Millimeter wave Instrumentation and Characterization

Equipment required for transmission and reflection measurements above 100 GHz is cost prohibitive, can possess undesirable harmonics, and is largely incompatible with vacuum equipment. Implementation of basic RF photonic technologies as an alternative to typical electronic instrumentation is not unheard of and was demonstrated circa 2011. We propose that with a current RF photonic approach we will be able to offer an alternative mmW characterization system that demonstrates comparable functionality to electronic standard systems all while in a drastically reduced footprint. In addition to the dramatic improvement of the form-factor, the method of integration and signal generation can yield a significant improvement on the cost and availability of DC-110 GHz device characterization.