Integrated Optoelectronic Mixer with a Micromachined Silicon Coplanar Probe for Wideband On-Wafer Testing of Millimeter-Wave and THz Components

We present the design and fabrication of a wideband signal analysis probe system for on-wafer testing millimeter-wave and THz electronic components. This probe system is based on the development of an optoelectronic mixer based on a low-temperature-grown GaAs microcavity photoconductor integrated with a micromachined silicon coplanar probe. The ultra-pure and ultra-stable optical beat necessary for this type of application will be achieved by optical filtering of two optical lines from a frequency comb generated by a titanium-doped sapphire laser with a repetition rate of 10 GHz and a power of 1 mW per line.