Silicon Receiver for Millimeter Wave Distributed Aperture Imager with Optical Upconversion

In this SBIR effort we will design (Phase I) and demonstrate (Phase II) an integrated silicon electronic-photonic upconversion receiver that when used with our photonic backend will allow for a highly sensitive, real-time, and economical millimeter wave (mmW) imaging system. The development of this chip leverages recent progress in CMOS and SiGe HBT high speed analog circuit design and integrates it monolithically with emerging photonic technology. The end result will greatly reduce the SWaP, cost, and complexity of the system while increasing reliability and performance which in turn will open up new market segments for the technology. In Phase I, we analyze the design requirements and design suitable silicon-photonic receiver ICs. In the Phase I Option, we will fabricate and test the designs by leveraging our in house millimeter wave imaging system optical processors and high speed electro-optic phase modulators that have demonstrated record broad band (DC to>220 GHz) performance. In Phase II we will build an imager using our state-of-the-art modulator technology and optical processors. We will also further simplify the design by integrating the optical phase modulator on the silicon substrate thereby creating a single chip mmW receiver with an optical output.