An all-solid-state broad-band frequency multiplier chain at 1500 GHz

We report the results of a high-performance all-solid-state broad-band frequency multiplier chain at 1500 GHz, which uses four cascaded planar Schottky-barrier varactor doublers. The multipliers are driven by monolithic-microwave integrated-circuit-based high electron-mobility transistor power amplifiers around 95 GHz with 100-150 mW of pump power. The design incorporates balanced doublers utilizing novel substrateless and membrane device fabrication technologies, achieving low-loss broad-band multipliers working in the terahertz range. For a drive power of approximately 100 mW in the 88-99-GHz range, the doublers achieved room-temperature peak efficiencies of approximately 30% at the 190-GHz stage, 20% at 375 GHz, 9% at 750 GHz, and 4% at the 1500-GHz stage. When the chain was cooled to 120 K, approximately 40 μW of peak output power was measured for 100 mW of input pump power.