Flexible Electronic-Photonic Integrated Circuit Sensor Platform II [EPIC-Sense II]

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This proposal aims to explore a scalable, two-stage electronic-photonic MIMO radar system in the millimeter-wave range. In phase I of SPP 2111, the coherent optical distribution of the local oscillator signal was already addressed as well as the broadband integration of an electronic-photonic FMCW radar front-end. The vision for Phase II of SPP 2111 is the extension of a monolithically integrated electronic-photonic FMCW radar system by a new frequency-division multiplexing approach, which is realized by a new additional optical data-bus transmitting a high data rate coding scheme. With the help of this additional coding, a large amount of coherent 2x2 radar modules can be differentiated, while concentrating the computationally intensive coding in a central node. Especially for the electro-optical interfaces, intensive research into new technologies of optical modulation methods and components is necessary in order to meet the challenging bandwidth requirements.The EPIC-Sense II research project includes the following core scientific innovations: 1. Research of a broadband, two-stage FMCW MIMO sensor system in the D-band2. Monolithic integration of the interdisciplinary electronic-photonic system concept3. implementation of a two-stage frequency-division multiplexing scheme exploiting an additional high-speed optical data bus4. Investigation of interconnect and assembly techniques for optical networking of distributed, scalable electronic-photonic sensor nodes5. Integration of novel innovative circuit concepts to significantly extend the currently limited bandwidth of Silicon-based Mach-Zehnder modulators6. Research and proliferation of germanium-based electro-absorption modulators and integration into the SG25H5-EPIC technology platform