Power-efficient terahertz communication circuits

Abstract

Recent advances in CMOS/BiCMOS technologies have an enormous impact on the demonstration of mm-wave and terahertz integrated circuits. The higher frequency of operation at these ranges compared to RF frequencies, is specifically important for design of high speed communication systems. In this paper, we review the design challenges and recent demonstrations of communication circuits at the terahertz band. In order to achieve an efficient power generation in terahertz oscillators, a return-path gap coupler structure is introduced. Based on this structure, a 220 GHz spatial-orthogonal ASK transmitter is designed in 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology. This transmitter achieves an EIRP of 21 dBm and DC-to-THz-radiation efficiency of 0.7%. Compared with the state-of-the-art terahertz communication circuits, this circuit achieves a higher output power and higher DC-to-RF efficiency1.