Development of Electro-Optic Phase Modulator for 94 GHz Imaging System

Author

Macario, Julien ; Yao, Peng ; Shireen, Rownak ; Schuetz, Christopher A. ; Shi, Shouyuan ; Prather, Dennis W.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

Volume

27

Issue

24

fYear

2009

Firstpage

5698

Lastpage

5703

Abstract

This paper presents the latest improvements in design and fabrication of ridged LiNbO₃ optical phase modulators operating in the W-band for millimeter-wave imaging applications at 94 GHz. It describes the design conditions for effective index matching between optical carrier at 1550 nm and millimeter-wave signal, as well as impedance matching and propagation losses reduction. The impacts of different geometric parameters on the device performance are discussed. In addition, the paper reports the diverse material processing techniques for device fabrication. Characterization of the fabricated devices shows conversion efficiency as high as 1.045 W^{- 1} at 94 GHz with a 7 V dc half-wave voltage and a 3.7 dB optical insertion loss.

Keywords

electro-optical modulation; impedance matching; integrated optics; lithium compounds; microwave photonics; millimetre wave imaging; optical fabrication; optical losses; phase modulation; LiNbO₃; W-band; electro-optic phase modulator; frequency 94 GHz; impedance matching; index matching; loss 3.7 dB; millimeter wave imaging; optical carrier; optical insertion loss; optical phase modulators; propagation losses reduction; wavelength 1550 nm; Conversion efficiency; LiNbO $_{3}$; electro-optic phase modulator; millimeter wave;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2009.2035641

Filename

5325902