A 0.5 THz Signal Source with -11 dBm Peak Output Power Based on InP DHBT

This paper presents a 0.5 THz oscillator, realized using a transferred-substrate (TS) 0.3 μm InP DHBT process. It delivers -11 dBm peak output power. The DC consumption is only 15 mW from a 1.6 volts power supply, which corresponds to 0.5 % peak DC-to-RF efficiency. The oscillator exhibits the highest efficiency of a millimeter-wave frequency source beyond 400 GHz reported to date. The core area of the circuit is only 0.6 × 0.6 mm
²
.