PFI-TT: Acousto-Electric Semiconductor Amplifiers to Expand Wireless Connectivity to a Larger Population of End-Users

这一创新-技术转化伙伴关系(PFI-TT)项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力在于为更多的最终用户群体提供更负担得起的无线连接扩展。该项目研究了压电-半导体混合平板中声学声子和电荷载流子的相互作用，并可能激发相关学科的各种发现和创新。该项目预计将为新一代早期职业工程师提供宝贵的创业培训机会，包括但不限于该项目支持的学生。通过该项目可获得的资源还将通过创造机会，从概念开发和市场评估的早期阶段将学生社区纳入技术商业化过程，从而直接影响团队持续参与本科生/少数族裔指导计划。拟议的项目旨在大幅提高声电铌酸锂半导体放大器的性能，并评估此类设备在无线收发市场的商业潜力。通过启用全双工通信并放宽对前端声学滤波器的要求，目标微型非互易滤波器/放大器可以显著地帮助比率频率(RF)设计者和制造商。与其他器件相比，这种非互易射频元件具有显著的优点，包括：与基于声表面波的器件相比，易于扩展到更高的频率；与体厚模式器件相比，在单个芯片上制造分散频率器件的可行性；由于半导体衬底(例如硅)良好的导热性和弹性线性，连续波操作的可行性；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，认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is in empowering a more affordable expansion of wireless connectivity for a larger population of end-users. This project investigates the interaction of acoustic phonons and charge carriers in a hybrid piezoelectric-semiconductor slab and could inspire a variety of discoveries and innovations in related disciplines. The project is expected to provide an invaluable entrepreneurial training opportunity for a new generation of early-career engineers including, but not limited to, the students supported by this project. The resources available through this project will also directly impact the team's ongoing involvement in undergraduate/minority mentoring programs by creating opportunities to include student communities in a technology commercialization process from the early stages of concept development and market evaluation. The proposed project aims to substantially enhance the performance of acousto-electric lithium niobate-semiconductor amplifiers and to evaluate the commercial potential of such devices in the wireless transceiver market. The targeted micro-scale non-reciprocal filter/amplifier may significantly assist Ratio Frequency (RF) designers and manufacturers by enabling full-duplex communication and relaxing the requirement on the front-end acoustic filters. Such non-reciprocal RF components have substantial merits over alternative devices, including: ease of scalability to higher frequencies compared to the competing surface acoustic wave-based devices; feasibility of fabricating dispersed-frequency devices on a single chip in contrast to bulk thickness-mode devices; feasibility of continuous-wave operation due to the excellent thermal conductivity and elastic linearity of the semiconducting substrate (e.g. silicon); and fabrication of small form factors on a silicon substrate which makes the device a candidate for integration with other RF components that are currently included in the current RF front-end modules.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.