Motorola and Phiar Target Terahertz (THz) ICs

Motorola is working with Phiar Corporation, a start-up spun out of the University of Colorado, on a project focusing on the creation of next generation electronic circuits which can be incorporated with tiny antennas to deliver high-speed millimeter wave receive arrays.


These receive arrays are expected to be low cost with the ability to be incorporated into multiple high-speed applications, such as Device-to-Device wireless communications and Personal Consumer Near Field Communications (NFC) as well as medical imaging, automotive radar, homeland security scanning, and defense applications.


Whereas today's mass market semiconductor technology enables devices which run in the megahertz (MHz) frequency range and are pushing to enter the low end gigahertz (GHz) frequency range of operation, the companies said they will demonstrate circuits based on this new low cost technology that are capable of running in the hundreds of GHz and potentially into the THz range.


The joint development effort will utilize Phiar's new Metal-Insulator technology and Motorola's millimeter wave circuits and systems technology, modeling and simulation, device and circuit characterization and advanced prototyping capabilities.
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The companies said Metal-Insulator technology can be broadly incorporated with circuits which use standard CMOS manufacturing as well as other semiconductor and printed circuit technologies.
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http://www.phiar.com