CMOS Technology Integrated Terahertz Rectifier

Abstract

We present new developments of CMOS compatible direct conversion terahertz detector operating at room temperature. The rectenna consists of an integrated antenna, realized on the surface of the integrated circuit and connected to a nanometric metallic whisker at one of its edges. The rectifying device can be obtained introducing just minor modifications of the charge storage well in conventional CMOS active pixel image sensor devices, making the proposed solution easy to integrate with existing imaging systems. In the paper we present technological developments of the rectifier structure, realized with minor changes from a standard 0.15 µm technology node. We also present the study of a patch antenna which can be directly integrated on the chip.

Keywords

• terahertz
• rectification
• CMOS
• antennas