Three-Dimensional Terahertz Tomography With Transistor-Based Signal Source and Detector Circuits Operating Near 300 GHz

In this paper, three-dimensional (3-D) terahertz (THz) tomography was demonstrated with a signal source and imagers based on transistor circuits fabricated with standard semiconductor technologies. For the signal source, a 300-GHz oscillator based on InP HBT technology was employed. For detection, two types of imagers operating near 300 GHz were employed, one direct and the other heterodyne, both realized with SiGe HBT technology. With a set of 2-D images taken from different angles, sinograms and tomograms were obtained, which led to a successful reconstruction of 3-D images of the target object based on the filtered back-projection algorithm. A systematic comparison was made for the direct imager and the heterodyne imager, for which the signal input power and the video bandwidth were varied for both imagers. The results revealed that the heterodyne imager shows a better sensitivity than the direct imager. However, a similar dynamic range of around 30 dB was achieved for both imagers because of a saturation observed for the heterodyne imager when the input power exceeds the threshold. The video bandwidth did not affect the image quality significantly for the bandwidth variation over four orders of magnitude for both imagers.