23.3 A 605GHz 0.84mW Harmonic Injection-Locked Receiver Achieving 2.3pW/√Hz NEP in 28nm CMOS

The use of THz signals for imaging and sensing, enabling numerous applications in object characterization, medical, security, and other fields, has gained large interest in recent years. Both THz transmitters and receivers have been successfully implemented in commercial CMOS technologies, bringing numerous advantages: low cost, the possibility of integration with standard digital logic, and high yield. Nevertheless, efficient power generation in silicon technologies is still a challenge above the maximum frequency of oscillation (f
_max
). Therefore, improving the sensitivity of terahertz detectors is crucial. As f
_max
in CMOS is saturating, new circuit architectures are required for efficient and sensitive THz detection. So far, Schottky Barrier Diodes and self-mixing MOSFETs have been the most successful topologies in CMOS above 500GHz, attaining noise-equivalent powers (NEP) around 10pW/√Hz [5-9]. The presented work breaks this barrier and achieves a minimum NEP of 2.3pW/√Hz at 605GHz.