Monolithic resonant CMOS fully integrated triple-band THz thermal detector.

Abstract

Multiband terahertz (THz) detectors have attractive prospects in the areas of THz sensing and imaging. This paper presents a monolithic resonant CMOS fully integrated triple-band THz thermal detector that is composed of a compact loop antenna and an optimized proportional to absolute temperature (PTAT) sensor, leading to an uncooled, compact, low-cost, easy-integration, and mass-production multiband detector. The principles of operation, theoretical calculation, and experimental validation are demonstrated in detail. Calculated responsivities are 34.9 V/W, 51.6 V/W, and 47.6 V/W at the operation frequencies of 0.91 THz, 2.58 THz, and 4.3 THz, respectively, for the natural atmospheric windows. Relatively better experimental results are obtained at 0.91 THz and 2.58 THz due to the scarcity of THz sources, showing maximum responsivities of 29.2 V/W and 46.5 V/W with minimum NEPs of 1.57 µW/Hz0.5 and 1.26 µW/Hz0.5, respectively. The presented triple-band thermal detector has the natural scalability to focal plane arrays, providing great potential for multiband THz sensing and imaging systems.