ACTIVE AND NONLINEAR-WAVE PROPAGATION DEVICES IN ULTRAFAST ELECTRONICS AND OPTOELECTRONICS

We describe active and nonlinear wave propagation devices for generation and detection of (sub)millimeter wave and (sub)picosecond signals. Shock-wave nonlinear transmission lines (NLTL's) generate approximately 4-V step functions with less than 0.7-ps fall times. NLTL-gated sampling circuits for signal measurement have attained over 700-GHz bandwidth. Soliton propagation on NLTL's is used for picosecond impulse generation and broadband millimeter-wave frequency multiplication. Picosecond pulses can also be generated on traveling-wave structures loaded by resonant tunneling diodes. Applications include integration of photodetectors with sampling circuits for picosecond optical waveform measurements and instrumentation for millimeter-wave waveform and network (circuit) measurements both on-wafer and in free space. General properties of linear and nonlinear distributed devices and circuits are reviewed, including gain-bandwidth limits, dispersive and nondispersive propagation, shock-wave formation, and soliton propagation.