Terahertz Sources and Receivers: From the Past to the Future

Abstract

The rapid progress in semiconductor technology has vastly boosted the development of terahertz sources and receivers in terms of compactness, reliability, operation frequency, and output power. In this manuscript, we report on the latest achievements in terahertz sources and receivers and provide a comprehensive overview of their working principles and applications in THz systems. INDEX TERMS THz technologies, THz photodiodes, THz photoconductors, THz semiconductor laser diodes, THz quantum cascade lasers, THz heterojunction bipolar transistors, THz high electron mobility transistor, THz resonant tunneling diodes, THz Schottky barrier detectors and mixers. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ SUMER MAKHLOUF received the master's degree in communications engineering from the University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany, in 2018. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in monolithically integrated THz photodiodes with rectangular waveguide outputs for coherent THz receivers. He is currently a Member of the Optoelectronics Department, Center for Semiconductor Technology and Optoelectronics (ZHO) and Research Associate with the University of Duisburg-Essen. Recently, he has been a Senior Engineer with Microwave Photonics GmbH, Oberhausen, Germany, working on developing RF modules for space communications and photonic integrated circuits for ultra-low phase noise THz systems.

Recent Advances, Applications, and Perspectives in Erbium-Doped Fiber Combs

“…The frequency stability of the 9.2 GHz signal reached the order of 10 −15 [105], as shown in Figure 7. In addition, frequency comb-based microwave generation can be extended to THz sources [106,107].…”

Enabling Applications of Electromagnetic Waves at 0.3–1.0 THz Using Silicon Electronic Integrated Circuits

“…These uses of nonlinearity are similar to the generation of THz signals with a nonlinear photonic crystal utilized in photoconductive antennas (PCA) and unitraveling carrier photodiodes (UTC-PD) pumped by mode-locked lasers. − A critical difference between the photonics and integrated electronics approaches is that the drivers can be integrated with the nonlinear devices on a single platform, which reduces the form factor and power consumption owing to lower interconnect losses. The silicon IC technologies as mentioned enable large-scale integration of SMMW systems with high yield, providing a path for broad deployment.…”

AlGaN/GaN bilateral IMPATT device by two-dimensional electron gas for terahertz application

“…Resonant tunneling diode (RTD) has an extremely short transit time due to only a few nanometers separating the adjacent energy wells in the RTD structure. 46 So, the operating frequency of RTD is very high. Lee et al 47 proposed an InP-based RTD oscillator with an RF output power of 9.3 μW and efficiency of 0.274% at an oscillation frequency of 692 GHz.…”