Graphene based terahertz phase modulators

In this paper we report the results of extensive research on phase modulation (PM) and amplitude modulation (AM) noise in linear bipolar junction transistor (BJT) amplifiers. BJT amplifiers exhibit 1/f PM and AM noise about a carrier signal that is much larger than the amplifier's thermal noise at those frequencies in the absence of the carrier signal. Our work shows that the 1/f PM noise of a BJT based amplifier is accompanied by 1/f AM noise which can be higher, lower, or nearly equal depending on the circuit implementation. The 1/f AM and PM noise in BJTs is primarily the result of 1/f fluctuations in transistor current, transistor capacitance, circuit supply voltages, circuit impedances, and circuit configuration. We discuss the theory and present experimental data in reference to common emitter amplifiers, but the analysis can be applied to other configurations as well. This study provides the functional dependence of 1/f AM and PM noise on transistor parameters, circuit parameters, and signal frequency, thereby laying the groundwork for a comprehensive theory of 1/f AM and PM noise in BJT amplifiers. We show that in many cases the 1/f PM and AM noise can be reduced below the thermal noise of the amplifier.

Acoustic holography underpins the number of modern acoustics applications. The usage of multi-focal acoustic holograms with phased array transducers (PATs) in ultrasonic tactile displays and acoustic levitation are increasing, and achieving a high-quality hologram are of significant interest. Inspired by the latest optical hologram optimizer, we developed a novel acoustic hologram optimizer for PATs called Diff-PAT [T. Fushimi, K. Yamamoto, and Y. Ochiai, “Acoustic hologram optimisation using automatic differentiation”]. Diff-PAT is based on a gradient-descent algorithm and automatic differentiation. The performance of Diff-PAT was numerically evaluated using three array configurations and it achieved superior accuracy over the conventional optimizers. For example, when two focal points are generated with 196 ultrasonic (40 kHz) transducers; the state of art optimizer (with phase and amplitude modulation) based on Eigensolver has an average error of 4.07 % where Diff-PAT (with only phase modulation) achieve average error of 0.0174%. These results show that amplitude and phase modulation may not be necessary for PATs to be successful. Furthermore, we demonstrate the versatility of Diff-PAT by applying it to binary acoustic holograms, simultaneous modulation of acoustic amplitude and phase at the target plane, and phase plates. [Work supported by Pixie Dust Technologies, Inc., Diff-PAT is patent pending (JP2020-167367A).]

A nonlinear circuit with periodic operation, such as a mixer and oscillator, can be modeled as a linear periodic time‐varying circuit by assuming a small‐signal input and output. This paper presents a method by which the transfer function of such a periodic time‐varying circuit can be decomposed into phase and amplitude modulation components. Assuming a small input, the phase modulation component can be interpreted as a result of narrow‐band phase modulation with a small modulation index. Thus, it suffices to consider only the first sideband. As regards the spectrum of the amplitude modulated signal, it suffices to consider only the first sideband, regardless of the modulation index. Thus, the two spectra corresponding to the upper and lower sidebands around the carrier are decomposed into narrow‐band phase and amplitude modulation components, and the transfer function can be decomposed into phase and amplitude modulation components. By this method, it becomes possible to decompose the noise of the mixer and the oscillator into the amplitude noise and the phase, or to simulate AM‐PM conversion. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 3, 85(7): 29–37, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecjc.1105

This paper deals with mechanical fault monitoring in induction machines from stator current measurements. The considered faults lead to amplitude and/or phase modulations of the measured stator current. The different faults can be characterized by their time-frequency signatures via the Wigner distribution. The time-frequency representations apply to complex signals that may be obtained through the Hubert transform of the real measured signal. In case of high frequency modulations, it can not be taken advantage of the time frequency signatures. This study proposes an alternative complex signal representation for modulated stator currents. The so-called space vector is obtained through the Concordia transform. From three stator current measurements, the Concordia transform builds a complex vector which conveniently carries the information about phase and amplitude modulations. This paper applies and compares the Wigner distribution computed with the Hilbert and Concordia transforms in case of simulated and experimental signals with various modulation frequency ranges.

Anisotropic impedance surfaces have been used to control surface wave propagation, which has benefited applications across a variety of fields including radio-frequency (RF) and optical devices, sensing, electromagnetic compatibility, wireless power transfer, and communications. However, the responses of these surfaces are fixed once they are fabricated. Although tunable impedance surfaces have been introduced by utilizing power-dependent nonlinear components, such a tuning mechanism is generally limited to specific applications. Here we propose an additional mechanism to achieve tunable anisotropic impedance surfaces by embedding transient circuits that are controllable via the type of incident waveform. By switching between the open and short states of the circuits, it is possible to separately control the unit-cell impedances in two orthogonal directions, thereby changing from an isotropic impedance surface to an anisotropic impedance surface. Our simulation results show that a short pulse strongly propagates for both x and y directions at 3GHz. However, when the waveform changes to a continuous wave, the transmittance for x direction is reduced to 26%, although still the transmittance for y direction achieves 77%. Therefore, the proposed metasurfaces are capable of guiding a surface wave in a specific direction based on the incident waveform even with the same power level and at the same frequency. Our study paves new avenues regarding the use of surface wave control in applications ranging from wireless communications to sensing and cloaking devices.

Designs of optical lenses based on metallic nanoslits are carried out based on the phase and amplitude modulation by tuning the slit widths. The slits are perforated on thin metallic film, and the width of each slit is achieved by simulated annealing algorithms, which is connected with both the amplitude and phase modulation. Two kinds of focal lenses, which can realize one or two focus points, have been designed. The finite-difference time-domain method is employed to check the performance of the designed lenses. Simulation results show that the designed lenses can perform the preset functions well. Using this method, multiple optical elements with different functions can be conveniently achieved in subwavelength scale.

A series of experiments investigated the interaction of phase and amplitude modulation in the auditory perception of movement of a fused, lateralized sound image. A technique was developed whereby the perception of periodic motion in the coronal plane of the head could be produced either by sinusoidal modulation of the amplitude or phase relation of a pure tone carrier presented to each ear. At a given modulation frequency the observer set the amplitude of either the phase shift or the differential amplitude change in order to just detect motion in the sound image. The threshold amount of each measure was defined as unity and the observer was then presented with various ratios of the two mixed in two ways: (1) Phase lead to one ear with amplitude increase to the same ear or (2) phase lead to one ear with amplitude increase to the other ear. Evidence for super additivity of amplitude and phase modulation was found for condition I while evidence for subadditivity for am and pm was found in condition number 2. Both these results suggest that, although both time and intensity differences are used by the human auditory mechanisms involved in the perception of movement, they have at least some different neural substrates.

A practical implementation of a portable secondary standard for phase modulation (PM) and amplitude modulation (AM) noise at 5, 10, and 100 MHz is described. The accuracy of the standard for both PM and AM noise is +or-0.14 dB, and the temperature coefficient is less than 0.02 dB/K. The noise floor of the standard for PM noise measurements is less than -190 dBC rel to 1 rad/sup 2//Hz at 5, 10, and 100 MHz. The noise floor for AM measurements depends on the configuration. A calibrated level of PM and AM noise of approximately-130+or-0.2 dB rel to 1 rad/sup 2//Hz is used to evaluate the accuracy versus Fourier frequency. This standard can also be used as an alternative to the normal method of the PM/AM detector for PM/AM measurements. >

Phase modulation with an analytic signal, which is a Gaussian random process, is examined in order to determine the amount of spectrum conservation that may be achieved by using single-sideband phase modulation (SSB-PM) rather than conventional phase modulation (PM). The autocorrelation function is derived and found to be an analytic signal in terms of the autocorrelation function of the actual modulating signal and its Hilbert transform. When the modulating signal strength is very low, the sideband spectral distribution is the same as that of the actual modulating signal or single-sideband amplitude modulation. As the modulating signal mean-square value is increased, the sideband spectrum broadens and approaches a Gaussian shape. The average power output of an SSB-PM system increases exponentially with input modulating signal strength, while the carrier power remains constant. For the same modulating signal mean-square value, a greater fraction of power is in the one sideband of an SSB-PM system than in the two sidebands of conventional PM. Single-sideband phase or frequency modulation always effectuates spectrum conservation in the continuum when it is compared with conventional phase or frequency modulation on the basis of equal relative sideband power. A Fourier transform computer program is used to generate SSB-PM spectral distributions with varying modulating signal mean-square values, when the modulating signal spectrum is a low-pass rectangular spectrum, a narrowband pass spectrum, and the shape of an average voice spectrum. These examples illustrate the power series formulation of the output spectrum as well as the theoretical analysis of bandwidth.

An experimental investigation into the role of simultaneous amplitude and phase modulation of velocity fluctuations characterizing the near-field transition of an initially laminar planar jet at moderate Reynolds number is presented. Very low level periodic acoustic excitation at selected frequencies is applied upstream of the nozzle exit in order to introduce an organized carrier wave into the flow. Instantaneous amplitude and phase modulates are computed directly from hot-wire velocity fluctuation data which allows their respective role in the jet transition process to be quantified. It is found that amplitude modulation serves to provide energy to amplifying sideband fluctuations which multitone phase modulation effectively redistributes to neighboring spectral modes in the nonlinear stages of transition. The phase modulation is found to result from an experimentally verified amplitude dependence in the dispersion relation. The phase angle between amplitude and phase modulation is found to be an important parameter in governing the spectral development of the shear layer by its effect on sideband asymmetry. While the essential physics associated with the modulation phenomenon is found to be quite similar to that previously reported in plane wakes, the presence of the subharmonic resonant interaction in the planar jet shear layer adds an additional dimension to the modulation phenomenon.

We present a subsampling polar transmitter (SSPTX) in 28-nm CMOS that consists of a low-noise phase modulating (PM) digital subsampling phase-locked loop (PLL) and a harmonic rejection mixed (HRM) inverse-class-D ( $\mathrm {D}^{-1}$ ) digital power amplifier (DPA) for amplitude modulation (AM). The DPA is, unlike in a typical polar transmitter (TX), placed within the PLL and the phase-error detection happens directly at the DPA output. The subsampling polar TX thus becomes sensitive not only to phase errors but also to modulation amplitude. That feature enables AM–AM and PM–PM distortion to be detected and cancelled digitally in the background, while the transmitter operates normally. Moreover, the AM–PM cross distortion is filtered by the loop itself. The chip operates from a 0.9-V supply at 5.5 GHz with 2.5 MHz BW (1024 QAM) with average 1.1-dBm output power and total power consumption of 50 mW.

Previous methods for the generation of accelerating beams are mostly based on bulky phase-only spatial light modulator. Here we propose an experimental scheme for the generation of accelerating beams by fabricating a quartz plate capable of realizing both phase and amplitude modulation. The phase modulation is implemented by aligned 16-level etching into the quartz plate, while the amplitude modulation is realized by controlling the duty ratio of the partial metal coverage locally. Based on this approach, a sinusoidal accelerating beam with multiple bending is generated for demonstration and propagates along a sinusoidal trajectory as expected.

When an RF carrier is amplified by a GaAs MESFET, amplitude modulation (AM) and phase modulation (PM) noises are imposed on the carrier. This is generally believed to be caused by transposition to the carrier frequency of the low-frequency flicker noise generated by the FET. The cross correlation between the AM and PM noises and the low-frequency noise observed on the drain of the FET is measured. While the AM noise and the low-frequency noise on the drain of the FET exhibit a high degree of correlation, the PM noise and the low-frequency drain noise are not highly correlated. The latter result may explain the limited success of oscillator phase noise reduction methods which rely on the existence of a large cross correlation between the PM and low-frequency noises. >

The simultaneous control of amplitude and phase via metasurfaces affords us unprecedented degree of freedom in manipulating electromagnetic waves, but currently most designs suffer from low efficiency which raises certain concerns for real-world applications. Moreover, the complete amplitude, phase and polarization modulation is particularly challenging, which typically requires a combination of attenuators, optically thick wave plates and large dielectric lenses. Here, we propose an alternative scheme by introducing vertical mode cross-coupling for polarization control and high efficiency, while by involving spatially-varied orientations and structures for independent amplitude and phase modulation. The vertical mode cross-coupling is synthesized by stacking triple-layer twisted split ring resonators (SRRs) operated in transmissive scheme. Such tight cross-coupling and chirality-assisted coherent multiple resonances facilitates high cross-polarization conversion efficiency (~100%) and broadband transmission window with full phase cover. As a proof of concept, two dual-focal metalenses that are challenging to be actualized through conventional metasurfaces are designed, numerically and experimentally studied with a total thickness of λo/12 at microwave frequencies. Desirable dual focusing behavior with axial and lateral alignment of two foci are demonstrated. Our findings, not confined to microwave operation, opens up an alternative way in fine controlling light and can stimulate novel and high-performance versatile photonic metadevices.

We show that a high-resolution software package can be adapted to calculate the amplitude modulation (AM) and phase modulation (PM) noise performance of Si Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) amplifiers. Our simulations predict that the PM noise induced by bias current noise can be greatly suppressed by operating at special bias conditions. Furthermore, a dc balance amplifier circuit is introduced to stabilize the base-to-collector voltage. The total sensitivity of PM noise to power supply noise using dc balance architecture can be reduced by 40 dB compared to basic amplifier architecture. This is experimentally verified.