Semiconductor technology continues to scale along predicted trajectories, delivering transistors with ƒmax values in the THz range. Unfortunately, a high ƒmax is not quite sufficient by itself. An inverse-quartic rolloff in specific output power, coupled with a dramatically increasing atmospheric attenuation as frequencies increase, create degraded link margins that frustrate exploitation of the valuable spectrum from roughly 300GHz to 3THz. This talk will describe compelling uses of this spectrum, including spectroscopy, imaging and XWB (extreme wideband) wireless communications, and will discuss how transistor technology limitations might be overcome by architectural innovations, as well as by new device structures. Exploitation of the terahertz realm represents perhaps the greatest challenge in the history of RF technology, and arguably represents the greatest opportunity.
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