ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some of the essential blocks in terahertz and mm-wave frequencies that can be used in signal generation, signal detection, synthesis and amplification. There is a growing interest in terahertz and mm-wave systems for compact, low cost and energy efficient imaging, spectroscopy and high data rate communication. Unfortunately, today’s solid-state technologies including silicon and compound semiconductors have much lower performance at mm-wave frequencies compared to traditional RF bands. The transistor is active only if the maximum power is positive. In a conventional array, to create coherent radiation, the independent oscillators in blue tiles, are coupled together with coupling networks, shown by the green tiles. These coupling networks add extra parasitics and losses to the circuit which degrades the output power and reduces the frequency of operation. However, using a distributed standing wave oscillator as building block of the array allows us to extend the array by simply replicating it.
