300-GHz Intermodulation/Noise Characterization Enabled by a Single THz Photonics Source

Abstract

In this letter, we present the first use of a terahertz (THz) photonic-driven source toward active circuit characterization. We show that a single source can be used for intermodulation points and noise figure measurement. The method is applied at 300 GHz with a HEMT technology-based low noise amplifier (LNA). We show that the third and fifth intermodulation behavior at 300 GHz can be extracted taking advantage of the linearity of the THz photonic devices. Here, the millimeter-wave/THz source is an unitraveling carrier photodiode (UTC-PD) used either as a signal generator with two-tones or as a noise source.