Frequency-Comb-Enabled Intelligent Sensing in Millimeter-Wave and Terahertz

用于产生和检测毫米波（mm-wave）和太赫兹（THz）电磁波的硅基集成电路使雷达、安全、成像和光谱学领域的各种新技术成为可能。该项目的目标是开发一种新型集成雷达，在毫米波/太赫兹频率范围内进行宽带相干传感。这个研究项目将产生增强的智能传感器，可以通过训练来识别具有特定属性的某些物体。毫米波和太赫兹电磁波可以穿透物体，为我们提供深度信息。一种实时智能传感器，通过对众多物体的毫米波/太赫兹足迹进行训练，具有巨大的潜力，可用于安全成像/传感和自动驾驶等许多应用。太赫兹成像和传感系统不仅可以通过准确探测隐藏物体和爆炸物来加强国土安全，还可以通过提高防撞汽车雷达的精度来防止每年成千上万人在车祸中丧生。除了推动太赫兹技术的边界外，该项目还将培养本科生和研究生成为太赫兹研究专家，并对美国未来的半导体产业产生影响。首席研究员（PI）还将为K-12学生举办讲习班，并为高中教师提供实习机会。这项研究工作将有两个高度整合的重点。在第一个推力中，将设计、制造和测试一种新型的基于梳的雷达装置，该装置可以在太赫兹频率范围内进行宽带相干探测和传感。该设备将基于PI实验室开发的最新发射器和接收器芯片进行设计。这些芯片提供太赫兹频率梳，其线宽非常窄，只有几赫兹。所测梳音调的赫兹级精度表明频率梳的高稳定性，使其适合光谱学应用。提出的光谱系统将把频率范围扩大到600ghz。第一次推力将产生一个完全集成的雷达芯片。为了提高接收机的灵敏度，将采用阵列。每个阵列元件将由一个配备了片上天线的宽带接收器组成。雷达传感器将被用来测量许多物体在很宽的频率范围内的频率响应。第二阶段是利用第一阶段的测量数据开发智能目标识别系统。该项目将使用机器学习算法根据物体与宽带太赫兹信号的相互作用对物体进行分类，以便根据其太赫兹透射率数据对任意物体进行分类。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Silicon-based integrated circuits for generating and detecting millimeter-wave (mm-wave) and terahertz (THz) electromagnetic waves have enabled a variety of new technologies in radars, security, imaging, and spectroscopy. The objective of this project is to develop a novel integrated radar to perform broadband coherent sensing over a wide range of mm-wave/THz frequencies. This research project will result in enhanced intelligent sensors that can be trained to recognize certain objects with specific properties. The mm-wave and THz electromagnetic waves can penetrate through objects and provide us with depth information as well. A real-time intelligent sensor, which is trained with mm-wave/THz footprints of numerous objects, has a great potential to be used for many applications such as security imaging/sensing and autonomous driving. THz imaging and sensing systems not only can bolster homeland security with accurate detection of hidden objects and explosives, but also can prevent tens of thousands of lives lost in car accidents every year with increased accuracy of collision avoidance automotive radars. In addition to pushing the boundaries of THz technology, this project will train undergraduate and graduate students to become experts in THz research and make impacts to the future semiconductor industry in the United States. The principal investigator (PI) will also organize workshops to K-12 students and provide internship opportunity to high-school teachers. The research work will have two highly integrated thrusts. In the first thrust, a novel comb-based radar device that can perform broadband coherent detection and sensing in the THz frequency range will be designed, fabricated, and tested. This device will be designed based on recent transmitter and receiver chips that were developed in PI’s laboratory. These chips offer THz frequency combs with very narrow linewidths of a few hertz. The hertz-level accuracy of the measured comb tones indicates high stability of the frequency comb making it suitable for spectroscopy applications. The proposed spectroscopy system will expand the frequency range to 600 GHz. The first thrust will result in a fully integrated radar chip. To improve the sensitivity of the receiver, an array will be implemented. Each array element will consist of a broadband receiver quipped with an on-chip antenna. The radar sensor will be used to measure the frequency response of numerous objects over a wide range of frequencies. The second thrust is to develop an intelligent object recognition system by using the measurement data generated in the first thrust. The project will use machine learning algorithms to classify objects based on their interactions with broadband THz signals so that arbitrary objects can be categorized according to their THz transmittance data.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.