Silicon Waveguide Integrated Technologies for Intelligent Millimeter-wave/Terahertz Micro-Systems

智能毫米波/太赫兹微系统硅波导集成技术

• 批准号: RGPIN-2016-04491
• 负责人: SafaviNaeini, Safieddin
• 金额: $ 4.74万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=709331
• 关键词: Silicon; Waveguide; Integrated; Technologies; Intelligent

Sitting between the radio frequencies and light-waves, millimeter-wave (mmW)/Terahertz (THz) spectra of electromagnetic waves (particularly 0.1 to 3 THz) have the most desirable properties of both spectra. Like radio waves, mmW/THz waves can penetrate into opaque objects and, at the same time, provide geometrical resolution only comparable to that of the light-waves. Such unique characteristics have enabled a wide range of new applications in ultra-broadband communication (mmW satellite communication, 5G and beyond), high resolution radar (future automotive radars), security imaging, biomedical/pharmaceutical material characterizations, and radio astronomy. Despite unique advantages of this range of frequencies and impressive advances in mmW commercial (CMOS, SiGe) nano-scale semiconductor technologies, lack of efficient mmW/THz active devices with reasonable performance, as well as the cost and complexity of the existing passive devices and the lack of a suitable integration technology platform has hindered fast industrial scale usage of this spectrum. Although there is still a long way to low-cost mmW/THz active device technologies for mass market applications, highly efficient and low insertion loss passive devices and antenna and low-cost integration technologies can, to a large extent, compensate for the active devices lack of efficiency and sensitivity, as well as their noisy behavior. Current planar multi-layer circuit and antenna technologies for RF/microwave range of frequencies are not applicable to mmW/THz systems due the large insertion loss of metals and common commercial grade soft substrates. Currently, the mainstream technique for wave transmission/processing at 100+ GHz is metallic waveguide and its variations, which are bulky, heavy, and quite costly, particularly at THz, with almost no possibility of integration. This has become a major bottleneck for realizing integrated mmW/THz commercial products at low cost. As a fundamentally new approach to this problem, the applicant group has been investigating and developing a novel Si-based technology platform for integrated wave transmission/processing/emission, over the past 8 years. The new technology platform is based on Si-waveguide on glass or Si substrate at mmW/THz range of frequencies. This research has resulted in a proven technology platform and several novel design concepts such as mmW/THz sensors and antenna arrays with beam control capability. The main objective of the proposed research is to investigate the most cost-effective system (circuit/antenna/package) integration technologies in the developed Si-based platform. Major foci in the proposed program are integration of the active devices, both conventional and new ones such as graphene and development of modular large scale integrated intelligent microsystems for emerging mmW/THz communication systems, imaging, and sensing.

电磁波（特别是 0.1 至 3 THz）的毫米波 (mmW)/太赫兹 (THz) 频谱位于射频和光波之间，具有两种频谱中最理想的特性。 与无线电波一样，毫米波/太赫兹波可以穿透不透明物体，同时提供与光波相当的几何分辨率。这些独特的特性使得超宽带通信（毫米波卫星通信、5G 及以上）、高分辨率雷达（未来汽车雷达）、安全成像、生物医学/制药材料表征和射电天文学等领域实现了广泛的新应用。 尽管该频率范围具有独特的优势，并且毫米波商用（CMOS、SiGe）纳米级半导体技术取得了令人瞩目的进步，但缺乏具有合理性能的高效毫米波/太赫兹有源器件，以及现有无源器件的成本和复杂性缺乏合适的集成技术平台阻碍了该频谱的快速工业规模使用。 尽管低成本毫米波/太赫兹有源器件技术走向大众市场应用还有很长的路要走，但高效、低插入损耗的无源器件和天线以及低成本的集成技术可以在很大程度上弥补有源器件的不足。缺乏效率和敏感性，以及他们的吵闹行为。 由于金属和常见商业级软基板的插入损耗较大，当前用于射频/微波频率范围的平面多层电路和天线技术不适用于毫米波/太赫兹系统。目前，100+GHz波传输/处理的主流技术是金属波导及其变体，它们体积庞大、笨重且成本高昂，特别是在太赫兹，几乎没有集成的可能性。这已成为低成本实现毫米波/太赫兹集成商用产品的主要瓶颈。 作为解决这一问题的全新方法，申请团队在过去 8 年里一直在研究和开发一种用于集成波传输/处理/发射的新型硅基技术平台。新技术平台基于毫米波/太赫兹频率范围内玻璃或硅基板上的硅波导。这项研究产生了经过验证的技术平台和一些新颖的设计概念，例如毫米波/太赫兹传感器和具有波束控制功能的天线阵列。 本研究的主要目标是研究所开发的硅基平台中最具成本效益的系统（电路/天线/封装）集成技术。该计划的主要重点是有源器件的集成，包括传统的和新型的有源器件，例如石墨烯，以及用于新兴毫米波/太赫兹通信系统、成像和传感的模块化大规模集成智能微系统的开发。