0.34 THz T/R front-end for wireless communication

This article presents a 0.34 THz T/R front-end based on Schottky barrier diode (SBD) techniques. It is designed as a superheterodyne structure, and consists of 0.34 THz sub-harmonic mixer, 0.17 THz X8 multiplier chain and bias circuit. The 0.34 THz sub-harmonic mixer based on anti-parallel diodes is used to transmit and detect the THz signal. The 0.17 THz X8 multiplier chain is cascaded by three doublers and driven amplifiers, which could generate 0.16-0.18 THz local oscillation (LO) signal from 20-22.5 GHz with output power of 5-10 dBm. Experimental measurement indicates the maximum output power of 0.34 THz front end is -14.58 dBm, the lowest single-sideband (SSB) conversion loss is 10.0 dB, and 3 dB intermediate frequency (IF) bandwidth is about 30 GHz. Limited by measurement instruments, the double-sideband (DSB) noise temperature has not been measured, but the calculated value is below 1000 K. The 0.34 THz communication with 16QAM high order modulation has been realized with this front-end, and the data rate is 3 Gb/s.