Optical Time Delay Modules for RF Systems and Telecommunications

Eight-bit optical true time delay devices have been demonstrated on a new low loss high index contrast photonics platform. In this proposal the performance (i.e. loss and speed) of high-index monolithically integrated programmable delay circuits will be optimized and systems research will be conducted to select complementary components to realize practical systems. High index glass planar lightwave circuits will lead to integration densities of a 100-fold improvement relative to conventional processes, thus dramatically reducing the size, power consumption and cost of optical true time delay circuits. Reliability is dramatically improved as the devices have monolithically integrated switches and delay lines within a single chip relative to systems based on discrete photonic components. In addition to components research, an output of this program will be a plan to test and demonstrate systems based monolithic true time delay devices.