FM noise reduction and subkilohertz linewidth of an AlGaAs laser bynegative electrical feedback

Negative electrical feedback was applied to a CSP-type AlGaAs laser, reducing its FM noise at the Fourier frequency range of f⩽40 MHz. The magnitude of the FM noise was far lower than the quantum noise level of the free-running laser at 100 Hz⩽f ⩽4.4 MHz. It was as low as 1×10^-7~1×10 ^-6 that of the free-running laser at 100 Hz⩽f⩽1 kHz. The full width at half maximum of the field spectrum was reduced to 560 Hz. The major factors necessary for realizing the very low FM noise level were: (1) the laser had almost constant FM response characteristics for a wide Fourier frequency range; (2) a high-finesse Fabry-Perot interferometer was employed for highly-sensitive FM noise detection and to get higher feedback gain; (3) the reflection mode of the Fabry-Perot interferometer was employed to increase the bandwidth and efficiency of the FM noise detection; and (4) a computer simulation was utilized for optimum design of the feedback loop     

Suppression of the intensity noise in a diode-pumped neodymium:YAGnonplanar ring laser

We investigate the intensity noise properties of a continuous-wave diode pumped Nd:YAG ring-laser system and present results for an active feedback loop that suppresses the relaxation oscillation noise. This system reduces the intensity noise to within 6.1 dB of the quantum noise equivalent level (which is at 1.5×10^-8/√Hz for 1.5 mA) for frequencies between 10 kHz to 300 kHz and to less than 1×10^-7/√Hz for frequencies between 300 Hz and 10 kHz. The technical properties of the optimized feedback system are presented. The theoretical limits of performance for the system are discussed and it is shown that the performance is within 3.1 dB of these limits. We also present data from an optical beat experiment demonstrating that the intensity control system does not introduce any new features into the frequency noise spectrum     

All-GaAs/AlGaAs readout circuit for quantum-well infrared detectorfocal plane array

We report the fabrication and testing of an all-GaAs/AlGaAs hybrid readout circuit operating at 77 K designated for use with an GaAs/AlGaAs background-limited quantum-well infrared photodetector focal plane array (QWIP FPA). The circuit is based on a direct injection scheme, using specially designed cryogenic GaAs/AlGaAs MODFET's and a novel n⁺ -GaAs/AlGaAs/n⁺-GaAs semiconductor capacitor, which is able to store more than 15 000 electrons/μm² in a voltage range of ±0.7 V. The semiconductor capacitor shows little voltage dependence, small frequency dispersion, and no hysteresis. We have eliminated the problem of low-temperature degradation of the MODFET I-V characteristics and achieved very low gate leakage current of about 100 fA in the subthreshold regime. The MODFET electrical properties including input-referred noise voltage and subthreshold transconductance were thoroughly tested. Input-referred noise voltage as low as 0.5 μV/√Hz at 10 Hz was measured for a 2×30 μm² gate MODFET. We discuss further possibilities for monolithic integration of the developed devices     

Low-noise superconducting quantum interference device with a highdV/dΦ optimized by thermally controlling critical current

The transfer function dV/dΦ and the noise characteristics of a low-T_c superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) have been improved by annealing to adjust the critical current, thereby optimizing the McCumber parameter β_c. A SQUID structure suitable for annealing and using surface nitridation and planarization has also been developed. By annealing a SQUID that initially has a β_c greater than 1, the I-V characteristics can be changed from characteristics with hysteresis to characteristics without hysteresis. A SQUID with β_c=0.81, close to the hysteresis limitation, had a large dV/dΦ (3.7 mV/Φ) and good noise characteristics (1.5 μΦ₀/√(Hz) at 100 Hz and 3.0 μΦ₀/√(Hz) at 1 Hz). These characteristics can be attained even when using a simple measuring circuit connected directly to preamplifier without adaptive components such as flux modulation or additional positive feedback (APF)     

Low-frequency applications of superconducting quantum interference devices

The applications of Josephson junctions to the measurement of low-frequency magnetic fields and voltages are reviewed. The relevant ideas of flux quantization and Josephson tunneling are very briefly reviewed, and the various methods of making Josephson junctions mentioned. The two basic types of magnetic sensor, the dc superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) and the RF SQUID, are described in some detail. Their theory of operation, noise limitations, and application to practical devices are discussed. The resolution of SQUID's commonly used in an analog mode is 10^-4to 10^-3Φ0/√Hz, where Φ0is the flux quantum. The basic sensor may be used in conjunction with a flux transformer to measure magnetic fields (with a resolution of 10^-14T/√Hz), magnetic-field gradients (with a resolution of 10^-12T/m/√Hz), and magnetic susceptibilities. The SQUID may also be used as a voltmeter. The resolution is limited by the Johnson noise developed in the resistance of the low-temperature circuit, provided that this resistance is not too large: the upper limit in the liquid-He⁴temperature range appears to be a few tens of ohms.     

Carrier synchronization for homodyne and heterodyne detection ofoptical quadriphase-shift keying

Through analysis and simulation, the authors investigated the performance of four carrier-synchronization techniques suitable for both homodyne and heterodyne detection of optical quadriphase-shift keying: the discrete-time decision-directed loop, the analog decision-directed loop, the Costas quadriphase loop, and the fourth-power phase-locked loop. Accounting for shot noise, laser phase noise, and feedback delay, they optimize the loop natural frequency and specify laser-linewidth requirements. The performance discrepancy between the best and worst of these loops is found to be small; accounting for inherent loop delays only, the linewidth requirements range from ΔvT<2.5×10^-5 to ΔvT<5.2×10^-5, where Δv is the beat laser linewidth and T is the baud interval. Hence other considerations, such as ease of implementation, will govern the design choice for most practical systems. For the case when propagation delays in the feedback loop are significant, a simple and accurate method for estimating the laser-linewidth requirement and corresponding optimal natural frequency is presented     

A 1.5-V 900-MHz monolithic CMOS fast-switching frequencysynthesizer for wireless applications

A new architecture for phase-locked loop frequency synthesizers which employs a switchable-capacitor array to tune the output frequency and a dual-path loop filter operating in the capacitance domain is proposed. It provides many advantages, including simplified analog circuitry, low supply voltage, low power consumption, small chip area, fast frequency switching, and high immunity of substrate noise. Implemented in a standard 0.5-μm CMOS process, a fully integrated fractional-N synthesizer prototype with a third-order sigma-delta modulator is designed for 1.5 V and consumes 30 mW. The total chip area is, 0.9 × 1.1 mm². The settling time is less than 100 μs and the phase noise is -118 dBc/Hz at 600-kHz offset     

一种宽温高精度温补晶振的研制

介绍了一种新型宽温微机补偿晶体振荡器。文中使用微处理器对专用集成电路芯片设计了温补晶振,分别在高低温区段对输出频率进行分段补偿;增加了噪声处理电路,滤除补偿电压跳变引入的噪声,避免相噪恶化;用二次分段补偿的方法,将补偿温度范围拓展到-55~+105 ℃。试验结果表明,使用该方法研制的10 MHz温补晶振,其频率温度稳定性在-55~+105 ℃范围内,优于±1.0×10^-6,相位噪声优于-140 dBc/Hz@1 kHz。     

Improvement of sensor performance of high-TC thin filmplanar SQUID gradiometers by ion beam etching

The sensor performance of galvanically coupled Y₁Ba₂Cu₃O_7-x (YBCO) dc SQUID gradiometers on 24° bicrystal substrates has been improved by thickness reduction in the region of the grain boundary Josephson junctions using ion beam etching. The prepared etching mask allows the reduction of the critical current by more than one order of magnitude while the SQUID inductance is slightly increased. This treatment shifts the SQUID parameter β_L from values above 10 to the proposed optimum around 1. The authors observed with decreasing critical current and increasing normal resistance a reduced I_CR_N product with values between 300 and 400 μV at 150-nm film thickness changing to values near 150 μV at 50-nm film thickness. Despite this fact, the white flux noise level as well as the low-frequency noise is reduced. With their galvanically coupled 4×8 mm² dc SQUID gradiometer the authors obtained a white noise level of 4.2 μΦ₀/√Hz corresponding to a field gradient sensitivity of 430 fT/cm√Hz at 77 K after the trimming process     

High-performance CMOS buffered gate modulation input (BGMI) readoutcircuits for IR FPA

A new CMOS current readout structure for the infrared (IR) focal-plane-array (FPA), called the buffered gate modulation input (BGMI) circuit, is proposed in this paper. Using the technique of unbalanced current mirror, the new BGMI circuit can achieve high charge sensitivity with adaptive current gain control and good immunity from threshold-voltage variations. Moreover, the readout dynamic range can be significantly increased by using the threshold-voltage-independent current-mode background suppression technique. To further improve the readout performance, switch current integration techniques, shared-buffer biasing technique, and dynamic charging output stage with the correlated double sampling circuit are also incorporated into the BGMI circuit. An experimental 128×128 BGMI readout chip has been designed and fabricated in 0.8 μm double-poly-double-metal (DPDM) n-well CMOS technology. The measurement results of the fabricated readout chip under 77 K and 5 V supply voltage have successfully verified both readout function and performance improvement. The fabricated chip has the maximum charge capacity of 9.5×10⁷ electrons, the transimpedance of 2.5×10⁹ Ω at 10 nA background current, and the arrive power dissipation of 40 mW. The uniformity of background suppression currents can be as high as 99%. Thus, high injection efficiency, high charge sensitivity, large dynamic range, large storage capacity, and low noise can be achieved In the BGMI circuit with the pixel size of 50×50 μm². These advantageous characteristics make the BCMI circuit suitable for various IR FPA readout applications with a wide range of background currents     

基于高次谐波体声波谐振器的微波振荡器设计

基于高次谐波体声波谐振器(HBAR)的高品质因数(Q)值和多模谐振特性,设计了Colpitts和Pierce两种形式的微波振荡器。采用HBAR与LC元件组成谐振回路的方法,与放大电路构成反馈环路直接基频输出微波频段信号。Colpitts振荡器输出信号频率为980 MHz,信号输出功率为-4.92dBm,信号相位噪声达-119.64dBc/Hz@10kHz;Pierce振荡电路输出信号频率达到2.962GHz,信号输出功率为-9.77dBm,信号相位噪声达-112.30dBc/Hz@10kHz。     

Optimum optical power splitting ratio of decision drivenphase-locked loop in BPSK optical homodyne receiver

In a BPSK optical homodyne receiver that utilizes a decision-driven phase-locked loop, the splitting ratio of the received power and that of the local oscillator power are very important parameters in achieving high receiver sensitivity. This paper determines the optimum setting of these parameters considering the influence of the relative intensity noise of the local oscillator and the thermal noise of the preamplifier. The optimum splitting ratio of the local oscillator power to the Q-arm is found to be 0.5. The splitting ratio of the received power to Q-arm is obtained as a function of laser linewidth. The optimum setting of the received power and the local oscillator power Is independent of the relative intensity noise of the local oscillator, the thermal noise of the preamplifier and the bit rate, At the optimum splitting ratios, required beat linewidth is obtained as 1.3×10 ^-3/T_b(τ/T_b≪1) and 2.99×10 ^-3/τ(τ/T_b≫1), where T_b is the bit duration and τ is the loop propagation delay time. We show that the total power penalty of 0.8 dB from the shot noise limit can be realized with the relative intensity noise of -170 dB/Hz and equivalent input noise current of 10 pA/√(Hz), even if an imperfect balanced receiver is utilized; quantum efficiency ratio of the twin-photodetector is 0.96, propagation time difference T/T_b is 0.01. To confirm the theoretical model, a BPSK homodyne detection experiment is performed and good agreement is found between theoretical and experimental results     

High-current resolution broad-band SQUID amplifier suitable for TEScalorimeter

A superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) amplifier has been developed as a current detector with both high-current resolution and broad bandwidth for a transition edge sensor calorimeter. The amplifier is a two stage SQUID (TSS) that consists of an input-SQUID with a 38-turn input coil and a 100-serial SQUID array (100-SSA) output, and has been integrated on a 3 × 3 mm Si chip using Nb thin film fabrication technology. It is designed to increase the amplifier gain and maintain matching with the parameters of the calorimeter. To avoid flux trapping in the SSA, the washer coil of the dc-SQUIDs in the SSA was made with a narrow line width of 17.5 μm. We experimentally confirmed that the designed output voltage was achieved using a one-layer p-metal magnetic shield tube in the earth's magnetic field. The performance of the shielded TSS amplifier was evaluated in liquid helium. The TSS amplifier had a gain of 10 kV/A and an impedance of 0.07 Ω at 100 kHz. When a flux locked loop circuit was used to drive the amplifier, a current resolution of 1 pA/√Hz and a rise time of 1 μs were achieved     

Multichannel SQUID magnetometry using double relaxation oscillationSQUID's

A highly sensitive first-order gradiometer based on double relaxation oscillation SQUID's (DROS's) for multichannel use is presented. The white flux noise level of the bare DROS's is 4.5 μΦ₀/√Hz (ε=275 h). With wire-wound first-order gradiometers, having a baseline of 40 mm, the white magnetic field noise equals 4 fT/√Hz. As a result of the high flux-to-voltage transfer of the DROS's of about 1 mV/Φ₀, this low noise level could be obtained with simple room-temperature flux locked loop electronics based on direct voltage readout. The relaxation frequency of the present DROS's is approximately 1 GHz. No degradation of the DROS characteristics caused by interference between relaxation oscillations in two adjacent channels has been observed, although the gradiometers are spaced by less than 1 mm. This shows that DROS's can be used in multichannel SQUID magnetometers     

A 2-V, 1.8-GHz BJT phase-locked loop

This paper describes the design of a bipolar junction transistor phase-locked loop (PLL) for ΣΔ fractional-N frequency-synthesis applications. Implemented in a 0.8-μm BiCMOS technology, the PLL can operate up to 1.8 GHz while consuming 225 mW of power from a single -2-V supply. The entire LC-tuned negative-resistance variable-frequency oscillator is integrated on the same chip. A differential low-voltage current-mode logic circuit configuration is used in most of the PLL's functional blocks to minimize phase jitter and achieve low-voltage operation. The multimodulus frequency divider is designed to support multibit digital modulation. The new phase and frequency detector and loop filter contain only npn transistors and resistors and thus achieve excellent resolution in phase comparison. When phase locked to a 53.4-MHz reference clock, the measured phase noise of the 16-GHz output is -91 dBc/Hz at 10-kHz offset. The frequency switching time from 1.677 to 1.797 GHz is 150 μs. Die size is 4300×4000 μm², including the passive loop filter     

一种UHF频段小数分频频率综合器设计与实现

基于130 nm CMOS工艺设计了一款特高频(UHF)频段的锁相环型小数分频频率综合器.电感电容式压控振荡器(LC VCO)片外调谐电感总值为2 nH时,其输出频率范围为1.06～1.24 GHz,调节调谐电感拓宽了频率输出范围,并利用开关电容阵列减小了压控振荡器的增益.使用电荷泵补偿电流优化了频率综合器的线性度与带内相位噪声.此外对电荷泵进行适当改进,确保了环路的稳定.测试结果表明,通过调节电荷泵补偿电流,频率综合器的带内相位噪声可优化3 dB以上,中心频率为1.12 GHz时,在1 kHz频偏处的带内相位噪声和1 MHz频偏处的带外相位噪声分别为-92.3和-120.9 dBc/Hz.最小频率分辨率为3 Hz,功耗为19.2 mW.     

A CMOS uncooled heat-balancing infrared imager

In this paper, we report the fabrication, design, and testing of an uncooled 8×8 infrared imager based on an active pixel heat balancing technique. The imager is fabricated using a commercial CMOS process plus a simple electrochemical etch stop releasing step. The basic active pixel detector structure consists of a simple cascode CMOS amplifier in which the PMOS devices are built inside a thermally isolated floating n-well. The intrinsic coupling of the cascode currents with the self-heating of the well forms an electrothermal feedback loop that tends to maintain the well temperature constant, By employing the heat balance between incoming infrared radiation and the PMOS device power dissipation, the responsivity of the detector is controlled by the cascode biasing current. Measurements show responsivities between 0.3-1.2×10⁶ V/W when the infrared source is chopped at 20 Hz and a detectivity D*=3×10⁷ cm√(Hz)W^-1 at 30 Hz. Noise measurements suggest that a D* of 10⁸ cm√(Hz)W^-1 is achievable in this design     

Low-noise back-illuminated AlxGa1-xN-basedp-i-n solar-blind ultraviolet photodetectors

We report the growth, fabrication and characterization of Al_0.4Ga_0.6N-Al_0.6Ga_0.4N back-illuminated, solar-blind p-i-n photodiodes. The peak responsivity of the photodiodes is 27 and 79 mA/W at λ≈280 nm for bias voltages of 0 V and -60 V, respectively, with a UV-to-visible rejection ratio of more than three decades (at 400 nm). These devices exhibit very low dark current densities (~5 nA/cm² at -10 V). At low frequencies, the noise exhibits a 1/f-type behavior. The noise power density is S₀≈5×10^-25 A²/Hz at -12.7 V and the detectivity (D*) at 0 V is estimated to be in the range of 4×10¹¹-5×10¹³ cm·Hz^1/2 /W. Time-domain pulse response measurements in a front-illumination configuration indicate that the devices are RC-time limited and show a strong spatial dependence with respect to the position of the incident excitation, which is mainly due to the high resistivity of the p-type Al_0.4Ga_0.6 N layer     

A 250 Hz spectral linewidth 1.5 mu m MQW-DFB laser diode with negative-electrical-feedback

A 1.5 mu m corrugation-pitch-modulated MQW-DFB laser diode (LD) with multielectrodes was frequency stabilized using the negative electrical feedback technique. The FM response of the LD was precisely measured and used for the feedback loop design. The FM noise of the LD was reduced and reached 10 Hz/sup 2//Hz at 1 kHz>     

Frequency control of self-sustained pulsating laser diodes byuniform impurity doping into multiple-quantum-well structures

The self-sustained pulsating frequency in index guided AlGaAs multiple-quantum-well (MQW) laser diodes is controlled by impurity doping into the active region to reduce the relative intensity noise induced by optical feedback through a short optical path. Uniform n-type impurity doping into an MQW structure more effectively reduces the frequency by decreasing the differential gain than does modulation doping with an n-type impurity. Uniform doping of 1×10¹⁸ cm^-3 into each quantum well layer reduces the frequency to less than 0.8 GHz, which corresponds to half or two-thirds that of undoped lasers. The uniformly n-doped self-sustained pulsating lasers provided low noise characteristics with a relative intensity noise below 1×10³ Hz^-1 under an optical feedback of 20% even with a short optical path length of 60 mm