Thesis (Ph. D.)--Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005. / Dr. Waymond R. Scott, Committee Member ; Dr. Aaron Lanterman, Committee Member ; Dr. Paul G. Steffes, Committee Chair ; Dr. Andrew F. Peterson, Committee Member ; Dr. Judith A. Curry, Committee Member. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Jun. 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 168-171). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-146).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Delaware, 2008. / Principal faculty advisor: Dennis W. Prather, Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering. Includes bibliographical references.

Terahertz source technology has been an active area of research for a number of years. This has helped develop continuous wave solid-state sources that are highly desirable in a wide range of applications spanning from Earth science to medical science. However, even with advances in terahertz technology, the generation of fundamental source power at these frequencies is still challenging. Promising electronic solid-state devices fall short in overcoming source power shortage due to electronic breakdown mechanism and fabrication limits at terahertz frequencies. The fundamental physical limitation of photonic devices, such as low photon energy, force cryogenic operation which at times is impractical. Schottky diode frequency multipliers often offer a very practical solution for generating continuous wave radiation based on solid-state technology. This harmonic source technology is today a most certain candidate for many applications where compactness and room temperature operation is desired. However, despite of all the advances in Schottky diode fabrication and their use in frequency multiplication, output power falls rapidly with increasing frequency. Thermal constrains, fabrication limits, assembly errors and parasitic losses all constitute changes that affect the performance of these devices and make it difficult to reproduce experimental data. To overcome these problems and progress towards the generation of milliwatts of power at terahertz frequencies, the study of existing methods to generate and handle high power is necessary. In the first part of the thesis, the design, fabrication and development of two Schottky diode-based frequency doublers is discussed. The work focuses on the generation of high-power sources that are capable of handling higher input powers while maintaining good thermal efficiencies. A detailed study into the machining tolerances, assembly errors and temperature effects are evaluated for the frequency doublers. High frequency effect such as velocity saturation is also addressed. Depending on the design frequency and power handling, two different circuit configurations are employed for the frequency doublers. While the high-power 80/160 GHz frequency doubler used a discrete flip-chip diode configuration, the 160/320 GHz frequency doubler employed an integrated diode membrane to mitigate sensitivity issues encountered during assembly and enable correlation between simulated and measured data. The second part proposes the use of millimeter-wave Schottky diode-based radiometers for imaging of composites samples. The focus of this experiment is the introduction of an alternate EM inspection method with the use of broadband Schottky diode components. This technique combines two different fields {--} non-destructive testing and radiometry, which presents a potentially new and interesting area for research. Since no single method can qualify to be the most accurate for all inspections, and with the future integration bringing down manufacturing costs of high frequency components, this demonstration presents a new approach to consider for future material imaging and evaluation experiments.

No description available.

Photonic generation of ultra-low phase noise and frequency-tunable microwave or millimeter-wave (mm-wave) signals has been a topic of interest in the last few years. Advanced photonic techniques, especially the recent advancement in photonic components, have enabled the generation of microwave and mm-wave signals at high frequencies with a large tunable range and ultra-low phase noise. In this thesis, techniques to generate microwave and mm-wave signals in the optical domain are investigated, with an emphasis on system architectures to achieve large frequency tunability and low phase noise. The thesis consists of two parts. In the first part, techniques to generate microwave and mm-wave signals based on microwave frequency multiplication are investigated. Microwave frequency multiplication can be realized in the optical domain based on external modulation using a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM), but with limited multiplication factor. Microwave frequency multiplication based on external modulation using two cascaded MZMs to provide a larger multiplication factor has been proposed, but no generalized approach has been developed. In this thesis, a generalized approach to achieving microwave frequency multiplication using two cascaded MZMs is presented. A theoretical analysis leading to the operating conditions to achieve frequency quadrupling, sextupling or octupling is developed. The system performance in terms of phase noise, tunability and stability is investigated. To achieve microwave generation with a frequency multiplication factor (FMF) of 12, a technique based on a joint operation of polarization modulation, four-wave mixing and stimulated-Brillouin-scattering-assisted filtering is also proposed. The generation of a frequency-tunable mm-wave signal from 48 to 132 GHz is demonstrated. The proposed architecture can even potentially boost the FMF up to 24. In the second part, techniques to generate ultra-low phase noise and frequency-tunable microwave and mm-wave signals based on an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) are studied. The key component in an OEO to achieve low phase noise and large frequency-tunable operation is the microwave bandpass filter. In the thesis, we first develop a microwave photonic filter with an ultra-narrow passband and large tunability based on a phase-shifted fiber Bragg grating (PS-FBG). Then, an OEO incorporating such a microwave photonic filter is developed. The performance including the tunable range and phase noise is evaluated. To further increase the frequency tunable range, a technique to achieve microwave frequency multiplication in an OEO is proposed. An mm-wave signal with a tunable range more than 40 GHz is demonstrated.

Astronomical instruments dedicated to the study of Cosmic Microwave Background polarization are in need of optics with very low systematic effects such as beam shape and cross-polarization in an optical configuration. With the demand for millimetre wave larger focal planes comprising thousands of pixels, these systematic effects have to be minimal across the whole focal surface. In order to reach the instrument requirements such as resolution, cross-polarization and beam ellipticity, new optical configurations with well-understood components have to be studied. Refractive configurations are of great importance amongst the potential candidates. The aim is to bring the required technology to the same level of maturity that has been achieved with well-understood existing ones. This thesis is focused on the study of such optical components for the W-band spectral domain. Using optical modelling with various software packages, combined with the manufacture and accurate experimental characterization of some prototype components, a better understanding of their performance has been reached. To do so, several test set-ups have been developed. Thanks to these new results, full Radio-Frequency refractive systems can be more reliably conceived.

Bandpass filters are an essential component of wireless communication systems that only transmits frequencies corresponding to the communication band and rejects all other frequencies. As the deployment of 5G draws nearer, first deployments are expected in 2020 [1], the need for viable filters at the new frequency bands becomes more imminent. Size and performance are two critical considerations for a filter that will be used in emerging mobile communication applications. The high frequency of 5G communication, 28 GHz as opposed to sub 6 GHz for nearly all previous communication protocols, means that previously utilized lumped component based solutions cannot be implemented since they are ill-suited for mm-wave applications. The focus of this work is the miniaturization of a high-performance filter. The Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) is a high performance and promising structure and Low Temperature Co-Fired Ceramic (LTCC) is a high-performance material that both can operate at higher frequencies than the technologies used for previous telecommunication generations. To miniaturize the structure, a compact folded four-cavity SIW filter is designed, implemented and tested. The feeding structure is integrated into the filter to exploit the System on Package (SoP) attributes of LTCC and further reduce the total area of the filter individually and holistically when looking at the final integrated system. Two unique three dimensional (3D) integrated SoP LTCC two-stage SIW single cavity filters and one unique four-cavity filter all with embedded planar resonators are designed, fabricated and tested. The embedded resonators create a two-stage effect in a single cavity filter. The better single cavity design provides a 15% fractional bandwidth at a center frequency of 28.12 GHz, and with an insertion loss of -0.53 dB. The fabricated four-cavity filter has a 3-dB bandwidth of .98GHz centered at 27.465 GHz, and with an insertion loss of -2.66 dB. The designs presented highlight some of the previously leveraged advantages of SoP designs while also including additions of embedded planar resonators to feed the SIW cavity. The integration of both elements realizes a compact and high-performance filter that is well suited for future mm-wave applications including 5G.

The closest star to Earth is the Sun. The difference between our Sun and other stars is that the dynamics are observable with telescopes. A complex and strange part of our Sun is the chromosphere which is a part of the solar atmosphere. The chromosphere is located between the corona and photosphere where the temperature increases very rapidly within a short distance. A wavelength suited for observing this region is millimetre wavelength. A millimetre observing radio telescope suited to be pointed at the Sun is Atacama Large millimetres/submillimeter Array (ALMA). ALMA is using smaller telescopes to synthesis a larger aperture by correlating the difference between antenna pairs. This technique is called interferometry. When sampling a larger telescope, the projected distance between the smaller telescopes determines the sampling points in Fourier space. When the distance between the antennas increases, they will experience different noise due to Earth's atmosphere. This difference in noise is because the signal travels a different path through the Earth's atmosphere. Different Precipitable Water Vapour (PWV) levels in this path play a major role in this disturbance[1]. To acquire further knowledge of how different seeing effects affect ALMA it is important to enhance the understanding of what could be expected from actual observation. Realistic simulated observations can be a useful tool to extend this knowledge and is investigated in this report. This is done with the CASA (Common Astronomy Software Applications) package and simalma and the simulator tool. The simulator tool gives the possibility to include phase noise from Earth's atmosphere. This noise is calculated with atmospheric transmission at microwaves model and the aatm library [2]. This phase noise is simulated as a fluctuating PWV screen over that array that blows at specific wind speed[3].  Traditionally only thermal noise has been implemented when simulating an observation with the CASA task simalma and simobserve. Initial results indicate a big difference between traditional thermal noise and phase noise. Phase noises generate a greatly increased error as a function of radius compared to a noise free simulated observation. This effect is enhanced for higher PWV levels. This behaviour is due to that the antennas are more sensitive in the centre. This tool shows great potential since more realistic simulations give the possibility to investigate different phenomena in a controlled environment. One could optimize the reconstruction algorithm for noisy observations and investigate how physical phenomena could be affected by different seeing effects. There are a large variety of cases where this type of simulation could be used. Optimization of PWV fluctuating for specific cadences should be done first. This is important because the atmosphere is expected to behave differently at a different cadence because of different movement and averaging. However, optimization and comparison for 1.1 s cadence is doable with data generated from cosmological observations with ALMA[1].