CMOS integrated system for terahertz detection

We present the study of a new structure for integrated rectifier, realized with standard CMOS technology, suitable to detect the terahertz radiation, at room temperature. The structure consists of a capacitive rectenna, designed as a patch antenna realized with the last metal layer of the CMOS process. A whisker reaches the gate of a MOS-FET transistor from the antenna, obtained with a standard via. Rectification can be obtained by the self-mixing effect occurring into the plasma waves generate in the substrate, underneath the gate. The proposed solution can be integrated with existing imaging systems, since it does not requires scaling toward very narrow and costly technological node.