Submillimeter-Wave Radar: Solid-State System Design and Applications

For decades, the principal role of microwave engineering techniques in the submillimeter (submm)-wave, or terahertz (THz), regime, spanning about 300 GHz-3 THz, has been to optimize the performance of components and systems used in molecular spectroscopy measurements for astronomy, earth science, and plasma diagnostics [1]. THz applications beyond spectroscopy have been much slower to develop. Ultrahigh bandwidth communication at THz frequencies may have the most powerful market forces to support it, but no systems have been deployed beyond the prototype stage, likely because of the unavailability of commercial submm-wave components, challenges with integrating them with existing communications hardware, and the often severe atmospheric attenuation.