Title:  Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Integrated Circuits for Extreme Environments

Committee: 

Dr. John D. Cressler, Chair, Advisor

Dr. Stephen E. Ralph, ECE

Dr. Hua Wang, ECE

Dr. Gregory Durgin, ECE

Dr. Ali Adibi, ECE

Dr. Brian Gunter, AE

Abstract:

The objective of this research is to study the implementation of high frequency millimeter-wave (mmW) and Terahertz (THz) integrated circuits in silicon technologies for space applications. Several fully integrated circuits and sub-systems such as transceiver front-ends and array transmitters with on-chip PLL and antennas were implemented to show the possibility of realization of fully integrated THz circuits in SiGe technologies. Novel design techniques were implemented in these systems to enhance the performance of transmitter and receiver circuits. The reported circuits in this work were among the early realizations of Terahertz circuits in silicon technology and often achieved record performance metrics by utilizing novel circuit architectures and techniques. In addition, the effect of radiation intensive environments present in space was experimentally studied on mmW circuits for the first time. A novel method was proposed to conduct radiation experiments on high frequency circuits, along with theoretical studies and modeling methodologies to effectively predict and mitigate the single-event effects on high frequency receivers.