Advanced silicon photonics for microwave frequency down-conversion

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2017.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Byrd, Matthew (Matthew James)
Other Authors: Michael R. Watts.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111910
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author Byrd, Matthew (Matthew James)
author2 Michael R. Watts.
author_facet Michael R. Watts.
Byrd, Matthew (Matthew James)
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description Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2017.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1119102019-04-11T09:13:46Z Advanced silicon photonics for microwave frequency down-conversion Byrd, Matthew (Matthew James) Michael R. Watts. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2017. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 121-128). Microwave photonics is broadly defined as the study of optical devices operating in the microwave to millimeter wave spectrum, and interest in this field is continually driven by the need for higher electrical frequencies and larger signal bandwidths. However, electronic systems designed to meet these specifications are becoming increasingly challenging to create, while their microwave photonic counterparts offer a larger bandwidth, lower power consumption, higher linearity, and smaller footprint. Thus, microwave photonic systems are an attractive solution for challenging problems in the domain of high-speed electronics. This thesis will examine a specific component of a microwave photonic system, a frequency down-converter. This device takes two electronic input signals and outputs the difference between the two input frequencies. To date, all demonstrations of a photonic microwave frequency down-converter have been based on bulk optical devices that limit its deployability to a real-world application due to a large footprint. However, recent advances to silicon photonic fabrication processes stand to improve the performance and enable the mass-production of many different microwave photonic systems including a frequency down-converter. In this thesis, a library of passive CMOS-compatible silicon photonic components for microwave photonic systems was developed. Additionally, a high-saturation power germanium-on-silicon photodetector showing a 70% improvement in photocurrent generation under high incident powers, and a depletion mode optical phase shifter with a V[subscript [pi]]L of 0.9 V xcm and an electro-optical bandwidth of several gigahertz were designed and tested. Finally, all of these components were assembled in a novel architecture to create an integrated silicon photonic microwave frequency down-converter. Initial measurements of this structure showed an electrical-to-electrical conversion efficiency of -42 dB and a suppression of spurious frequencies of approximately 15 dB. by Matthew Byrd. S.M. 2017-10-18T15:09:38Z 2017-10-18T15:09:38Z 2017 2017 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111910 1005231360 eng MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 128 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Byrd, Matthew (Matthew James)
Advanced silicon photonics for microwave frequency down-conversion
title Advanced silicon photonics for microwave frequency down-conversion
title_full Advanced silicon photonics for microwave frequency down-conversion
title_fullStr Advanced silicon photonics for microwave frequency down-conversion
title_full_unstemmed Advanced silicon photonics for microwave frequency down-conversion
title_short Advanced silicon photonics for microwave frequency down-conversion
title_sort advanced silicon photonics for microwave frequency down conversion
topic Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111910
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