INVESTIGATION OF VACUUM MICROELECTRONIC FIELD EMITTER ARRAY TECHNOLOGY FOR OPTICAL SIGNAL PROCESSING

OPTICAL SIGNAL PROCESSING IS COMMONLY IDENTIFIED AS ONE OF THE MAJOR TECHNOLOGIES THAT MUST BE EXPLOITED IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUPER HIGH BANDWIDTH PROCESSORS. THE NEED FOR INCREASED PROCESSING POWER IN SMALL AND ROBUST PACKAGES IS ESPECIALLY ACUTE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF ASAT WEAPONS SYSTEMS, BUT DEVELOPMENT OF VIABLE OPTICAL COMPUTING DEVICES HAS BEEN SLOW. THE MOST BASIC AND CRITICAL OPTICAL COMPONENT IS THE SPATIAL LIGHT MODULATORS (SLM). FOR EXAMPLE, THE SLM IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF OPTICAL CORRELATORS THAT MAY BE USED FOR MULTITARGET DETECTION, ACQUISITION AND TRACKING. WE PROPOSE A NEW BREED OF SLMS BASED ON THE RELATIVELY RECENT PROGRESS IN INTEGRATED VACUUM MICROELECTRONICS. ADVANCES IN FABRICATION AND PROCESSING TECHNIQUES HAVE MADE IT POSSIBLE TO PRODUCE INTEGRATED ARRAYS OF THOUSANDS OF COLD CATHODE ELECTRON EMITTERS. THESE DEVICES ARE SUPERIOR TO THERMIONIC CATHODES AND MICROCHANNEL ELECTRON MULTIPLIERS IN SEVERAL RESPECTS INCLUDING OUTPUT CURRENT DENSITY, SIZE, RUGGEDNESS, RADIATION HARDNESS AND SPEED. THE PROPOSED WORK PLAN AIMS TO DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF FIELD EMITTER TECHNOLOGY FOR SPATIAL LIGHT MODULATOR DEVICES. EMITTER ARRAYS WILL BE EXPERIMENTALLY CHARACTERIZED AND A PROTOTYPE ELECTROOPTIC MODULATOR WILL BE DEMONSTRATED IN PHASE I. DESIGN OF A 2-D MODULATOR WILL BE CONSIDERED, INCLUDING OPTIMIZED ADDRESSING SCHEMES FOR INCREASIG DATA FRAME RATES.