Room-temperature CMOS 4.2THz Thermal Detector Comprising a Metamaterial Absorber and a PTAT Sensor

This paper presents a monolithic resonant room-temperature CMOS terahertz (THz) thermal detector composed of a strong metamaterial absorber and an optimized PTAT sensor. The overall design considerations, as well as relatively better characterization results are demonstrated at 4.3THz for the natural atmospheric window. At present, a 4.2THz quantum cascade laser (QCL) is used to obtain performances of the detector due to the accessible THz source. The proposed detector achieves a maximum responsivity of 20.9V/W and a minimum noise equivalent power of
$6.1 \mu\mathrm{W}/\text{Hz}^{0.5}$
at 4.2THz.