New III-V transducers for optical microwave and millimeter wave conversion

Fiber optic radio communications will require devices able to convert an optical carrier into a millimeter wave carrier. After a brief recall of possible systems to be used, showing that in most cases, the transducer must associate the following functions : high speed photodetection, millimeter wave amplification, and mixing, we will discuss the properties of PIN-waveguide photodetectors, GaAs microwave monolithic integrated circuits with dual gate FETs, InP edge-coupled Heterojunction Bipolar Phototransistors to fulfill these requirements.