Laser-Free THz pulse sources

Laser-free 0.03-1.1 THz signal generation and radiation in silicon is presented based on an oscillator-free direct digital-to-impulse architecture that is capable of generating and radiating pulses with a FWHM of 1.9 ps and a 3dB-BW of 130 GHz centered at 160 GHz. A peak pulse radiated power of 2.6 mW and a peak pulse EIRP of 19.2 dBm are achieved. To suppress ringing after the impulse and increase DC-to-radiated efficiency, an ON/OFF impulse-shaping technique is designed and implemented in the circuit level. Frequency-domain measurements are performed up to 1.1 THz, where the received SNR at 1.0 THz and 1.1 THz is 28 dB and 22 dB, respectively. An extremely narrow spectral line width is demonstrated with a 10-dB spectral width of only 2 Hz at 1.1 THz (two parts per trillion). Time-domain pulses are characterized using a novel fsec-laser-based THz-TDS measurement technique. The chip is fabricated in a 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS process technology.