A Terahertz Integrated Circuit (TIC) Platform

Advancements of powerful sources and detectors in the terahertz frequency range, between 300GHz to 3 THz, has allowed access to this previously uncharted region, known as the THz Gap. The terahertz band which contains rich radiation energy from thermal emission of light-weight molecules has long been of interest to molecular and astro-physicists. Recent terahertz research has revealed techniques and results that opened up many new applications in molecular spectroscopy, imaging, detection and sensing of chemical and biological materials. In turn, the potential of these applications has generated interests from many industries ranging from security to health science. The research effort proposed here is to develop and demonstrate a CMOS compatible platform technology for the fabrication of terahertz integrated circuit (TIC) and subsystem. The TIC platform will allow the integration of both dielectric and metallic waveguide components on the same substrate and consists of a toolkit of standard building block structures that allows rapid design and prototyping. This approach provides both design flexibility and allows the miniaturization of these circuits for potential mass production. The proposed research plan is focused on building the foundation of this technology in both design and fabrication to support future research and innovation of advanced systems.