A 240 GHz Active Multiplier-Based Signal Source for Millimeter-Wave/Terahertz Applications

This paper presents a 240 GHz signal source using a 0.8 μm transferred substrate (TS) InP-HBT technology. The source is based on an active tripler and delivers -3 dBm peak output power at 234 GHz, with a DC consumption of only 50 mW, which corresponds to 0.9% conversion efficiency. A bandpass filter at the output suppresses all the unwanted harmonics. The tripler achieves more than 50 GHz bandwidth and exhibits very low unwanted harmonics. The core area of the source is only 1.3 × 0.7 mm2.