DOI: 10.1109/TMTT.2026.3725591   IEEEXplore: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11672671    

Optically excited vanadium dioxide phase-change material switch on sapphire.

DC to 330 GHz

This is the first known demonstration of a VO2 switch with >300 GHz bandwidth. Optical excitation as an alternative to integrated microheaters in vanadium dioxide (VO2) phase-change material (PCM) millimeter wave switches fully decouples the phase-change material control from the RF signal. Eliminating the parasitic capacitance that accompanies an integrated microheater enhances the achievable bandwidth of the switch. Optical excitation in a fabricated VO2 switch was achieved by top-side injection using a 126 mW 785-nm laser. The minimum optical power required to excite the phase transition was 37 mW.

High-data-rate communications and high-resolution sensing, such as virtual/augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, and wireless backhaul.

1.1 dB insertion loss at 330 GHz, 0.8 dB average insertion loss and <1 dB variation across the spectrum, >13.7 dB isolation, >15 dB return loss; 248 ns turn-on time (10% to 90%), 283 ns turn-off time (90%-10%); 30 dBm maximum power handling in the ON state at 2 GHz, 39 dBm maximum power handling in the OFF state; 37 dBm ON state input third-order intercept point (iIP3), >68 dBm iIp3 in the OFF state up to 50 ° C.