Enabling Applications of Electromagnetic Waves at 0.3-1.0 THz Using Silicon Electronic Integrated Circuits

Wooyeol Choi; Kenneth K O

doi:10.1021/acsphotonics.3c01129

Enabling Applications of Electromagnetic Waves at 0.3-1.0 THz Using Silicon Electronic Integrated Circuits

ACS Photonics. 2024 Mar 19;11(4):1362-1375. doi: 10.1021/acsphotonics.3c01129. eCollection 2024 Apr 17.

Authors

Wooyeol Choi¹, Kenneth K O²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.
² Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Texas Analog Center of Excellence, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas 75080, United States.

PMID: 38645999
PMCID: PMC11027913 (available on 2025-03-19)
DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.3c01129

Abstract

Over the past 15 years, the output power of silicon submillimeter-wave electronics has increased by a factor greater than 1000 reaching -3.9 dBm at 440 GHz for a single unit in CMOS and -10.7 dBm at 1.01 THz for a 42-element array in SiGe BiCMOS. The smallest power of a 1 kHz bandwidth signal at 420 GHz that can be detected has improved by 100 million times. These and the expected improvements from the ongoing activities should be sufficient to support high resolution imaging with a range of up to several hundred meters, gas sensing up to ∼1 THz, and communication over ∼1000 m. The silicon IC technologies enable integration of complex systems into a small form factor and reduction of manufacturing cost. When broad deployment of submillimeter wave systems for everyday life applications becomes necessary, the silicon IC infrastructure will be the most capable to support the high-volume manufacturing need.

Publication types

Review