Investigation of Diode Lasers for Portable On-Aircraft Applications

Not Available In this Phase I proposal, PRI proposes to use a completely new technique for the design of an integrated-circuit-based VCO. The technique will use integrated automatic tuning and trimming to achieve an ultra-stable, low power oscillator. We will achieve this by optimizing a combination of parameters important for ultra high performance oscillators to reduce phase noise: high Q, low gain, low noise device and highest linearity for the oscillator. A parallel architecture with an array of LC on-chip oscillators for trimming will be used. Noise will be suppressed by a larger amplitude swing permitted by the more linear MOS devices. We will show in the proposal that this technique will provide a predicted thermal phase noise floor of -175 dBc/Hz and 1/fn corner frequencies less that 20 kHz. The final output of the Phase I effort will consist of the final detailed circuit design, layout and fabrication of prototype and testing of the prototype.