THz and mm-Wave High-Resolution Imaging and Radar Sensing for Low-Power and Short-Range Applications

The mm-wave and THz spectrum offers promising potentials for various applications such as imaging and radar. The higher frequency and available bandwidth can significantly increase the resolution in these applications, while reducing the size of the system. However, lower available-gain of the transistors and higher noise contribution from components at these frequencies can increase power consumption and reduce sensitivity. In this talk we present system and circuit-level techniques to achieve record displacement resolution at mm-wave frequencies while consuming little power, and to construct high resolution images at THz frequencies with record power consumption. The proposed structures can be used in battery powered and portable systems for applications such as human vital-signs detection, biomedical sensing and imaging, agriculture sensing, material analysis and thickness sensing, quality control, security screening and 3D imaging.