Monolithic Electronic-Photonic Systems for Massive-MIMO Millimeter-Wave Applications

Ruocheng Wang

EECS Department
University of California, Berkeley
Technical Report No. UCB/EECS-2024-201
December 1, 2024

http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2024/EECS-2024-201.pdf

Modern wireless communication systems at millimeter-wave frequency band embrace the scalable massive-MIMO architecture to address the increasing demand for data capacity, while the design challenge in terms of size, weight, power and cost still remain in the pure electrical millimeter-wave systems. Leveraging miniaturized modulators with high bandwidth capacity, silicon photonic links provides potential solutions for large scale data communication within such systems. This work proposes a disaggregated architecture based on silicon photonic link and presents several essential design considerations. For the silicon photonic modulation, the conventional microring modulator is analyzed and proven to have fundamental operating frequency limitation due to its intrinsic characteristic, and so the advanced modulators are presented as the alternative solution with their individual performance metrics analyzed. In addition, the end-to-end performance of the proposed link architecture is modeled providing guidance for both the design optimization of the advanced modulators and the electrical circuits as a part of the complete monolithic electronic-photonic system. Two of the core array elements on the photonic transmitter side and receiver side for the proposed architecture are designed in the monolithic integration process platforms, with their design procedure introduced, and the measurement results of the transmitter array element demonstrate a promising performance metric for the realistic system.

Advisor: Vladimir Stojanovic

\"Edit"; ?>


BibTeX citation:

@phdthesis{Wang:EECS-2024-201,
    Author = {Wang, Ruocheng},
    Title = {Monolithic Electronic-Photonic Systems for Massive-MIMO Millimeter-Wave Applications},
    School = {EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley},
    Year = {2024},
    Month = {Dec},
    URL = {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2024/EECS-2024-201.html},
    Number = {UCB/EECS-2024-201},
    Abstract = {Modern wireless communication systems at millimeter-wave frequency band embrace the scalable massive-MIMO architecture to address the increasing demand for data capacity, while the design challenge in terms of size, weight, power and cost still remain in the pure electrical millimeter-wave systems. Leveraging miniaturized modulators with high bandwidth capacity, silicon photonic links provides potential solutions for large scale data communication within such systems. This work proposes a disaggregated architecture based on silicon photonic link and presents several essential design considerations. For the silicon photonic modulation, the conventional microring modulator is analyzed and proven to have fundamental operating frequency limitation due to its intrinsic characteristic, and so the advanced modulators are presented as the alternative solution with their individual performance metrics analyzed. In addition, the end-to-end performance of the proposed link architecture is modeled providing guidance for both the design optimization of the advanced modulators and the electrical circuits as a part of the complete monolithic electronic-photonic system. Two of the core array elements on the photonic transmitter side and receiver side for the proposed architecture are designed in the monolithic integration process platforms, with their design procedure introduced, and the measurement results of the transmitter array element demonstrate a promising performance metric for the realistic system.}
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Thesis
%A Wang, Ruocheng
%T Monolithic Electronic-Photonic Systems for Massive-MIMO Millimeter-Wave Applications
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 2024
%8 December 1
%@ UCB/EECS-2024-201
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2024/EECS-2024-201.html
%F Wang:EECS-2024-201