Circuit-Level Design, Modeling, and On-Wafer Characterization of a Coplanar THz Optoelectronic Mixer

Abstract

We report the design, modeling, and on-wafer characterization of a photoconductive heterodyne mixer implemented as a true terahertz monolithic integrated circuit (TMIC). Unlike previous photoconductive heterodyne demonstrations, the proposed circuit is characterized using RF integrated circuit metrics including input return loss, RF/IF isolation, broadband impedance matching, and conversion loss. The mixer combines a microcavity photoconductor with a broadband coplanar matching network incorporating a Ti shunt resistor, an RF DC-blocking MIM capacitor, and an RF/IF decoupling capacitor. A circuit-level model including both the photoconductor and the distributed CPW accesses is developed and validated. The passive circuit is experimentally characterized up to 500 GHz using on-wafer VNA measurements and accurately reproduced by simulation. Under illumination, the model predicts an input reflection coefficient below -10 dB up to 215 GHz and better than -6.5 dB up to 500 GHz. Measured and simulated conversion losses agree within +/-1 dB over the entire 1-500 GHz range. Conversion loss varies from 22.5-25.5 dB below 320 GHz and 26-34 dB up to 500 GHz. The proposed TMIC demonstrates broadband operation and provides a validated circuit design methodology for future integrated THz photonic mixers.