Chalmers builds new terahertz laboratory

http://www.chalmers.se/en/departments/mc2/news/Pages/New-terahertz-laboratory-being-built-here.aspx

The first components for Chalmers new national measurement laboratory for characterisation of terahertz frequencies are now in place in the MC2 building. We were on hand on the 6th floor when Anritsu installed the brand new oscilloscope. "This is a very important aspect of verifying our circuits and systems. It is a very welcome addition," says Herbert Zirath.

From left, Rabee al Hayek and Thomas Ogestadh from Anritsu, and Jörgen Stenarson, Simon He, Herbert Zirath and Jan Grahn.

He is a professor of high speed electronics and one of the research leaders for the new measurement laboratory, which is headed by Director Jörgen Stenarson. Both of the men were there when the oscilloscope was installed, together with Jan Grahn, professor of microwave electronics, and Simon He, assistant professor.

What is this before us?
"It is an oscilloscope with very high bandwidth. It can intercept signals with a bandwidth of 100 gigahertz, which is the highest in the world. We are going to use it in our projects that focus on wireless and wired communication with high data rates. We are aiming for 100 gigabits per second. "The oscilloscope is a very important aspect of verifying our circuits and systems. It is a very welcome addition," says Herbert Zirath.

First in the world
Chalmers' new oscilloscope is the first one to be delivered in the world.
"This is an important part of the investment from the grant we received from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. This is a central first delivery, and something we are happy to tell our financial backers about," says Jan Grahn.

Rabee al Hayek demonstrating the new oscilloscope for Jörgen Stenarson and Herbert Zirath.

Research on a higher level
Simon He is an assistant professor at the microwave electronics division and is part of the terahertz laboratory's project team. He is very pleased with the new oscilloscope:
"Our older instruments were limiting the research. Our new equipment allows us to perform research on a much higher level, and we can expect greatly improved results in the near future. It is a good feeling to be the first in the world to have the new oscilloscope," says Simon He.

Cooperation a milestone for supplier
The oscilloscope is a Lecroy and was delivered to Chalmers by Thomas Ogestadh and Rabee al Hayek from Anritsu.
"We are extremely grateful for being entrusted with the delivery and are very happy we can cooperate with Chalmers. I hope the cooperation will benefit us both. The equipment will help Chalmers attract more students and get projects since the oscilloscope is the only one in the world. For our part, cooperating with Chalmers is a milestone in Anritsu's history. And it is gratifying that specifically Gothenburg is the location of the first delivery," says Thomas Ogestadh, who is the business development manager at Anritsu.
The company is headquartered in Stockholm, but also has representatives in Gothenburg and Lund.

Text and photo: Michael Nystås

Read also >>>
Jörgen Stenarson to lead new terahertz laboratory

Jörgen Stenarson to lead new terahertz laboratory

http://www.chalmers.se/en/departments/mc2/news/Pages/Jorgen-Stenarson-to-lead-new-terahertz-laboratory.aspx

Jörgen Stenarson has been appointed as head of the new national laboratory for terahertz characterisation - which will be hosted by MC2. He is recruited from SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden and will take over on March 1 2015. The plans for the laboratory were revealed at a well-attended information meeting just before Christmas.

"This is supported as a scientific infrastructure by the management at Chalmers, and that is a very important classification for us. We have proven that we can create an open environment for science and for the users", says Jan Grahn, Professor in Microwave Electronics at MC2.
He makes up the team of principal investigators for the new laboratory together with professors Herbert Zirath and Jan Stake, MC2, Victor Belitsky, Earth and Space Sciences, and Per-Simon Kildal, Signals and systems - S2.

Different departments join forces
A project group has also been formed, with Mattias Thorsell and Simon He, Microwave Electronics, MC2, Robin Dahlbäck, Michael Andersson and Sergey Cherdnichenko, Terahertz and Millimetre Wave Technology, MC2, Erik Sundin, The Group for Advanced Receiver Development (GARD), Earth and Space Sciences, and Ashraf Uz Zaman, Antenna Systems, S2.
Altogether the lab will engage about one hundred researchers and PhD students from Chalmers alone.
"This is a very good example for when different departments go together to get money for research infrastructure", says Jan Grahn.
The aim for the project team was to write technical specifications for the equipment needed and was partly done during the autumn of 2014.
"They were looking on this regarding specific equipment, but also regarding potential synergies between all types of equipment. It is a complicated work for us, because there are many options, and very expensive equipment, but I feel we have got a very good start", says Jan Grahn.

Large investments to be made
Large investments are planned during 2015 and 2016. Jan Grahn estimates these to around 50 MSEK, mainly made possible by a grant from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW).
"We are going to create a state of the art lab for terahertz characterisation. It will have a lot of interesting equipment both for on-wafer as well as free-space probing. This is very expensive equipment, so we need those millions to carry this through", says Jan Grahn.

The core of investments will be in the range of terahertz components (on-wafer and free-space & waveguide measurements), terahertz systems (transceiver setup, Tbit/s system setup) and terahertz spectroscopy (Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS), Spectroscopy). A cryo cooler and a DC probe station will also be added as side equipment to the infrastructure. The new equipment were presented in detail by members of the project group.

Taking advantage of decades of earlier research
The new laboratory will be located on the 6th floor of the MC2 building and has 45 square metres at its disposal for the time being. But this is maybe not enough:
"It's five rooms and we have already a lot of equipment gathered throughout the years, but it remains to be seen if we can fit everything”, says Jan Grahn with a smile.
It is really no coincidence that the new environment will be hosted by MC2 and Chalmers.
"We are in fact taking advantage of decades of microwave and antenna research. We are indeed building up on a good tradition. The news is that we are carrying this out in one common laboratory infrastructure for high-frequency characterisation", Jan Grahn pointed out in his presentation.

New head appointed
Head of the laboratory will be Dr Jörgen Stenarson:
"Jörgen has more than ten years of post-doctoral experience in microwave measurement techniques, which makes him very, very good for this position. He will be a key person in pulling this together", says Jan Grahn.
As lab director Jörgen Stenarson will be responsible for the operational and technical development in collaboration with users and principal investigators. 
Text and photo: Michael Nystås

Background information

Widest band amplifier ever at 235 GHz opens door to ultrafast broadband

Microphotograph of two stage-235 GHz amplifier Microwave Monolithic Integrated Circuit MMIC (Dimensions: 1.12 mm x 0.48 mm)

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-03-widest-band-amplifier-ghz-door.html#jCp
http://phys.org/news/2014-03-widest-band-amplifier-ghz-door.html#jCp

(Phys.org) —An exciting collaboration between University College London, UCL, and Chalmers University of Technology has led to a world breakthrough in wide band amplifier circuit design.
An exciting research collaboration between UCL and Chalmers has resulted in the design and testing of the widest band amplifier ever reported. The work was led by Professor Herbert Zirath, Head of the Microwave Electronics Laboratory at the Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience at Chalmers and Professor Izzat Darwazeh, Head of the Communications and Information Systems Group in UCL Electronic and Electrical Engineering.

Zirath and Darwazeh started on the joint project in the summer of 2012 aiming to design circuits suited for communication at frequencies approaching the terahertz (THz) region. A set of amplifier circuits were designed by PhD-student Klas Eriksson, manufactured by Teledyne in the USA and measured at Chalmers a few months ago.

The research team was delighted that the new amplifiers tested achieved results so close to design predictions; exceptionally wide broad band operation; from low GHz frequencies to frequencies exceeding 235 GHz and provided a gain exceeding 15dB, translating to a gain bandwidth product of approximately 1.5 THz. The design team believes this amplifier is at least twice as fast (in terms of bandwidth) as the fastest amplifier reported to-date.

"This achievement was possible both because of excellent technological advances in nanotechnology and state of the art design processes and techniques. This technology will help make ultrafast broadband possible for widespread use not only for communication systems but also for different scientific and test and measurement instrumentation," Izzat Darwazeh said.

The circuit builds on previous research and design work reported by Zirath and Darwazeh over the past two decades.

"This result is of considerable interest for the development of new products within the area of communication and instrumentation such as fast oscilloscopes, pulse amplifiers and fast fiber optic receivers," Herberth Zirath said.

 Explore further: Cooled integrated circuit amplifies with lowest noise so far