DARPA’s Solid State Receiver Helps Develop Advanced Sensor and Communication Systems

DARPA scientists have developed a first-of-its-kind solid state receiver to illustrate gain at 0.85 terahertz (THz). This innovation is the latest advancement in the DARPA THz Electronics program in its search for transistor-based electronics that will provide electronic capabilities at terahertz frequencies.

This breakthrough is a significant progress towards the realization of integrated circuits at 1.03 THz. Earlier landmarks included demonstrations at 0.67 THz. Functioning at these high frequencies facilitates a suite of DoD electronics capabilities, which include sophisticated sensor and communication systems.

DARPA Program Manager, John Albrecht informed that realizing 0.85 THz circuits is a significant advancement for the program and is the most recent achievement from a continuing investment in frequency-scaled RF transistors. The capability of the coherent processing of signals at .85 THz offers a way to produce and radiate the high frequency signals required for applications like DARPA’s Video Synthetic Aperture Radar (ViSAR) program.

Albrecht further said that VISAR looks for the development and demonstration of a targeting sensor that functions in cloudy weather with an efficiency equivalent to that of existing infrared sensors operating in clear weather. This ground-breaking development would provide an advantage to U.S. warfighters in a very difficult part of the RF spectrum.

Source: http://www.darpa.mil

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