Presidential Young Investigators Award: Picosecond Electronic Circuits

该总统青年研究员奖将用于支持皮秒和毫米波功能的高速电路和设备的研究项目。执行时域（脉冲和其他瞬态信号，逻辑）的电子电路和设备在性能（速度）方面比窄带毫米波系统中的类似电路和设备差一个数量级。这种差异源于技术原因（与集总元件设备匹配的带宽效率限制）和历史/经济因素（强大的研究资金和雷达中使用的窄带微波技术的大市场）。目前，在高速逻辑、多兆赫光纤数字传输、实时高容量信号处理和仪器仪表中，对工作在1- 100ps时间尺度上的脉冲和时域电路有着强烈的需求。我们将通过同时开发新的电路设计和所需的高速半导体器件来解决这些问题。在计划的第一年，我们将开始开发用于多兆赫光纤传输的设备和电路。半导体激光器、光电探测器和光纤的带宽已经超过了数字判决、重定时和多路复用/解路复用电路的容量。所需的数字功能可以通过二极管开关和脉冲产生电路来实现，类似于先前演示的皮秒脉冲产生和采样电路。NSF项目的目标是在第一年年底完成二极管多路复用电路的首次演示。PYI的资金将用于支持高速3端器件（异质结双极晶体管或调制掺杂场效应晶体管）制造的初步研究和工艺开发，这些器件将用于新型高速光纤和毫米波接收器以及高速仪器。

This Presidential Young investigator award will be used to support a research program in high speed circuits and devices for picosecond and millimeter-wave functions. Electronic circuits and devices performing time-domain (pulsed and other transient signals, logic) are an order of magnitude poorer in performance (speed) than comparable circuits and devices in narrowband millimeter wave systems. This discrepancy arises from both technological reasons (the bandwidth-efficiency limitations in matching to lumped-element devices) and historical/economic factors (strong research funding and large markets for narrowband microwave technologies used in radar). There is now strong demand for pulse and time-domain circuits operating on the 1- 100 ps time scale, in high-speed logic, multi-gagahertz fiber-optic digital transmission, real-time high-capacity signal processing, and instrumentation. We will address these areas by concurrent development of novel circuit designs and the required high-speed semiconductor devices. In the first year of the program, we will start development of devices and circuits for multi-gagahertz fiber- optic transmission. The bandwidth of semiconductor laser, photodetectors, and optical fibers has exceeded the capacity of digital decision, retiming, and multiplexing/demultiplexing circuits. The required digital functions can be performed with diode switching and pulse generation circuits similar to those previously demonstrated for picosecond pulse generation and sampling. A target goal for the NSF program will be the first demonstration of working diode multiplexing circuits at the end of the first year. The PYI funding will then be used to support initial investigation and process development for fabrication of high-speed 3-terminal devices (heterojunction bipolar transistors or modulation-doped field-effect transistors) to be used in novel high speed fiber-optic and millimeter-wave receivers and high-speed instrumentation.