SBIR-STTR Award

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to vastly improve broadband access to the home across The Nation using true full duplex technology. By bringing full duplex communications to wireline and wireless systems, this proposed effort aims to improve connectivity, enhance coverage and enable new applications for both dense urban and sparse rural communities. This effort benefits first responders, law enforcement and other essential services by providing more reliable, higher bandwidth access to them.This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project will further develop an existing framework for full duplex communications, taking it from early stage prototype to a more mature proof of concept, while simultaneously enabling the company to understand the commercial impact of this technology on multiple communication industry segments. This Phase 1 project will begin by device fabrication for tunable filters, then progress to proving its technical applicability for wireline and wireless communication links. The primary milestones include: device characterization, integration, testing and yield analysis. This process will validate assumptions on both the technical and business fronts, enabling disruptive materials and fabrication processes to emerge from an academic environment into the commercial world.

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project include the ability to meet the requirements of cable infrastructure while opening additional markets in spectrum allocation by solving key technical problems. There is a massive need for improved connectivity for both fixed and mobile applications, in both urban and rural communities, within the nation. Wired infrastructure has struggled to keep up with the needs of users due to the large capital involved in deploying fiber to communities. Additionally, new applications like Internet of Things (IoT) and autonomous vehicles are entirely reliant on wireless technologies. Mobile data usage has been experiencing exponential growth, 92% CAGR from 2006-2016. Current mobile infrastructure cannot support next generation applications like remote healthcare, vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication for self-driving vehicles and next generation connected farming. These applications are constrained by the available bandwidth, low reliability and high latency of today's mobile networks. The industry is looking to expand reach and capacity of existing infrastructure to enable these applications with the potential to drastically communication. This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will build upon the existing low-loss photonic integrated circuit (PIC) Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter technology developed under Phase I by demonstrating a commercially viable three-dimensional (3D) PIC filter and canceler. The intellectual merit centers around the 3D PIC architecture with fast layer switching and ultra-low-loss waveguides for creating highly adaptable, tunable true time delays and detailed characterization of interfering signals in complex, dynamic multi-path reflection environments in cable and wireless solutions. The 3D PIC system aims to achieve under this project: total interference cancellation of >100 dB; small die footprint for a multi-tap cancellation FIR filter; high-speed switching; demonstration of full duplex communication links; and demonstration of band leakage and PIM interference cancellation in a laboratory environment. The improved designs will allow targeting additional markets in wireless communication involving complex interference cancellation scenarios that today severely limit spectrum utilization and network throughput. The proposed 3D PICs not only enable full duplex operation (co-channel self-interference) but also adjacent channel cancellation (guard band elimination) and passive intermodulation distortion (PIM) cancellation for higher throughput backhaul.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.