This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
The objective of this research is to develop functional integrated wireless structures using phononic crystals. To achieve this goal, a combined theoretical and experimental effort in phononic crystals including the following high-level research tasks is planned: 1) the development of low-loss, high quality fundamental components (waveguides and cavities) in PC slabs with the possibility of full dispersion and mode engineering, 2) the development of a systematic method for dispersion engineering in PC waveguides and cavities and combining these devices to form functional integrated wireless structures, and 3) the development of an optimum procedure for fabricating PC structures for operation in the state-of-the-art wireless frequency range.
Phononic crystal structures have the prospect of being a transformational technology for on-chip signal conditioning and processing for wireless systems. This technology could pave the way towards new systems such as ultra-compact single-chip spectral analyzers. It also has the prospect of creating adaptive filters for reconfiguring the radio for different protocols as well as different bands. This would lay the foundation for flexible radio which would be somewhat analogous to the microprocessor. In addition, the proposed phononic crystal structures can be employed in several applications of acoustic waves (e.g., biological and chemical sensing).
The proposed research provides significant educational benefits for the society. Two Ph.D. students and several undergraduate students (especially underrepresented minority students through the summer undergraduate research in engineering/science (SURE) program) will be trained in a multi-disciplinary environment. It also provides summer research for one high school student and one high school teacher.
