Solid-State Terahertz Superresolution Imaging Device in 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS Technology

Breaking through diffraction limit at terahertz frequencies is currently performed with the near-field scanning optical microscopy, which suffers from low integration and sensitivity limitations. In this paper, a solid-state superresolution imaging device in 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS technology operating around 534-562 GHz is presented. The device exhibits a singlechip integration of the complete imaging functionality, including a tunable CW illumination source, near-field sensing, and power detection with a high response of up to 9.65 μA and a noise√ equivalent power of around 15-21 pW/ Hz at 60 kHz. Here, the stopband characteristics of a novel cross-bridged double splitring resonator are exploited as an object-tunable transmission gate between a 3-push Colpitts oscillator and a simple HBT power detector. The resonator features a 3-D topography to achieve high-spatial confinement of the surface near-fields and is capable of resolving structural details with an estimated lateral resolution down to 10-12 μm. For a separate antenna-coupled oscillator breakout, a radiated power of up to 28.2 μW was measured. Furthermore, a 2-D raster-scanned superresolution image with a remarkable signal-to-noise ratio of 42 dB was captured for the device operating even at dc.