Review of recent progress on solid‐state millimeter‐wave and terahertz signal sources

Abstract

SummaryThe research and development on solid‐state source generators have been making progress on chip, aiming to generate low noise, high output power, and high DC‐to‐RF energy efficiency in the millimeter‐wave (mmW) and terahertz (THz) domains. In particular, their full integration in silicon technologies, such as advanced complementary‐metal‐oxide‐semiconductor processes, has motivated the design of low cost, high performance, and miniature integrated circuits (ICs). This manuscript focuses on providing a general overview of recent progress on solid‐state signal source operating beyond 60 GHz till the THz region, from the perspective of operating principle, design metrics, state‐of‐the‐art performance, testing results, and their applications in emerging mmW/THz systems. Finally, with the use of fully integrated source generators, several design arts are highlighted to showcase the recent advances of ICs toward millimeter‐wave and THz radiation, imaging, coupled oscillator network (CON), and communication. Potential future research directions enabled by mmW/THz signal sources will be envisioned.

Design of High-Gain Antenna Arrays for Terahertz Applications

“…The THz band is between the millimeter wave and the infrared band in the electromagnetic spectrum, including an extremely wide frequency range from 0.1 THz to 10 THz, and the corresponding wavelength is 30 μm to 3 mm. The low-frequency part of the THz wave intersects the millimeter wave, and the high-frequency part intersects the infrared wave, making the THz technology a cutting-edge technology in electronics and photonics [ 1 ]. THz electromagnetic waves have the merits of high penetration, low penetration loss, and high resolution.…”