive components by drop-in replacing quartz wafers with sapphire wafers. For RF applications, the sapphire platform has a potential to obtain much higher dynamic range due to low-loss optical waveguides while the competing Si-photonics platform combined with off-chip 1.55 micron laser suffers from the strong two-photon absorption and therefore has a limited dynamic range. As a transparent substrate, sapphire would enable a versatile 3-D photonics/electronics integration architecture. This project aims to, first, study the "feasibility" of the proposed approach by identifying and investigating key "fundamental challenges", then, conduct a proof-of-concept study to provide an effective route for overcoming the identified obstacles, and, eventually, provide a conclusive recommendation as to whether the proposed research is feasible. As a fully integrated solution to fundamentally address the most important technical challenge in IMWP, if successful, the new platform would find tremendous applications in defense systems, such as Radar signal processing, and many civilian applications. The broad wavelength coverage enables on-chip sensing applications. It could potentially replace the current Si-photonics for datacom and be used in harsh environments such as space and nuclear applications.

微波光子学是指利用光作为载体来处理高频电信号的领域。它在国防和民用方面都取得了巨大的成功。微波光子学的未来应用需要在性能上有大幅度的提高，同时，电子器件应该具有更有利的特点，如小尺寸、轻重量和低功耗。本项目拟开发一种新的“集成微波光子学芯片”，该芯片有可能将微波光子元件的多种功能集成在一个芯片上，并且以极低的成本提供更小的尺寸、重量和功耗。如果成功，该技术将在国防系统，如雷达，以及许多民用应用，如移动电话，传感和数据通信中找到巨大的应用。拟议的研究活动为集成光子学领域的研究生提供全面的培训；半导体器件设计、仿真、制造和表征；以及准备、分析、解释和传播科学数据和结果。该项目将用于招收本科生优等生，他们可能会在论文中使用本研究的某些方面。与当地一所历史悠久的黑人学院和大学/少数族裔机构建立了强有力的互动计划，以激励未被充分代表的少数族裔学生参与研究。集成微波光子学（IMWP）将微波光子组件/子系统的功能集成在单片或混合光子芯片中，以非常低的成本提供更小的尺寸，重量和功耗。本项目提出利用r平面蓝宝石作为一个变革性、高性能和自一致的IMWP平台，为实现完全集成的MWP系统提供了可行的方法。该方法能够将光源、模拟和数字信号处理电路、光探测器、控制电路和蓝宝石上硅（SOS）射频（RF）电路等整套微波和光学元件集成在一个蓝宝石平台上，实现高性能和低成本的混合信号光链路。蓝宝石的折射率较低，与Si3N4的折射率相差0.3。因此，可以利用成熟的Si3N4低损耗波导技术，用蓝宝石晶圆替代石英晶圆，生产类似的低损耗波导无源元件。对于射频应用，蓝宝石平台由于具有低损耗光波导，有可能获得更高的动态范围，而与之竞争的硅光子平台与片外1.55微米激光器相结合，受到强双光子吸收的影响，因此动态范围有限。作为透明衬底，蓝宝石将实现多功能的3-D光子/电子集成架构。本项目旨在首先通过识别和调查关键的“基本挑战”来研究所提出方法的“可行性”，然后进行概念验证研究，为克服所确定的障碍提供有效途径，并最终就所提出的研究是否可行提供结论性建议。作为一个完全集成的解决方案，从根本上解决IMWP中最重要的技术挑战，如果成功，新平台将在国防系统中找到巨大的应用，如雷达信号处理，以及许多民用应用。宽波长覆盖范围使片上传感应用成为可能。它有可能取代目前用于数据通信的硅光子学，并在恶劣的环境中使用，如太空和核应用。

项目成果

Distributed-Model-Based Approach for Electrical and Thermal Analysis of High-Frequency GaN HEMTs

基于分布式模型的高频 GaN HEMT 电学和热学分析方法

• DOI: 10.1109/access.2020.3017470
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: IEEE Access
• 影响因子: 3.9
• 作者: Avval, Amirreza Ghadimi;El-Ghazaly, Samir M.
• 通讯作者: El-Ghazaly, Samir M.

The effect of two-photon absorption on the dynamic range of integrated microwave photonics links

双光子吸收对集成微波光子链路动态范围的影响

• DOI: 10.1117/12.2546601
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Proceeding of Silicon Photonics
• 作者: Bass, Jake A.;Brea, Brandon;Tran, Huong;Du, Wei;Soref, Richard;Yu, Shui-Qing;Reed, Graham T.;Knights, Andrew P.
• 通讯作者: Knights, Andrew P.

GaAs layer on c-plane sapphire for light emitting sources

用于发光源的 c 面蓝宝石上的 GaAs 层

• DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2020.148554
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Applied Surface Science
• 影响因子: 6.7
• 作者: Kumar, Rahul;Saha, Samir K.;Kuchuk, Andrian;Maidaniuk, Yurii;de Oliveira, Fernando Maia;Yan, Qigeng;Benamara, Mourad;Mazur, Yuriy I.;Yu, Shui-Qing;Salamo, Gregory J.
• 通讯作者: Salamo, Gregory J.

GaAs epitaxial growth on R-plane sapphire substrate

R面蓝宝石衬底上的GaAs外延生长

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2020.125848
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Journal of Crystal Growth
• 影响因子: 1.8
• 作者: Saha, Samir K.;Kumar, Rahul;Kuchuk, Andrian;Stanchu, Hryhorii;Mazur, Yuriy I.;Yu, Shui-Qing;Salamo, Gregory J.
• 通讯作者: Salamo, Gregory J.