Integrated Circuits Using Photonic-Crystal Slab Waveguides and Resonant Tunneling Diodes for Terahertz Communication

Abstract

We herein develop a terahertz (THz) integrated system based on electronic and photonic technologies. Photonic crystals provide a promising platform to integrate electronic devices such as resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) with photonic devices such as photonic-crystal waveguides. However, the size difference between the RTD and the photonic-crystal waveguide is a major challenge for this study. Hence, we present and compare the Yagi-Uda and tapered-slot coupling structures to enable the development of a synergic technology based on electronic and photonic technologies We successfully develop integrated devices such as a THz transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) for a 12 Gbit/s error-free THz communication link. Furthermore, we demonstrate uncompressed 4K video transmission using the developed RTD-based Tx and Rx devices.