ASCENT: Photonically Driven mm-Wave Communication Platform

对无线通信不断增长的需求产生了对能够向个人用户提供数十亿比特每秒数据速率的超宽带无线电发射机的需求。能够实现这些高数据速率甚至未来更快的太比特每秒(Tbps)数据速率的一种有前途的方法是使用毫米波(mm波)频谱(30到300 GHz)，其容易地提供大量带宽。工作在毫米波频率的蜂窝网络将显著增加所需的基站带宽，但由于在这些频率处的大路径损耗和大气吸收，它们也将显著减小每个小区的大小。因此，可能需要在每根灯杆上安装基站，以确保城市环境的覆盖。这种情况会带来许多技术挑战，因为在这种情况下，基带机架安装式硬件设备无法与每个天线相邻放置。为了解决这一问题，需要允许密集部署具有Tbps级吞吐量的紧凑型毫米波基站的解决方案，其复杂的通信设备可以放置在远离天线本身的位置。与纯电子解决方案相比，光子技术为实现这种宽带系统提供了许多技术优势。然而，传统的光子方法不具有可扩展性，并且在级联离散元件时存在较大的插入损耗和占用空间。该项目将通过联合多学科努力应对这些挑战，利用非线性光学、集成光子学和宽带集成天线的最新发展，实现一个紧凑的平台，可以提供超过1 Tbps数据容量的大量无线通道。该项目旨在开发一种用于芯片级Tbps无线系统的新范例。该方法基于具有超高品质因数的光学双微谐振腔，通过腔色散和克尔非线性之间的平衡产生锁模飞秒孤子脉冲，从而形成稳定的光载流子阵列。滤波、数据调制和多路复用将通过环形谐振器、异质集成的高比特率调制器和阵列波导光栅在光域中完成。转换为毫米波频率将通过超宽带光电探测器的外差探测实现，该探测器将与集成天线共同设计，以确保有效地辐射到自由空间。预计这一努力不仅将提高单个组件和电路的性能，还将促进集成光电子技术的小型化和适用性，以推动毫米波无线通信的最先进水平。将所有关键部件集成在一块芯片上的事实将为可制造的体积小、重量轻、低功耗的大规模毫米波光子集成电路铺平道路，这也将有利于传感和成像的其他应用。这项研究将允许深入研究光驱动高频技术的潜在好处、权衡和限制。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The ever-increasing demand for wireless communications has created a need for extremely wideband radio transmitters that can deliver multi-giga-bit-per-second data rates to individual users. A promising approach that can enable these high data rates and even future faster tera-bit-per-second (Tbps) data rate is the use of the millimeter-wave (mm-wave) spectrum (30 to 300 GHz) which readily provides a vast amount of bandwidth. Cellular networks operating at mm-wave frequencies will increase the required base station bandwidth significantly, but they will also decrease the size of each cell dramatically due to the large path loss and atmospheric absorption at these frequencies. As a result, installing a base station on every light pole may become necessary to guarantee coverage in an urban environment. This scenario creates many technical challenges since the baseband rack-mount hardware equipment cannot be placed adjacent to each antenna in this case. To address this, solutions are needed that allow for dense deployment of compact mm-wave base stations with Tbps-level throughput whose complex communication equipment can be placed away from the antenna itself. Compared to pure electronic solutions, photonic technologies offer many technical advantages to realize such wideband systems. However, traditional photonic approaches are not scalable and suffer from large insertion loss and large footprint when cascading discrete components. This project will address these challenges by a joint multidisciplinary effort that leverages recent developments in nonlinear optics, integrated photonics, and wideband integrated antennas to enable a compact platform that can provide a vast array of wireless channels with over 1 Tbps data capacity. This project aims to develop a new paradigm for chip-scale Tbps wireless systems. The approach is based on optical dual-microresonators with ultra-high quality factor, where mode-locked femtosecond soliton pulses are generated through the balance between cavity dispersion and Kerr nonlinearity to create arrays of stable optical carriers. Filtering, data modulation, and multiplexing will be accomplished in the optical domain through ring resonators, heterogeneously integrated high-bitrate modulators, and arrayed waveguide gratings. Conversion into the mm-wave frequencies will be achieved by heterodyne detection in ultra-wideband photodetectors, which will be co-designed with integrated antennas to ensure efficient radiation into free space. This effort is expected to advance not only the performance of individual components and circuits, but also the miniaturization and applicability of integrated photonic-electronic technologies to push the state-of-the-art for mm-wave wireless communications. The fact that all key components will be integrated on a single chip will pave the way toward manufacturable large-scale mm-wave photonic integrated circuits with small size, light weight, and low power, which will also benefit other applications in sensing and imaging. The research will allow in-depth studies of the potential benefits, trade-offs, and limits of photonically driven high-frequency technologies.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.