Performance Characterization Method of Broadband Terahertz Video Cameras

Integrated THz systems comprising index matched optical media introduce discontinuities in the propagation path leading to an etaloning effect. The etaloning hinders the absolute accuracy of a measuring instrument thereby limiting its applicability. A methodology using computational notch filtering is implemented here to extract the true performance of a measuring instrument. Specifically, the responsivity and NEP of the portable room temperature 1k-pixel terahertz CMOS camera have been investigated using a continuously tunable broadband spectrally pure terahertz photomixer source. Applying methodology revealed a peak responsivity of 20 MV/W at 822 GHz with a 6-dB bandwidth of 265 GHz and a minimum integrated NEP of 2.9 nW with 1024 frames averaging at 30fps.