SpecEES:Heterogeneous Integration Techniques for Frequency-Conversion and Access to the Submillimeter Spectrum

电磁波谱的亚毫米波区域对射电天文学、大气物理学和遥感等领域的基础科学探索和进步至关重要。此外，新兴的设备概念有望为进一步的科学研究以及成像、无损测试和评估以及极高数据速率通信方面的重要工程应用打开这一很大程度上无法进入的频谱。亚毫米波频段的较低部分（100 GHz至500 GHz）仍然是无线数据传输的巨大且未开发的资源。虽然大气衰减的限制使得该频谱范围不适合远距离无线数据传输，但这些频率可以潜在地用于超高速无线数据传输，以增强和扩展现有射频和微波通信的性能。为了能够进入亚毫米波频段，该项目重点开发制造工艺，以促进化合物半导体（例如，砷化镓或磷化铟）的异质集成，以及有效地将亚毫米波电路与硅CMOS集成电路连接起来的方法。开发这种过程的智力价值在于它们有潜力提高对电气/机械接口基础科学的理解，以及将这些知识应用于创造新的无线技术所涉及的实际问题。该项目的目标是创建设备、接口和前端基础设施，以扩展现有无线系统的功能，以访问频谱的亚毫米波区域。为了实现这一目标，研究工作主要集中在三个方面：(1)将砷化镓（或其他III-V半导体材料）异质集成到高电阻硅载流子衬底上的可靠方法，用于与硅CMOS后端电子器件互连；(2)设计和实现CMOS芯片与III-V亚毫米波前端之间的低寄生接口；(3)开发用于访问亚毫米波区域的节能上下转换器。这里提出的工作代表了开发基础设施的初步和必要的一步，该基础设施克服了利用亚毫米波技术进行无线应用的当前方法的局限性。此外，要进行的研究将解决异构集成，微加工和高性能接口的基本问题。这些主题构成了一个重要的工作领域，将影响广泛的工程领域，包括微电子、微机电系统、电磁学和通信。

The submillimeter-wave region of the electromagnetic spectrum is crucial to fundamental scientific inquiry and progress in fields such as radio astronomy, atmospheric physics, and remote sensing. Moreover, new and emerging device concepts promise to open this largely-inaccessible spectrum to further scientific study as well as important engineering applications in imaging, non-destructive test and evaluation, and extremely high data-rate communications. The lower portion of the submillimeter-wave band (100 GHz to 500 GHz) remains a vast and untapped resource for wireless data transfer. Although limitations imposed by atmospheric attenuation make this spectral range unsuitable for long-distance wireless data transfer, these frequencies can potentially be used for super-high-speed wireless data transfer to augment and expand the performance of existing RF and microwave communications. To enable access to this submillimeter-wave band, this project focuses on the development of fabrication processes that will facilitate heterogeneous integration of compound semiconductors (e.g., gallium arsenide or indium phosphide) as well as methods to efficiently connect submillimeter-wave circuits with silicon CMOS integrated circuits. The intellectual merit in developing such processes lies in their potential to improve understanding of the fundamental science of electrical/mechanical interfaces as well as the practical issues involved with applying this knowledge to creating new wireless technologies. The objective of this project is to create the device, interface, and front-end infrastructure needed to extend the capabilities of existing wireless systems to access the submillimeter-wave region of the spectrum. To achieve this goal, the research effort focuses on three primary tasks: (1) robust methods for heterogeneous integration of gallium arsenide (or other III-V semiconductor materials) onto high-resistivity silicon carrier-substrates for interconnection with silicon CMOS backend electronics, (2) design and implementation of low-parasitic interfaces between CMOS chips and III-V submillimeter-wave front-ends, and (3) development of power-efficient up- and down-converters for accessing the submillimeter-wave region. The work proposed here represents an initial and necessary step towards developing an infrastructure that overcomes the limitations of current approaches in utilizing submillimeter-wave technology for wireless applications. Moreover, the research to be undertaken will address fundamental issues in heterogeneous integration, micromachining, and high-performance interfaces. These topics comprise an important area of work that will impact a wide array of engineering fields including microelectronics, microelectromechanical systems, electromagnetics, and communications.