Integrated Photonic Circuit Fabrication for Enabling RF Emitter Array.

摘要

The interim report describes an initial effort to fabricate an Integrated Photonic Circuit (IPC) which provides a means for converting an optical laser signal, that consists of both a narrow-line carrier wavelength and a heterodyned RF signal that are in-phase, to an electrical RF signal that can drive various on-chip components such as an antenna. The IPC would supply a critical missing element for enabling new phased-array radar based on an all- optical architecture. Ge-on-Si technology, the focus of the effort, has specific advantages that are fundamental to nearly all integrated photonic circuits. Its direct energy bandgap, slightly larger than Ge s indirect bandgap, permits band-to-band recombination/generation at an energy that corresponds to light near the standard optical communications wavelength. Ge-on-Si technology, therefore, could enable a host of IPC subcomponents including photodetectors, laser diodes, and enhanced silicon modulators. In addition, such germanium devices can be simply and inexpensively incorporated into a silicon manufacturing process.