RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT LEADING TO A MMIC NONINVASIVE VOLTAGE MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENT TO 100 GIGAHERTZ

RESEARCH INVESTIGATORS HAVE REPORTED EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS WHEREIN THEY HAVE SUCCESSFULLY MEASURED HIGH SPEED VOLTAGES IN ELECTRO-OPTIC MATERIALS. THEY USED PICOSECOND LASER PULSES TO SAMPLE THE ELECTRIC FIELD PRODUCED BY THE VOLTAGE. THIS TECHNIQUE IS NONINVASIVE - THE VOLTAGE IS MEASURED WITHOUT CHANGING THE CIRCUIT IMPEDANCE. LIGHTWAVE PROPOSES TO USE THE GENERAL TECHNOLOGY OF THIS EXISTING RESEARCH BASE AS A STARTING POINT TO DEVELOP A COMMERCIAL INSTRUMENT USEFUL FOR MONOLITHIC MICROWAVE INTEGRATED CIRCUIT (MMIC) CHARACTERIZATION, MODELING AND DEBUGGING. THIS PHASE I PROPOSAL DESCRIBES A SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS THAT WILL HELP DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY AND DEFINE THE POTENTIAL CONFIGURATION OF A MMIC VOLTAGE TEST INSTRUMENT WHICH COULD OPERATE TO 100 GIGAHERTZ.