Abstract-CMOS terahertz imaging pixel with a small on-chip antenna

Shota Hiramatsu, Kosuke Wakita, Seokjin Na, Sayuri Yokoyama, Masayuki Ikebe, Eiichi Sano

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/CMOS-terahertz-imaging-pixel-with-a-small-on-chip-Hiramatsu-Wakita/17df7830e3e10988ebd69b16718b1c76c6160eee

We propose a Si–CMOS terahertz image sensor to resolve the lack of low-cost and small-size detectors. The imager chip consists of an imaging pixel array and column ADCs. The imaging pixel consists of an on-chip antenna and an amplifier acting as envelope detector. The pixel used a microstrip patch antenna for receiving THz waves. However, these antennas’ narrow bandwidth and large ground-plane size cause major problems. A low-resistivity Si substrate degrades the gains of planar antennas apart from the microstrip patch antenna. We introduce an on-chip folded-slot antenna to reduce the pixel size and prevent gain degradation due to the Si substrate. The antenna has a broader bandwidth and higher gain than conventional on-chip slot antenna. The folded-slot antenna has about a 0-dBi gain at 0.85 THz and a broader bandwidth than the microstrip antenna in the 0.85 to 1 THz frequency region. The measured results for the THz image sensors with the integrated folded-slot antennas will be reported in near future.

Abstract-Wide modulation bandwidth terahertz detection in 130 nm CMOS technology

Shamsun Nahar1, Marwah Shafee2, Stéphane Blin3, Annick Pénarier3, Philippe Nouvel3, Dominique Coquillat4, Amr M.E. Safwa2, Wojciech Knap4a and Mona M. Hella1

1 ECSE Department, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA
2 ECE Department, Ain Shams University, 11566 Cairo, Egypt
3 Institut d’électronique et des Systèmes, UMR 5214 CNRS-Université de Montpellier, 34095 Montpellier, France
4 Laboratoire Charles Coulomb (L2C), UMR 5221 CNRS-Université de Montpellier, 34095 Montpellier, France 

a e-mail: knap.wojciech@gmail.com 

http://www.epjap.org/articles/epjap/abs/2016/11/ap160302/ap160302.html

Design, manufacturing and measurements results for silicon plasma wave transistors based wireless communication wideband receivers operating at 300 GHz carrier frequency are presented. We show the possibility of Si-CMOS based integrated circuits, in which by: (i) specific physics based plasma wave transistor design allowing impedance matching to the antenna and the amplifier, (ii) engineering the shape of the patch antenna through a stacked resonator approach and (iii) applying bandwidth enhancement strategies to the design of integrated broadband amplifier, we achieve an integrated circuit of the 300 GHz carrier frequency receiver for wireless wideband operation up to/over 10 GHz. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of low cost 130 nm Si-CMOS technology, plasma wave transistors based fast/wideband integrated receiver operating at 300 GHz atmospheric window. These results pave the way towards future large scale (cost effective) silicon technology based terahertz wireless communication receivers.