Design and Characterization of 1.8-3.2 THz Schottky-based Harmonic Mixers
Journal article, 2016

A room-temperature Schottky diode-based WM-86 (WR-0.34) harmonic mixer was developed to build high-resolution spectrometers, and multipixel receivers in the terahertz (THz) region for applications such as radio astronomy, plasma diagnostics, and remote sensing. The mixer consists of a quartz-based local oscillator (LO), intermediate-frequency (IF) circuits, and a GaAs-based beam-lead THz circuit with an integrated diode. Measurements of the harmonic mixer were performed using a 2 THz solid-state source and 2.6906 THz QCL. A conversion loss of 27 dB for the third harmonic mixing and a conversion loss of 30 dB for the fourth harmonic mixing were achieved. This is the first development of a wideband WM-86 (WR-0.34) harmonic mixer with a planar Schottky diode integrated on a beam-lead THz circuit that uses a lower LO harmonic factor for 1.8–3.2 THz RF frequency. Furthermore, this result represents the best Schottky-based mixer in this frequency range.

terahertz electronics

harmonic mixers

Schottky diodes

THz circuits

Author

Berhanu Bulcha

Virginia Diodes, Inc.

Jeffrey Hesler

Virginia Diodes, Inc.

Vladimir Drakinskiy

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Terahertz and Millimetre Wave Laboratory

Jan Stake

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Terahertz and Millimetre Wave Laboratory

Alex Valavanis

University of Leeds

Paul Dean

University of Leeds

Lianhe H. Li

University of Leeds

Scott Barker

University of Virginia

IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology

2156-342X (ISSN) 21563446 (eISSN)

Vol. 6 5 737-746 7533505

Areas of Advance

Information and Communication Technology

Infrastructure

Kollberg Laboratory

Nanofabrication Laboratory

Subject Categories

Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

DOI

10.1109/TTHZ.2016.2576686

More information

Latest update

4/11/2018