Rectenna based Modem for Simultaneous Terahertz Information and Power Transfer

The broad spectrum available in Terahertz (THz) band is envisaged to simultaneously meet both data and energy demands of the next-generation battery-limited wireless devices. Recent advances in THz semiconductor technologies and antenna design are closing the gap in low-powered millimeter-scale receiver architectures. Consequently, prospective signal processing and modulation schemes are emerging for base-station transmission to achieve efficient power and high-rate information transfer to an integrated receiver (IntRx). In this paper, we present for the first time an on-off keying (OOK) power modulation scheme for simultaneous THz information and power transfer (STIPT) to an IntRx involving a THz diode-based rectenna demodulator. A novel non-linear rectenna model is first proposed which provides a theoretical upper bound to harvested DC power. By leveraging the convexity of harvested DC power to incoming single-carrier signal power, an OOK power modulation scheme is then designed to maximize power transfer under available input power constraints. Lastly, both theoretical and simulation results involving a THz band GaAs Schottky diode demonstrate that the proposed scheme maximizes power transfer while simultaneously maintaining Gbps data rate and nanosecond latency communication.