ACOUSTO-OPTICAL PHASED ARRAYS (A-OPA)

声光相控阵 (A-OPA)

• 批准号: 1905834
• 负责人: Gianluca Piazza
• 金额: $ 40.51万
• 依托单位: Carnegie-Mellon University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-07-01 至 2024-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1905834&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: ACOUSTO; OPTICAL; PHASED; ARRAYS; OPA

The development of low power and efficient optical interfaces for virtual/augmented/mixed reality (VR/AR/MR), three dimensional holographic displays and solid-state light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems is a recognized challenge. If overcome, new applications that will ultimately have a transformative impact on our society would be enabled. At the heart of these optical interfaces there is the optical phased array (OPA), a semiconductor-based device that can steer a light beam by controlling the phase of light through tunable components. The OPA demonstrated to date rely either on liquid crystals or integrated photonic platforms with thermal tuning. While compact, these OPAs consume Watts of power. Reducing power consumption of the OPA is the ultimate goal of this project. Through innovations in materials, device design and component integration, this project will investigate the fundamental scientific and engineering challenges behind the development of a new class of OPA, which is dubbed the acousto-optic phased array (A-OPA). If successful, this project will lay the foundations for the development of a new class of OPAs that would facilitate the deployment of efficient optical interfaces for VR/AR/MR, self-driving cars or remote sensor communication. The impact of the A-OPA would be disruptive and transform our interactions with humans and machines. More broadly, the fundamental investigations in materials, devices and technology will impact the photonic community at large by enabling a new host of applications in optical networking, free-space communication, optical switching and interconnects.The proposed A-OPA integrates thin films of lithium niobate (LN), a material with low optical losses, the highest electro-optic coefficient and very large electromechanical coefficient, with arsenic trisulfide (As2S3), a chalcogenide material with relatively low optical losses and one of the highest acousto-optic coefficients. Light is steered along two orthogonal angles by means of the electro-optic effect in LN and the acousto-optic effect in As2S3. The development of advanced micromachining processes permits the integration of these materials in very confined geometries so that light is guided with low loss in sub-micron waveguides and high efficiency electro-acoustic transducers are built on the same chip. Very low voltages and power will be used to steer the phase of light in one direction through the electro-optic effect in LN. The LN on insulator stack will be engineered to efficiently drive acoustic waves into unreleased films of As2S3. By exciting high frequency acoustic waves in As2S3, gratings of variable pitch will be sculpted on the surface of the chip and steer light out of plane. The ultimate technical goal is to devise a high performance OPA with significantly reduced power consumption with respect to the state-of-the-art.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.

用于虚拟/增强/混合现实（VR/AR/MR）的低功率和有效的光学接口的开发，三维全息图显示以及固态光检测和范围（LIDAR）系统是一个公认的挑战。如果克服了，最终将对我们社会产生变革性影响的新应用程序将得到实现。在这些光学接口的核心上，有一个基于半导体的设备的光学阶段阵列（OPA），它可以通过可调组件来控制光相通过控制光束。迄今为止，OPA依靠液晶或具有热调整的集成光子平台。紧凑的过程中，这些飞散消耗了瓦特的力量。减少OPA的功耗是该项目的最终目标。通过材料，设备设计和组件集成的创新，该项目将调查开发新的OPA的基本科学和工程挑战，该类别被称为“ Acousto-Optic相分化阵列（A-OPA）”。如果成功的话，该项目将为开发新的OPA开发基础，以促进VR/AR/MR，自动驾驶汽车或遥控传感器通信的有效光学接口的部署。 A-OPA的影响将具有破坏性，并改变我们与人类和机器的互动。从更广泛的角度来看，材料，设备和技术的基本调查将通过在光学网络，自由空间通信，光学切换和互连中启用新的应用程序来影响整个光子社区。拟议的A-OPA整合了锂的薄膜Niobate（LN）是一种具有低光损耗的材料，是最高的电磁系数和非常大的机电系数，具有三硫化砷（AS2S3），硫代硫化物（AS2S3），一种相对较低的光学损失，是最高的副型和声音系数之一。通过LN中的电磁效应和AS2S3中的声学效应，沿两个正交角度转向光。 高级微加工过程的开发允许这些材料在非常密封的几何形状中的整合，因此，在同一芯片上建立了次级微米波导和高效率电声传感器的光损失和高效率的电声传感器。非常低的电压和功率将通过LN中的电孔效应将光阶段转向一个方向。绝缘子堆栈上的LN将经过设计，以有效地将声波驱动到AS2S3的未发行膜中。通过令人兴奋的高频声波在AS2S3中，将在芯片表面雕刻可变螺距的光栅，并从平面上驱动光。最终的技术目标是设计高性能OPA，以大大降低了最先进的功耗。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子和更广泛的评估来支持的。影响审查标准。