An Overview of Semiconductor Technologies and Circuits for Terahertz Communication Applications

An overview of the current status of the semiconductor device technologies and circuits for terahertz applications, especially for the broadband wireless communication systems, is provided in this work. Comparison between various semiconductor device technologies such as III-V HEMTs and HBTs, SiGe HBTs, and Si MOSFETs is presented and the current record performances of each technology are described. In addition, the best performing amplifiers, oscillators, and mixers as of today for possible terahertz communication system applications are presented and related issues are discussed.