Silicon based Millimeter-Wave (MMW) sparse array radiometer receiver for photonic processing

The proposed innovation adopts a hybrid electro-optical approach, which combines the best of the electronic and photonic approaches to achieve high sensitivity, high inter-channel stability, and large-scale integration for an integrated mm-wave receiver. Silicon photonics provides the ideal platform for this as it enables the up-conversion of the mm-wave signals from each pixel to telecommunication frequencies on densely integrated Silicon chips. All of these signals can be efficiently multiplexed and transferred with low-loss optical fiber - greatly reducing the cost, size, weight and power of the overall system while maintaining low noise and maximizing sensitivity. As a result, we no longer need to digitize wideband signal and the optical fibers can be used for information transfer over long distances. Careful frequency planning significantly alleviates the image rejection requirement.