Programmable Optical Beam Former with 10 Nanosecond Reconfiguration Rates

This project develops low-cost optical beamscanners using fast binary amplitude modulators. The modulators are solder-bumped to silicon drive circuits which have a programmable architecture for rapid, flexible array addressing. The multiple quantum well (MQW) based modulators operate at 850-860 nm with a random access speed over 100 MHz---faster than any known scanner. Preliminary simulation and optimization results show that high-resolution scanning can be obtained using a novel device arrangement with 10% efficiency, 20 dB SNR, and 1% uniformity. Under this Phase I effort, Bosonics will 1) further simulate and optimize the modulator performance; 2) optimize the epitaxial layer structure, wafer lithography, and solder bump integration; 3) develop a marketing plan for military and commercial applications; and 4) design, simulate and fabricate the silicon driver chip in 0.5 microns CMOS. The chip will contain drivers and bond pads for both 1-D and 2-D arrays. In Phase II we will process the GaAs wafer and flip-chip solder bump it onto the silicon driver chip for testing and demonstration.