RII Track-4: NSF: Development of Semiconductor Lasers and Passive Devices on a Single Sapphire Platform for Integrated Microwave Photonics

RII Track-4：NSF：在单个蓝宝石平台上开发用于集成微波光子学的半导体激光器和无源器件

• 批准号: 2327229
• 负责人: Wei Du
• 金额: $ 29.96万
• 依托单位: University of Arkansas
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-02-01 至 2026-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2327229&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RII; Track; NSF; Development; Semiconductor

The goal of this project is to develop a new sapphire platform for integrated microwave photonics (IMWP) technology, which transfers wireless signal processing and transmission challenges from the electronic to the photonic domain, could provide a wealth of new opportunities to achieve higher data communication rate. Sapphire platform features: (1) more favorable for the integration of excellent laser materials due to a closely matched coefficient of thermal expansion, and (2) attainable ultra-low-loss waveguides using silicon nitride technology. This NSF EPSCoR RII Track-4 project provides a fellowship to an Associate Professor and a graduate student at the University of Arkansas to visit the University of Texas at Arlington, aiming to establish a strong research collaboration that would support the long-term research goal to advance sapphire based IMWP technology. This work lays the foundation to investigate the feasibility of obtaining a complete set of high-performance optical components heterogeneously integrated on a single sapphire platform. If successful, the new sapphire platform would have tremendous applications in defense systems, such as Radar signal processing, and numerous civilian applications, such as 5G system, cellular, and medical imaging systems. In addition to the involvement of graduate and undergraduate students, the principal investigator recruits students from a local HBCU. The vision of this project is to leverage a new material system to enable heterogeneous integration of active and passive optoelectronics components, for microwave photonics, on a single chip. The motivation lies in the feasibility of sapphire for a fully integrated solution to include a complete set of components with light source, modulator, light detection, waveguides, couplers, resonators, CMOS control circuit, Silicon on Sapphire (SOS) circuit all-in-one sapphire platform to achieve high-performance low-cost mixed-signal optical links. The proposed sapphire platform utilizes the mature SOS CMOS and RF high frequency circuit technology featuring low power consumption. The sapphire platform has the (1) inability to conduct current thereby reducing parasitics; (2) sufficient optical index contrast resulting in low optical power loss; and (3) very uniquely, an excellent thermal expansion coefficient match to many III-V materials for high operating reliability. The research goal focuses on the development of sapphire based lasers and passive device building blocks including waveguides (straight and bend), splitters, couplers, and ring resonators. The research objectives are: (1) obtain the high performance III-V lasers on sapphire substrate via the development of wafer-to-wafer covalent bonding technology; (2) develop the low loss waveguide using the newly designed silicon nitride on sapphire technology; and (3) develop the resonators, couplers, etc. to obtain a set of passive devices. The proposed sapphire-based technology offers the promise of reduced size weight and power (SWaP) at a very low cost when manufactured in a foundry. This has the potential to benefit many applications in Radar signal processing, 5G system, satellite communications, and medical imaging systems.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.

该项目的目的是为集成微波光子学（IMWP）技术开发一个新的蓝宝石平台，该平台将无线信号处理和传输挑战从电子转移到光子域，可以提供大量新的机会来实现更高的数据通信率。蓝宝石平台的特征：（1）由于热膨胀的系数紧密匹配，更有利于优质激光材料的整合，以及（2）使用氮化硅技术可达到的超低波导。该NSF EPSCOR RII TRACK-4项目为阿肯色大学的副教授和研究生提供了奖学金，访问了德克萨斯大学阿灵顿分校，旨在建立强大的研究合作，以支持长期研究目标，以促进基于Sapphire IMWP IMWP技术。这项工作奠定了基础，以研究获得一组完整的高性能光学组件异质组合的可行性，该组件在单个蓝宝石平台上集成了。如果成功的话，新的蓝宝石平台将在防御系统（例如雷达信号处理）以及众多平民应用（例如5G系统，蜂窝和医学成像系统）中具有巨大的应用。除了研究生和本科生的参与外，首席研究员还从当地的HBCU招募学生。该项目的愿景是利用一种新的材料系统，以在单个芯片上进行微波光子学，以实现主动和被动光电子组件的异质整合。动机在于蓝宝石对于完全集成的解决方案的可行性，包括一组带有光源，调制器，光检测，波导，耦合器，谐振器，CMOS控制电路，硅（SOS）硅（SOS）电路全蓝色蓝宝石平台上的硅的组件，以实现高效果的低级杂种链接。拟议的蓝宝石平台利用成熟的SOS CMO和RF高频电路技术，具有低功耗。 Sapphire平台（1）无法进行当前，从而减少了寄生虫； （2）足够的光学指数对比度导致光功率损失低； （3）非常唯一的，与许多III-V材料具有出色的热膨胀系数匹配，可用于高操作可靠性。研究目标侧重于基于蓝宝石的激光器和被动设备构建块的开发，包括波导（直和弯曲），分式，耦合器和环谐振器。研究目标是：（1）通过开发晶圆到磁力的共价键合技术获得蓝宝石基材上的高性能III-V激光； （2）使用新设计的氮化硅在蓝宝石技术上开发低损失波导； （3）开发谐振器，耦合器等以获取一组被动设备。拟议的基于蓝宝石的技术提供了减小尺寸重量和功率（交换）的承诺，在铸造厂制造时，成本非常低。这有可能使许多应用在雷达信号处理，5G系统，卫星通信和医学成像系统中受益。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并且使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，被认为值得通过评估。