Fully Integrated Solutions for High Resolution Terahertz Imaging

This paper is an overview of the advances of the integrated sub-THz/THz imaging technology'. The challenges to implement fully integrated imaging systems at this frequency range are discussed and solutions to overcome them are presented. We review the design of a 320 GHz transmission based coherent imaging transceiver fabricated in 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology'. The optimum design of the terahertz radiator in this work is discussed and the measurement results are provided. Next, we present the implementation of a fully integrated reflection based FMCW imaging radar which operates at 170 GHz. In order to provide a wideband chirp, we provide a design technique to maximize the tuning bandwidth of the VCO. We also review a FMCM radar at 220 GHz with 62GHz of bandwidth, where we use the Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar technique to reconstruct high resolution 2D and 3D images. We conclude the paper by a brief overview of the other available THz imaging techniques, and suggest emerging methods for a real-time THz imaging system.