Terahertz Technology in Microwave and Photonics for Effective Communications

Ulaby, Fawwaz

Ishii, T Koryu

T Koryu Ishii

Olyslager, Frank

This book examines the physical principles behind the operation of high-speed transistors operating at frequencies above 10 GHz and having switching times less than 100 psec. If the 1970s cannot be remembered for the opportunities for creating and extensively using transistors operating at such high speeds, then, the situation has changed radically because of rapid progress in sub micrometer technology for manufacturing transistors and integrated circuits from GaAs and other semiconductor materials and the powerful influx of new physical concepts. Not only have transistors having switching speeds of 50-100 psec operating in the 10-20 GHz region been created in recent years, but the possibilities for manufacturing transistors operating one to two orders of magnitude faster have been revealed. As superhigh-speed transistors have been created, many of the most important areas of technology such as communications, computing technology, television, radar, and the manufacture of scientific, industrial, and medical equipment have qualitatively changed. Microwave transistors operating at millimeter wavelengths make it possible to produce compact and highly efficient equipment for communications and radar technology. Transistors with switching speeds better than 10-100 psec make it possible to increase the speed of microprocessors and other computer components to tens of billions of operations per second and thereby solve one of the most pressing problems of modern electronics - increasing the speed of digital information processing.

Microwave and millimeter-wave integrated circuits (MMICs) are of increasing im- portance in modern military and commercial wireless communication systems. Current trends are towards low-cost, high-density, multilevel, and multifunctional integration, cover- ingmillimeterand submillimeterwave regions.The integrationofdiverse subfunctions, such as light-wave devices, superconductor circuits, digital circuits and ferrite devices, together with conventional microwave or millimeter-wave devices, circuits and antennas, will allow implementation of large systems on a single chip. Research on advanced device concepts, 3-D interconnects, high-performance packaging methods, advanced CAD-tools, measure- ment and testing techniques, as weil as material and fabrication technologies, are being di- rected to meet these new challenges. Continuing on the series ofsymposia sponsored by the Weber Research Institute of Polytechnic University, an international symposium focusing on the current developments and new research initiatives for the next generation ofmicrowave and millimeter wave inte- grated circuits and systems was held at Brooklyn, New York, during September 11-13, 1996. The symposium was organizedas a3-dayevent, running mostly ina single-session format of regular papers and panel discussions, It was co-sponsored by the Army Research Office, Re- search Triangle Park, NC, in cooperation with the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society, the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society, and IEEE Long Island and New York MetropolitanSections.The papers published in this volume are extended versionsofselected papers presented at this symposium.