A 2-D Scalable Third harmonic radiator at 291.3 GHz with -2 dBm of Radiated Power in 22 nm FinFET Technology

Abstract

The Terahertz (THz) band exhibits potential for novel applications and improvements to existing systems such as spectroscopy, imaging, and high-speed communications. However, the lack of high-power sources at this frequency range hinders the wide-scale adoption of these technologies commercially. This THz gap exists due to the inability of electronic and optical techniques to generate high power levels at this frequency range. Novel generation techniques have been and continue to be investigated to improve the performance of these sources. In this work, we present a Terahertz (THz) radiator at 291.3 GHz. The footprint of the unit radiator is half-wavelength at the radiation frequency, which enables 2-D scalability. Passive coupling is implemented between the radiator elements for de-centralized phase locking and free-space power combining. The proposed radiator is implemented on Intel 22 nm FinFET (FFL) technology, which enables high-performance high-speed circuits. The presented radiator is an addition to the state-of-the-art radiators and combines several advantages of previous designs.