We use light-activation of free electron and hole pairs in intrinsic semiconductors, this creates what is known as a plasma (that’s where our name comes from!) and results in very low on-state resistance and very high off-state resistance simultaneously.

Since our insertion loss is so low, we naturally dissipate small amounts of heat which helps power handling. We also have patent-pending (DJC144021P.GBA) heat-sinking technology to dissipate any remaining heat.

The fact that we have no built-in PN junctions or heterostructures means that we have inherently very low signal distortion.

This is because our technology uses an optically generated electronic-hole plasma which naturally has no gate capacitance and thus very wide bandwidth.

We use Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs). This is a low-cost and small-sized light source with small diffraction angle and excellent integratability, which guarantees the excellent RF performance and compactness of our RF devices.

We use patent-pending integration technology to achieve this in a low-cost and manufacturable way.

You can read about this in our publications:

Y.Zhang, A.W.Pang, M. J. Cryan, “Optically controlled millimetre-wave switch with stepped-impedance lines, IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation, Volume 13, Issue 10, 14 August 2019, p. 1737 – 1741 (doi: 10.1049/iet-map.2018.6191)

A.W.Pang, S. Bensmida, C. D. Gamlath, M. J. Cryan, “Non-linear Characteristics of an Optically Reconfigurable Microwave Switch”, IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation, Volume 12, Issue 7, 13 June 2018, p. 1060 – 1063 (10.1049/iet-map.2017.0572)

D. Gamlath, D.M. Benton, M.J. Cryan, “Microwave Properties of an Inhomogeneous Optically Illuminated Plasma in a Microstrip Gap”, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol:63, Iss: 2, Feb 2015 (10.1109/TMTT.2014.2387276).