A high-performance 380 GHz GaAs Schottky diode based mixer and frequency doubler for terahertz receiver front-ends

This paper presents on the design, fabrication and test of a Schottky diode based mixer driving by a frequency doubler for solid-state receiver front-ends in the 380 GHz range. The 380 GHz sub-harmonic mixer has fabricated with the GaAs membrane process on a 3 μm-thick substrate suspended in a waveguide with metal beamleads, and exhibited an impressive double-side-band conversion loss of less than 10 dB in 1-23 GHz IF band with the optimal conversion loss of merely 6.4 dB. The 190 GHz frequency doubler based on Schottky diodes is the key in the local oscillator source and sufficiently pumps the mixer with 2~5 mW of input power.