Acoustoelectric Amplifier With 1.2-dB Insertion Gain Monolithic Graphene Construction and Continuous Wave Operation

While there have been many years of research on the acoustoelectric effect, there has not been a successful approach or demonstration to provide a manufacturable, continuous wave (CW) acoustoelectric amplifier (AEA) with insertion gain. This letter will present the results of a 169.5-MHz surface acoustic wave (SAW) delay line on 128YX lithium niobate with an embedded monolithic coupled AEA (CAEA) demonstrating a terminal gain of 1.2 dB. The impedance-matched delay line without the CAEA has an insertion loss of 4.6 dB, and with the operational CAEA, the measured gain is 1.2 dB, yielding a net insertion gain of 5.8 dB. The CAEA uses approximately 137 mW dc power at the current peak operational gain. This letter will present experimental results of device performance and discuss the new embodiment for achieving the net insertion gain.