Comparison of gate driven and source driven FET structures as THz detectors

Abstract

A 600 GHz Field Effect Transistor (FET) is implemented in 0.18 um CMOS technology as a THz detector for imaging applications. A total of 4 FET test structures were fabricated and measured for comparison purposes. Each structure is accompanied by an on-chip bow-tie antenna that directly feeds the detector with THz signal. The detectors are characterized by a THz source and a lock-in amplifier at a sensitivity of 100uV. Measurement results indicate the potential of using both these FET configurations as THz detectors in imaging applications. A normalized frequency sweep analysis shows the broadband nature of Source Driven (SD) FET over the Gate Driven (GD) counterpart. However, the GD structures are more responsive than SD structures. The measurement results also indicate that FET structures with smaller widths show higher voltage response than those with smaller widths for a given channel length.