Heterointegrated Compact Resonant THz Sources for Mobile Applications

Resonant devices have shown promising performance as THz sources, combining high output power with high efficiency at frequencies beyond the available transistor technologies’ cutoff. Particular interest lies in resonant tunneling diode sources, which allow generation of waves above 1 THz. Wider adoption of resonant THz sources requires frequency and phase control. Heterointegration of RTD and BiCMOS local oscillator circuits enables scalable realization of frequency-and phase-controlled RTD arrays. Here we summarize latest technology development of electronic resonant THz sources including indium phosphide RTDs, InP heterojunction bipolar transistor oscillators, SiGe BiCMOS sources, and chip-to-chip mounting processes for injection locking of InP RTD and InP HBT circuits by SiGe BiCMOS local oscillators.