Characterization of integrated antenna-coupled plasma-wave detectors with wide bandwidth amplification in 130nm CMOS

A fully integrated 0.3 THz antenna-coupled plasma-wave detector with 10 GHz (measured) bandwidth is presented. Fabricated in 130nm CMOS technology, the chip is formed of an E-shaped patch antenna, plasmonic based Field Effect Transistor (FET) detector and a wide bandwidth amplifier employing inductive shunt peaking. The open drain mode of operation of the detector achieves an absolute responsivity of 10 V/W with a minimum signal to noise ratio (SNR) of 40 dB over the entire bandwidth. With a drain current of 0.24 mA, the responsivity increases by 10X with a decrease in bandwidth to 3 GHz. The detector is also characterized without the on chip amplifier for imaging applications and shows a measured absolute responsivity of 150 V/W for a drain current of 5 μA at 0.3 THz.