High Resolution Passive THz Imaging Array with Polarization Reusage in 22nm CMOS

Conference paper (2019)

Authors

S.L. van Berkel Tera-Hertz Sensing - EEMCS
E.S. Malotaux Electronics - EEMCS
M. Spirito Electronics - EEMCS
D. Cavallo Tera-Hertz Sensing - EEMCS
A. Neto Tera-Hertz Sensing - EEMCS
Nuria Llombart Tera-Hertz Sensing - EEMCS
Research Group
Tera-Hertz Sensing (EEMCS) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2019 S.L. van Berkel, E.S. Malotaux, M. Spirito, D. Cavallo, A. Neto, Nuria Llombart
DOI
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https://doi.org/10.1109/IRMMW-THz.2019.8874183
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Published Date

2019

Language

English

Reuse Rights

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Faculty

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Department

Microelectronics

Research Group

Tera-Hertz Sensing

Abstract

A 12-pixel THz Focal Plane Array (FPA), integrated in Global Foundries 22nm CMOS technology, enabling high resolution passive THz imaging, is presented. The array efficiently couples blackbody radiation from 200 GHz to 600 GHz to Schottky Barrier Diodes (SBDs) in a differential topology. An antenna-detector co-design results in an average Noise Equivalent Power (NEP) of 0.9 pW/ sqrt{ text{Hz}}. An extremely small array periodicity is achieved by using two orthogonal polarizations. Such configuration enables passive imaging with a near-diffraction limited resolution while simultaneously maintaining a high optical efficiency of 42%. The array is currently in tape-out and measurements will be presented at the conference.