Electronic-Photonic Integrated Circuits for Wireless THz Communication [EPIC-COM]

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Dietmar Kissinger; Professor Dr.-Ing. Robert Weigel; Professor Dr.-Ing. Lars Zimmermann
• Subject Area: Electronic Semiconductors, Components and Circuits, Integrated Systems, Sensor Technology, Theoretical Electrical Engineering ; Communication Technology and Networks, High-Frequency Technology and Photonic Systems, Signal Processing and Machine Learning for Information Technology
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 528867461

This proposal targets research on a scalable THz communication system with a large number of elements towards a massive phased-array approach. Such a solution poses a variety of different challenges that need to be investigated and overcome. Some of these are: 1. Design of sufficiently broadband phased-array components to utilize the available large bandwidth around 300 GHz 2. Flexible and low loss broadband baseband signal distribution for many channels 3. Power-efficient generation and coherent distribution of the low phase-noise THz local oscillator (LO) carrier frequency across massive amounts of channels 4. Efficient parallel multiplexed circuit concepts with a reduced number of interfaces 5. Design of large-scale, high-complexity optical and electrical systems 6. Modular circuit implementations with a high level of integration and simultaneous high yield for reliable massive THz systems. The proposal aims to address the above challenges based on a novel interdisciplinary architecture that combines optical and high-frequency electrical devices and building blocks in a coherent process utilizing an advanced version of an electronic photonic integrated circuit (EPIC) technology platform. The vision proposed by the team includes the following key features: 1. Monolithic integration of miniaturized robust 252-325 GHz (IEEE 802.15.3d) TX/RX 2. Scalable architecture with up to 200 GBd symbol rate per unit cell 3. Simultaneous monolithic co-integration of an electronic-photonic interface featuring a novel high-speed Ge photodetector component with a world record performance 4. Optical wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) data stream (4x50 GBd per unit cell) and optical LO routing approach 5. Low-loss broadband LO-beamforming architecture with gain control 6. Integrated 4-element on-chip antenna array per unit cell (less interface loss), implementing horizontal/vertical polarization multiplex 7. Binary-weighted IQ-modulation for low-power DAC-less 16-QAM operation using superposition of two beamforming unit cells 8. Low-power parallel ring modulator architecture in RX to circumvent the present speed bottleneck imposed by silicon Mach-Zehnder modulators (MZMs) 9. Optical backplane assembly for future scaling towards a massive THz array system

• DFG Programme: Research Grants