Broadband Oscillator-Free THz Pulse Generation and Radiation Based on Direct Digital-to-Impulse Architecture

Broadband 0.03-1.1 THz signal generation and radiation are demonstrated based on an oscillator-free direct digital-to-impulse architecture with a 1.9-ps full width at half maximum and 130-GHz 3-dB bandwidth (BW) (200-GHz 10-dB BW) centered at 160 GHz. The radiated pulse achieves a peak pulse effective isotropic-radiated power of 19.2 dBm and peak pulse-radiated power of 2.6 mW. An ON/OFF impulse-shaping technique is introduced and implemented to suppress undesired ringing and to increase dc-to-radiated efficiency. The frequency-comb spectrum of the radiated pulse train with 5.2-GHz repetition rate is measured up to 1.1 THz. At a distance of 4 cm, the measured received SNR at 1 and 1.1 THz is 28 and 22 dB, respectively. A 1.1-THz tone is measured with a 10-dB spectral width of 2 Hz, demonstrating an extremely narrow spectral line width (two parts per trillion). Time-domain picosecond pulses are characterized using a custom femtosecond-laser-based terahertz time-domain spectroscopy system. Coherent spatial combining from two widely spaced chips is demonstrated. It is shown that the starting time of the radiated pulses is locked to the edge of the input digital trigger with a timing jitter of 270 fs. The chip is fabricated in a 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS process technology.