Direct RF to Optical Link Based on Film Bulk Acoustic Wave Resonators (FBAR)

High-frequency, resonant acousto-optic modulators fabricated in a MEMS foundry platform

“…This allows us to exploit the large d 33 coefficient of AlN for efficient RF to mechanical transduction, a process at the heart of RF filtering in modern smartphones [19]. In contrast to surface acoustic wave based acousto-optic devices [20], HBAR provides a better route for achieving high mechanical frequencies (¿ 10 GHz) as the transducer performance does not degrade significantly [6]. The electro-mechanical performance of the device can be characterized by measuring the RF (mag.)…”

“…For * krishna.coimbatorebalram@bristol.ac.uk example: a 2D array of these devices can be used as a high-speed spatial light modulator with tens of MHz bandwidth, far exceeding those of liquid crystal on silicon devices [5]. By increasing the modulation bandwidth to ≈ 100 MHz, we can envision a viable free space optical interconnect link between processors and memory that meets the stringent energy and bandwidth constraints and removes the need for an on-chip serializer/deserializer (SERDES) [6,7]. In addition, an efficient modulator is a key component for optical approaches to RF detection [8] and transduction, which has applications ranging from radio astronomy and MRI to quantum information processing [9,10].…”

Resonant, High-Frequency Acousto-Optic Modulators (AOM) Fabricated in a MEMS Foundry Platform

“…The foundry platform, with its inherent repeatability, increases device integration and overall AO system performance. The need for low cost, high efficiency optical modulators as components in passive optical networks (PON) has long been recognized [3]. In addition, an efficient modulator is a key component for optical approaches to radio frequency detection [4] and transduction, which has applications ranging from radio astronomy to MRI.…”