Limited Power Handling Research Articles

Low-noise cryogenic microwave amplifier characterization with a calibrated noise source.

Parametric amplifiers have become a workhorse in superconducting quantum computing; however, research and development of these devices has been hampered by inconsistent and, sometimes, misleading noise performance characterization methodologies. The concepts behind noise characterization are deceptively simple, and there are many places where one can make mistakes, either in measurement or in interpretation and analysis. In this article, we cover the basics of noise performance characterization and the special problems it presents in parametric amplifiers with limited power handling capability. We illustrate the issues with three specific examples: a high-electron mobility transistor amplifier, a Josephson traveling-wave parametric amplifier, and a Josephson parametric amplifier. We emphasize the use of a 50-Ω shot noise tunnel junction (SNTJ) as a broadband noise source, demonstrating its utility for cryogenic amplifier amplifications. These practical examples highlight the role of loss as well as the additional parametric amplifier "idler" input mode.

Electrically tunable conducting oxide metasurfaces for high power applications

Abstract Active metasurfaces designed to operate at optical frequencies are flat optical elements that can dynamic, subwavelength-scale wavefront control of reflected or transmitted light. The practical and fundamental power-handling limits of active metasurfaces at high pulse energies and high average powers determine the potential applications for these emerging photonic components. Here, we investigate thermal performance limits of reflective gate-tunable conducting oxide metasurfaces illuminated with high power density laser beams, for both continuous wave (CW) and pulsed laser illumination. Our gate-tunable metasurfaces use indium tin oxide (ITO) as an active material, which undergoes an epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) transition under applied electrical bias. We experimentally show that under CW illumination, there is no significant change in the electrically tunable metasurface optical response for high irradiances ranging from 1.6 kW/cm2 to 9.1 kW/cm2 when the illuminating laser beam diameter is 7 μm. Even under an applied bias, when over 60% of the incoming light is absorbed in a 1 nm–thick charge accumulation layer within ITO, the local temperature rise in the metasurface is modest, supporting its robustness for high-power applications. Additionally, we theoretically show that in the ENZ regime, the metasurface reflectance can be increased by a factor of 10 by replacing the active ITO layer with cadmium oxide (CdO). Thus conducting oxide metasurfaces can tolerate the power densities needed in higher power applications, including free space optical communications, to light detection and ranging (LiDAR), as well as laser-based additive manufacturing.

Hydrodynamic metasurface for programming electromagnetic beam scanning on the Azimuth and elevation planes

The development of multifunctional and reconfigurable metasurfaces capable of manipulating electromagnetic waves has created new opportunities for various exciting applications. Extensive efforts have been applied to exploiting active metasurfaces with properties that can be controlled by externally controlling active components. However, previous approaches have poor switch isolation, power handling limitations due to nonlinear effects, and complex biasing networks. Therefore, dynamically tunable metasurfaces have become a burgeoning field in many research areas. This paper reports a hydrodynamic metasurface (HMS) that can be programmed to realize electromagnetic beam scanning on the azimuth and elevation planes. The proposed HMS platform incorporates four micropumps, each controlling four metasurface elements via microfluidic channels, built into the HMS base. The proposed platform regulates microfluidic flow through micropumps, causing irregularities in incident wave transmission phase. An HMS was built as a proof of concept, and far-field scanning experiments were performed. Numerical and experimental results verify the feasibility of electromagnetic beam scanning using a hydrodynamic metasurface. This work advances metasurface research, with very high potential for wide-ranging application and a promising route for replacing bulky cascading active components.

Highly-Integrated Signal and Pump Combiner in Chirally-Coupled-Core Fibers

Integrated fiber components enable compact and robust laser systems but are usually not available with specialty fibers. However, specialty fibers allow power scaling of fiber lasers and amplifiers with all advantages of these fiber designs. In this context, chirally-coupled-core fibers show promising properties for optical fiber components. In this paper, we present the development of a highly-integrated signal and pump combiner in chirally-core-fibers using a side-pumping technology. Combining up to four fiber-coupled pump diodes, a pump-light limited power handling of 600 W can be achieved with an efficiency of 78%. The combiner was tested in a side-pumped single-frequency all-fiber amplifier but can also be implemented in almost any fiber laser or amplifier.

Vienna Rectifier-Fed Squirrel Cage Induction Generator Based Stand-Alone Wind Energy Conversion System

Back-to-back voltage source converters are normally preferred for interfacing squirrel cage induction generators (SCIG) with loads in stand-alone wind power generation applications as they allow for maximum power point tracking. However, the total converter losses tend to be very high, especially near the rated wind speed. Therefore, to reduce the power converter related losses, a Vienna rectifier is utilized as the machine-side converter in this article to interface the SCIG. Owing to the limited reactive power handling capability of the Vienna rectifier, a fixed capacitor bank is also required to provide the excitation VAR for the variable speed SCIG. In this article, a new computational method is proposed to calculate the value of this fixed capacitance based on maximizing the yearly energy output from the wind energy conversion system. A voltage sensorless vector control scheme for the Vienna rectifier-fed SCIG with the reference frame oriented along the machine terminal voltage is also proposed, which adheres to the operating limits of the Vienna rectifier and gives much better dynamic performance under load and wind speed transients compared to similar Vienna rectifier based variable speed constant frequency generating systems reported earlier in the literature.

Thermal Conductivity of Aluminum Scandium Nitride for 5G Mobile Applications and Beyond.

Radio frequency (RF) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based on Al1-xScxN are replacing AlN-based devices because of their higher achievable bandwidths, suitable for the fifth-generation (5G) mobile network. However, overheating of Al1-xScxN film bulk acoustic resonators (FBARs) used in RF MEMS filters limits power handling and thus the phone's ability to operate in an increasingly congested RF environment while maintaining its maximum data transmission rate. In this work, the ramifications of tailoring of the piezoelectric response and microstructure of Al1-xScxN films on the thermal transport have been studied. The thermal conductivity of Al1-xScxN films (3-8 W m-1 K-1) grown by reactive sputter deposition was found to be orders of magnitude lower than that for c-axis-textured AlN films due to alloying effects. The film thickness dependence of the thermal conductivity suggests that higher frequency FBAR structures may suffer from limited power handling due to exacerbated overheating concerns. The reduction of the abnormally oriented grain (AOG) density was found to have a modest effect on the measured thermal conductivity. However, the use of low AOG density films resulted in lower insertion loss and thus less power dissipated within the resonator, which will lead to an overall enhancement of the device thermal performance.

Silicon photonics traveling wave photodiode with integrated star coupler for high-linearity mm-wave applications.

Next-generation wireless communication will require increasingly faster data links. To achieve those higher data rates, the shift towards mmWave frequencies and smaller cell sizes will play a major role. Radio-over-Fiber has been proposed as a possible architecture to allow for this shift but is nowadays typically implemented digitally, as CPRI (Common Public Radio Interface). Centralization will be important to keep next-generation architectures cost-effective and therefore shared optical amplification at the central office could be preferable. Unfortunately, limited power handling capabilities of photodetectors still hinder the shift towards centralized optical amplification. Traveling wave photodetectors (TWPDs) have been devised to allow for high-linearity, high-speed opto-electronic conversion. In this paper, an architecture is discussed consisting of such a TWPD implemented on the iSiPP25G silicon photonics platform. A monolithically integrated star coupler is added in the design to provide compact power distribution while preserving the high linearity of the TWPD. The traveling wave structure (using 16 photodetectors) has a measured 3 dB bandwidth of 27.5 GHz and a fairly flat S21 up to 50 GHz (less than 1 dB extra loss). Furthermore, the output referred third-order intercept point at 28 GHz, is improved from -1.79 dBm for a single Ge photodiode to 20.98 dBm by adopting the traveling wave design.

Annular beam driven high harmonic generation for high flux coherent XUV and soft X-ray radiation.

Separation of the high average power driving laser beam from the generated XUV to soft-X-ray radiation poses great challenges in collinear HHG setups due to the losses and the limited power handling capabilities of the typically used separating optics. This paper demonstrates the potential of driving HHG with annular beams, which allow for a straightforward and power scalable separation via a simple pinhole, resulting in a measured driving laser suppression of 5⋅10-3. The approach is characterized by an enormous flexibility as it can be applied to a broad range of input parameters and generated photon energies. Phase matching aspects are analyzed in detail and an HHG conversion efficiency that is only 27% lower than using a Gaussian beam under identical conditions is demonstrated, revealing the viability of the annular beam approach for high flux coherent short-wavelength sources and high average power driving lasers.

Investigation of the thermal and optical performance of a spatial light modulator with high average power picosecond laser exposure for materials processing applications

Spatial light modulators (SLMs) addressed with computer generated holograms (CGHs) can create structured light fields on demand when an incident laser beam is diffracted by a phase CGH. The power handling limitations of these devices based on a liquid crystal layer has always been of some concern. With careful engineering of chip thermal management, we report the detailed optical phase and temperature response of a liquid cooled SLM exposed to picosecond laser powers up to 〈P〉 = 220 W at 1064 nm. This information is critical for determining device performance at high laser powers. SLM chip temperature rose linearly with incident laser exposure, increasing by only 5 °C at 〈P〉 = 220 W incident power, measured with a thermal imaging camera. Thermal response time with continuous exposure was 1–2 s. The optical phase response with incident power approaches 2π radians with average power up to 〈P〉 = 130 W, hence the operational limit, while above this power, liquid crystal thickness variations limit phase response to just over radians. Modelling of the thermal and phase response with exposure is also presented, supporting experimental observations well. These remarkable performance characteristics show that liquid crystal based SLM technology is highly robust when efficiently cooled. High speed, multi-beam plasmonic surface micro-structuring at a rate R = 8 cm2 s−1 is achieved on polished metal surfaces at 〈P〉 = 25 W exposure while diffractive, multi-beam surface ablation with average power 〈P〉 =100 W on stainless steel is demonstrated with ablation rate of ~4 mm3 min−1. However, above 130 W, first order diffraction efficiency drops significantly in accord with the observed operational limit. Continuous exposure for a period of 45 min at a laser power of 〈P〉 = 160 W did not result in any detectable drop in diffraction efficiency, confirmed afterwards by the efficient parallel beam processing at 〈P〉 = 100 W. Hence, no permanent changes in SLM phase response characteristics have been detected. This research work will help to accelerate the use of liquid crystal spatial light modulators for both scientific and ultra high throughput laser-materials micro-structuring applications.

Thermal and optical performance characteristics of a spatial light modulator with high average power picosecond laser exposure applied to materials processing applications

A spatial light modulator (SLM) addressed with Computer Generated Holograms (CGH’s) can create structured light fields when an incident laser beam is diffracted by a phase CGH. The power handling limitations of SLMs based on a liquid crystal layer have always been of some concern. Now, with careful engineering of chip thermal management, we present the detailed optical phase and temperature response of a liquid cooled SLM exposed to picosecond laser average powers up to 220W at 1064nm – new knowledge critical for determining device performance at high laser powers. SLM chip temperature rose linearly with incident laser exposure, increasing by only 5°C at 220W incident power, measured with a thermal imaging camera. Thermal response time with continuous exposure was 1-2 seconds. The optical phase response with incident power approaches 2π radians with average powers up to 130W while above this power, liquid crystal thickness variations limit phase response to just over π radians. These remarkable performance characteristics show that liquid crystal based SLM technology is highly robust when efficiently cooled. High speed, multi-beam plasmonic surface micro-structuring at a coverage rate of 8cm2s-1 is achieved on polished metal surfaces at 25W exposure, while diffractive multi-beam surface ablation on stainless steel at an ablation rate of ∼4mm3min-1 is demonstrated with average power 100W. Continuous exposure for many hours exceeding 100W laser power did not result in any detectable drop in diffraction efficiency hence no permanent changes in SLM phase response characteristics have been observed This research work will help to accelerate the use of liquid crystal SLMs for both scientific and ultra-high throughput laser-materials micro-structuring applications.

Origin and Optimization of RF Power Handling Limitations in Inline Phase-Change Switches

The power handling capabilities of inline phase-change switches (IPCS’s) at radio frequencies (RF) have been correlated with the dc threshold voltage ( ${V}_{{\text {th}}}$ ) of the devices. The dependence of ${V}_{{\text {th}}}$ on microheater pulsing parameters and device layout has been characterized, accompanied by observation of the size of the amorphous chalcogenide region through scanning transmission electron microscopy. All observations are consistent with threshold field ( ${F}_{{\text {th}}}$ ) of nominally 50:50 GeTe of 12.6 V/ $\mu \text{m}$ . Use of W-based microheaters in the IPCS processes has improved device performance and reliability, with increases in the product of cutoff-frequency ( ${F}_{{\text {co}}}$ ) and ${V}_{{\text {th}}}$ over previous IPCS devices using NiCrSi microheaters. The improved devices demonstrated power handling capabilities up to 29 dBm in a 50- $\Omega $ system for a switch with submicrometer dimensions, where the improvement is attributed to the larger amorphous zone created at the minimum power to amorphize. These improved devicesdemonstrate the feasibility of these switches in both transmit and receivewireless applications. A correlation between the maximum allowed RF voltage across the OFF-state switch and the dc ${V}_{{\text {th}}}$ of the OFF device was observed, indicating the dc ${V}_{{\text {th}}}$ is an accurate predictor of RF power handling.

Design and analysis of high-power segmented-core trench-assisted Yb-free erbium doped fiber amplifier

Limited power handling capacity of single mode fiber compels to design effective-single mode large-core fiber for high power amplifiers. This article proposes a 0.15 NA, large-mode-area, bend-insensitive, Yb-free EDFA for the selective amplification of fundamental mode. The fiber uses a leaky design to ensure fundamental-mode amplification by higher-order mode discrimination. The segmented-core design in the fiber helps in achieving large-mode-area. The annular segments and low index trench in the fiber control the leakage losses and gains of the modes. We show an EDFA design with 811µm2 mode-area, 0.014dB bending loss for 10mm diameter loop at 1530nm wavelength and highly selective single-mode output. Our calculations also show a linear increase in the output signal power with pump power with a slope efficiency of 52.8%.

Steering the Beam of Medium-to-High Gain Antennas Using Near-Field Phase Transformation

A method to steer the beam of aperture-type antennas is presented in this paper. Beam steering is achieved by transforming phase of the antenna near field using a pair of totally passive metasurfaces, which are located just above and parallel to the antenna. They are rotated independently or synchronously around the antenna axis. A prototype, with a peak gain of 19.4 dBi, demonstrated experimentally that the beam of a resonant cavity antenna can be steered to any direction within a large conical region (with an apex angle of 102°), with less than 3-dB gain variation, by simply turning the two metasurfaces without moving the antenna at all. Measured gain variation within a 92° cone is only 1.9 dBi. Contrary to conventional mechanical steering methods, such as moving reflector antennas with multiaxis rotary joints, the 3-D volume occupied by this antenna system does not change during beam steering. This advantage, together with its low profile, makes it a strong contender for space-limited applications where beam steering with active devices is not desirable due to cost, nonlinear distortion, limited power handling, sensitivity to temperature variations, radio frequency losses, or associated heating. This beam steering method using near-field phase transformation can also be applied to other aperture-type antennas and arrays with medium-to-high gains.

Self-Heating and Failure in Scalable Graphene Devices.

Self-heating induced failure of graphene devices synthesized from both chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and epitaxial means is compared using a combination of infrared thermography and Raman imaging. Despite a larger thermal resistance, CVD devices dissipate >3x the amount of power before failure than their epitaxial counterparts. The discrepancy arises due to morphological irregularities implicit to the graphene synthesis method that induce localized heating. Morphology, rather than thermal resistance, therefore dictates power handling limits in graphene devices.

Analysis and modelling of circulating current in two parallel‐connected inverters

Parallel-connected inverters are gaining attention for high power applications because of the limited power handling capability of the power modules. Moreover, the parallel-connected inverters may have low total harmonic distortion of the ac current if they are operated with the interleaved pulse-width modulation (PWM). However, the interleaved PWM causes a circulating current between the inverters, which in turn causes additional losses. A model describing the dynamics of the circulating current is presented in this study which shows that the circulating current depends on the common-mode voltage. Using this model, the circulating current between two parallel-connected inverters is analysed in this study. The peak and root mean square (rms) values of the normalised circulating current are calculated for different PWM methods, which makes this analysis a valuable tool to design a filter for the circulating current. The peak and rms values of the circulating current are plotted for different PWM methods, and a discontinuous PWM is identified which offers the minimum peak and rms value of the circulating current. Experimental results are presented to verify the analysis.

Versatile laser system for experiments with cold atomic gases

We describe a simple and compact architecture for generating all-optical frequencies required for the laser cooling, state preparation, and detection of atoms in an ultracold rubidium-87 experiment from a single 780 nm laser source. In particular, repump light ∼6.5  GHz away from the cooling transition is generated by using a high-bandwidth fiber-coupled electro-optic modulator (EOM) in a feedback loop configuration. The looped repump light generation scheme solves the problem of the limited power handling capabilities characteristic of fiber EOMs. We demonstrate the functionality of the system by creating a high-atom-number magneto-optical trap (MOT).

Non-boronized compared with boronized operation of ASDEX Upgrade with full-tungsten plasma facing components

After completion of the tungsten coating of all plasma facing components, ASDEX Upgrade has been operated without boronization for 1 1/2 experimental campaigns. This has allowed the study of fuel retention under conditions of relatively low D co-deposition with low-Z impurities as well as the operational space of a full-tungsten device for the unfavourable condition of a relatively high intrinsic impurity level. Restrictions in operation were caused by the central accumulation of tungsten in combination with density peaking, resulting in H–L backtransitions induced by too low separatrix power flux. Most important control parameters have been found to be the central heating power, as delivered predominantly by ECRH, and the ELM frequency, most easily controlled by gas puffing. Generally, ELMs exhibit a positive impact, with the effect of impurity flushing out of the pedestal region overbalancing the ELM-induced W source. The restrictions of plasma operation in the unboronized W machine occurred predominantly under low or medium power conditions. Under medium-high power conditions, stable operation with virtually no difference between boronized and unboronized discharges was achieved. Due to the reduced intrinsic radiation with boronization and the limited power handling capability of VPS coated divertor tiles (≈10 MW m−2), boronized operation at high heating powers was possible only with radiative cooling. To enable this, a previously developed feedback system using (thermo-)electric current measurements as approximate sensor for the divertor power flux was introduced into the standard AUG operation. To avoid the problems with reduced ELM frequency due to core plasma radiation, nitrogen was selected as radiating species since its radiative characteristic peaks at lower electron temperatures in comparison with Ne and Ar, favouring SOL and divertor radiative losses. Nitrogen seeding resulted not only in the desired divertor power load reduction but also in improved energy confinement, as well as in smaller ELMs.

On heat loading, novel divertors, and fusion reactors

The limited thermal power handling capacity of the standard divertors (used in current as well as projected tokamaks) is likely to force extremely high (∼90%) radiation fractions frad in tokamak fusion reactors that have heating powers considerably larger than ITER [D. J. Campbell, Phys. Plasmas 8, 2041 (2001)]. Such enormous values of necessary frad could have serious and debilitating consequences on the core confinement, stability, and dependability for a fusion power reactor, especially in reactors with Internal Transport Barriers. A new class of divertors, called X-divertors (XD), which considerably enhance the divertor thermal capacity through a flaring of the field lines only near the divertor plates, may be necessary and sufficient to overcome these problems and lead to a dependable fusion power reactor with acceptable economics. X-divertors will lower the bar on the necessary confinement to bring it in the range of the present experimental results. Its ability to reduce the radiative burden imparts the X-divertor with a key advantage. Lower radiation demands allow sharply peaked density profiles that enhance the bootstrap fraction creating the possibility for a highly increased beta for the same beta normal discharges. The X-divertor emerges as a beta-enhancer capable of raising it by up to roughly a factor of 2.

Development of the 140GHz gyrotron and its subsystems for ECH and ECCD in TEXTOR

Abstract A 800 kW, 140 GHz gyrotron has been mounted on TEXTOR. Initial operation was limited by arcs in the transmission line, and by pulse length restrictions due to the expected limited power handling of the window and the launching mirror. Measurements of power absorption in the window and launching mirror, however, showed them to be capable of handling full power, 3 s pulses, while arcing could be prevented by absorption of stray radiation at strategic position in the transmission line. This resulted in the realisation of full power, 3 s pulses on the plasma. Further measures were taken to prevent gyrotron operation in wrong modes or under conditions of low absorption in the plasma. Future improvements, expected to allow further extension of the pulse length to 10 s include: a CVD diamond window to replace the current quartz torus vacuum window, and a fast and accurate launcher.

Parallel converter scheme for high-power active power filters

A new topology for efficient utilisation of parallel converters as VAR compensators and active power filters (APF) for high power loads is proposed. Because of limited power handling capacity of individual devices, paralleling is the choice to increase rating of equipment, while keeping the THD of the current at the PCC within the agency specified standards. It has been reported in the literature that paralleling several converters, rather than switches, is more reliable in sharing of load. From this perspective, multilevel converters carry lot of weight, as their typical power circuit configuration limits the stress on individual devices to an appreciable extent. Also, they have the advantage of low switching frequency and full utilisation of switching devices, which is essential in high-power applications. These advantages have been utilised in parallel combination with a low-power high-frequency current-controlled APF, such that the higher order harmonics can be eliminated. A new parallel converter topology with a three-level neutral point clamped (NPC) converter and an auxiliary current-controlled VSI has been proposed and control techniques have been developed. Extensive simulation study have been carried out in a SABER simulator for linear and non-linear loads.