100 GHz real-time measurement station

• Subject Area: Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
• Term: Funded in 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 511745882

The department "Mixed Signal Circuit Design" (MSC) at the Technische Universität Berlin, headed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Friedel Gerfers, develops circuits and systems for wired and wireless high-speed communication as well as automotive applications with its research groups "Wireline Communication Systems" and "Wireless Communication Systems". Current projects include complete transceivers as well as transceiver components - with data converters as the core competence.Wired projects include transceivers with data rates of up to 224 Gbit/s (112 GBaud PAM4) and components such as VCSELs and optical modulators with symbol rates of up to 150 GBaud to advance the development of current and future transmission technologies in data centers (400 and 800 Gigabit Ethernet). Wireless frequency ranges up to the D-band (with up to 170 GHz) are used for communication systems to be developed with data rates of more than 100 Gbit/s, in particular for the next mobile phone generation "6G". In order to have the characterization capabilities necessary for this research, the present proposal requests a 100 GHz real-time measurement setup (“100 GHz Echtzeitmessplatz”) and, in a parallel proposal, a W- and D-band spectral measurement setup (“W- und D-Band Spektralmessplatz (75-170 GHz)”).The 100 GHz real-time measurement setup consists of the bandwidth extension of an existing 70 GHz real-time oscilloscope, which was also funded through a major research instrumentation proposal in 2019, but at that time neither had the project need nor the funding opportunity for a bandwidth extension to 100 GHz. The need of the bandwidth extension to 100 GHz as well as the past use of the existing 70 GHz real-time oscilloscope are presented in this proposal.The 100 GHz real-time measuring setup is required in the current research mentioned, e.g., for the measurement of eye diagrams and their characteristic properties (eye opening, bit error rate, intersymbol interference, noise and jitter analysis) as well as for linearity observation by examining single tones up to higher harmonics (e.g., 7th order). Here, broadband, continuous data streams need to be recorded for reliable analyses, which is why the subsampling architecture of a sampling oscilloscope cannot be used.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: 100 GHz Echtzeitmessplatz
• Instrumentation Group: 2730 Modulatoren, Frequenzhub- und -modulationsmeßgeräte
• Applicant Institution: Technische Universität Berlin
• Leader: Professor Dr.-Ing. Friedel Gerfers