Silicon microfabrication technologies for THz applications

Silicon micromachining technology is naturally suited for making THz components, where precision and accuracy are essentials. We report here the development of robust micromachining techniques to enable novel active and passive components in the submillimeter-wave region. These features will enable large format submillimeter-wave heterodyne arrays and 3-D integration in the THz region, where fabricating circuits and structures becomes difficult with conventional machining.