A 600-GHz CMOS Focal-Plane Array for Terahertz Imaging Applications

A 600-GHz single-chip focal-plane array (FPA) has been fully integrated in a 0.25-mu m CMOS process technology. The 3x5 array achieves a room temperature responsivity of 50 kV/W and a noise equivalent power (NEP) of 400 pW/root Hz. Each pixel comprises of an on-chip antenna, an NMOS incoherent power detection circuit based on resistive self-mixing, and a 43-dB amplifier with a 1.6-MHz bandwidth. The pixel size is 150 x 150 mu m(2) and the overall array size is 680x980 mu m(2) including bondpads. The circuit topology makes it possible to fully integrate terahertz focal-plane arrays for 600-GHz video-rate imaging applications in a low-cost CMOS process technologies for the first time.