skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: Antenna-coupled microbolometer based on VO2's non-linear properties across the metal–insulator transition region
This paper presents an antenna-coupled non-linear vanadium dioxide (VO2) microbolometer operating in the non-linear metal–insulator transition (MIT) region with an ultra-high responsivity of 6.55 × 104 V/W. Sputtered VO2 films used in this device exhibit 104 times change in resistivity between the dielectric and conductive states. The VO2 microbolometer is coupled to a wideband dipole antenna operating at 31–55 GHz and a coplanar waveguide for probed measurement. To enhance the sensitivity, the sensor is suspended in air by micro-electro-mechanical systems process. The large thermal coefficient of resistance of VO2 is utilized by DC biasing the device in the MIT region. Measurements for the fabricated sensor were performed, and a high responsivity was demonstrated, owing to non-linear conductivity change in the transition region. The measured sensitivity is >102 times higher than the state-of-the-art sensors. In addition, the concept of utilizing the proposed VO2 sensor in a mmWave imager was demonstrated by the radiation pattern measurement of a 4 × 4 (16 elements) antenna-coupled VO2 sensor array. The results presented in this work reveal the initial step to employ VO2's MIT for a hyper-sensitive sensor in future mmWave sensing and imaging applications.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2149886
PAR ID:
10439927
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Publisher / Repository:
American Institute of Physics
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Applied Physics Letters
Volume:
121
Issue:
20
ISSN:
0003-6951
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; ; ; (, Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control)
    null (Ed.)
    Abstract Vanadium dioxide (VO2) undergoes a metal-insulator transition (MIT) at approximately 68 °C, with associated sharp changes in its physical (e.g., optical, electrical, and mechanical) properties. This behavior makes VO2 films of interest in many potential applications, including memory devices, switches, sensors, and optical modulators. For ON/OFF like digital applications, an abrupt switching behavior is ideal. However, to continuously change VO2 metal/insulator phase ratio for analog-like operation, the intrinsic hysteresis characteristic of VO2 MIT renders the phase control becoming a formidable challenge. This paper considers the problem of controlling and tracking desired optical transmittance via continuous phase ratio change. The problem becomes worse while considering the differences of individual thin-film samples and the hysteresis associated with the phase change within a narrow temperature range. This paper reports a robust feedback controller using an optical transmittance measurement and based on an uncertainty and disturbance estimator (UDE) architecture. The proposed controller is capable of mitigating the adverse effect of hysteresis, while also compensating for various uncertainties. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology is demonstrated with experimental validation. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; ; ; (, APL Photonics)
    Plasmonic metasurfaces with adjustable optical responses can be achieved through phase change materials (PCMs) with high optical contrast. However, the on–off behavior of the phase change process results in the binary response of photonic devices, limiting the applications to the two-stage modulation. In this work, we propose a reconfigurable metasurface emitter based on a gold nanorod array on a VO2 thin film for achieving continuously tunable narrowband thermal emission. The electrode line connecting the center of each nanorod not only enables emission excitation electrically but also activates the phase transition of VO2 beneath the array layer due to Joule heating. The change in the dielectric environment due to the VO2 phase transition results in the modulation of emissivity from the plasmonic metasurfaces. The device performances regarding critical geometrical parameters are analyzed based on a fully coupled electro-thermo-optical finite element model. This new metasurface structure extends the binary nature of PCM based modulations to continuous reconfigurability and provides new possibilities toward smart metasurface emitters, reflectors, and other nanophotonic devices. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ; ; (, IEEE Dynamic Spectrum, Access Networks (DySPAN) 2024)
    A reconfigurable substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) filtenna operating in the 5G millimeter Wave (mmWave) band is presented, where varactors are integrated into the filtering-antenna structure to change the resonant frequency and coupling between the SIW resonators. The proposed structure allows for the reconfigurability of the antenna radiation frequency band in the range of 24-27 GHz, covering most of the 3GPP n258 band, with a constant bandwidth of 400 MHz and broadside radiation pattern. A prototype of the proposed mmWave filtenna is designed and fabricated, where the measurement results are in good agreement with the simulation. The proposed cost-effective and scalable filtenna is an ideal candidate for deployment in 5G wireless networks, with the ability to reduce adjacent channel interference (ACI) and enable passive spectrum coexistence with weather sensors in the 23.8 GHz band. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; (, Materials)
    Artificially designed modulators that enable a wealth of freedom in manipulating the terahertz (THz) waves at will are an essential component in THz sources and their widespread applications. Dynamically controlled metasurfaces, being multifunctional, ultrafast, integrable, broadband, high contrasting, and scalable on the operating wavelength, are critical in developing state-of-the-art THz modulators. Recently, external stimuli-triggered THz metasurfaces integrated with functional media have been extensively explored. The vanadium dioxide (VO2)-based hybrid metasurfaces, as a unique path toward active meta-devices, feature an insulator–metal phase transition under the excitation of heat, electricity, and light, etc. During the phase transition, the optical and electrical properties of the VO2 film undergo a massive modification with either a boosted or dropped conductivity by more than four orders of magnitude. Being benefited from the phase transition effect, the electromagnetic response of the VO2-based metasufaces can be actively controlled by applying external excitation. In this review, we present recent advances in dynamically controlled THz metasurfaces exploiting the VO2 phase transition categorized according to the external stimuli. THz time-domain spectroscopy is introduced as an indispensable platform in the studies of functional VO2 films. In each type of external excitation, four design strategies are employed to realize external stimuli-triggered VO2-based THz metasurfaces, including switching the transreflective operation mode, controlling the dielectric environment of metallic microstructures, tailoring the equivalent resonant microstructures, and modifying the electromagnetic properties of the VO2 unit cells. The microstructures’ design and electromagnetic responses of the resulting active metasurfaces have been systematically demonstrated, with a particular focus on the critical role of the VO2 films in the dynamic modulation processes. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; ; ; (, Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers)
    Power consumption of multiuser (MU) precoding is a major concern in all-digital massive MU multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) basestations with hundreds of antenna elements operating at millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequencies. We propose to replace part of the linear Wiener filter (WF) precoding matrix by a Finite-Alphabet WF Precoding (FAWP) matrix, which enables the use of low-precision hardware that consumes low power and area. To minimize the performance loss of our approach, we present methods that efficiently compute mean-square error (MSE)-optimal FAWP matrices. Our results show that FAWP matrices are able to approach infinite-precision error-rate and error vector magnitude performance with only 3-bit precoding weights, even when operating under realistic mmWave propagation conditions. Hence, FAWP is a promising approach to substantially reduce power consumption and silicon area in all-digital mmWave massive MU-MIMO systems. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email