OPTOELECTRONIC TECHNIQUES FOR ULTRAFAST DEVICE NETWORK ANALYSIS TO 700 GHZ

Recent advances in state-of-the-art optoelectronic techniques are pres ented for small-signal electronic device network analysis. The impetus for optoelectronic approaches is given by the severely inadequate ban dwidth coverage of existing measurement techniques. Based on a compari son of the trade-offs offered by various optoelectronic techniques, ex ternal electrooptic sampling was chosen. Then, the three basic buildin g blocks of an electrooptic characterization system are discussed, whi ch cover the areas of wide-band signal measurement, generation and tra nsmission. The building blocks are subsequently integrated into a comp lete electrooptic network analyser system capable of active device cha racterization over a 100 GHz bandwidth. These capabilities are demonst rated on a heterojunction field-effect transistor with a directly-meas ured maximum frequency of oscillation of 94 GHz. Then, the performance of the electrooptic network analyser is optimized by minimizing trans mission line losses, and by improving signal generation and measuremen t geometries. The resulting system exhibits an unprecedented single-me asurement bandwidth of 700 GHz on passive structures. The system perfo rmance is verified by comparing measured results with simple models of the measured passive structures.