Terahertz Nano-Radio Platform with Integrated Antenna and Power source

There is an unmet demand for nano-scaled ultra-low-power low-cost radios to address field-deployable and massively producible sensing and communication networks in future military and commercial applications. To overcome the limitations in existing bulky and power hungry radios, we propose a disruptive solution by exploiting the holistic integration of THz radio transceiver system, on-chip antenna, and energy harvesting technologies in a form-factor smaller than 10^-11 cubic meter. The proposed THz radio adopts a novel bidirectional circuit-sharing architecture in scaled CMOS that can be configured as a harmonic oscillator transmitter for THz signal transmitting or a super-harmonic regenerative receiver for THz signal receiving. This THz bidirectional transceiver substantially reduces the size and power while ensuring an adequate link-budget for communication. The THz radio can readily achieve a data rate over 10Mbit/s for one meter using On-Off-Keying (OOK) modulation. A multi-feed on-chip antenna performs on-chip THz power combining, splitting, and radiation, which further reduces the overall system size. Various energy harvesting technologies and their integration with the CMOS THz radio chip will be explored. The collaborative team includes Digital Analog Integration and Georgia Institute of Technology and offers related technical expertise, successful track records, and necessary facilities for the proposed research.