The performance of CMOS transmitters and receivers operating at the submillimeter electromagnetic wave frequencies have sufficiently improved for use in active transmission and reflection-mode imaging applications that have potential for broad deployment and utilization. Imaging integrated circuits have potential to be large in area to support a high number of pixels along with digital backend processing circuits. For high volume imaging applications that may eventually need to be included in automobiles, smartphones, tablets and others, a large manufacturing capacity to support the volume of large area IC’s is necessary. For this, use of CMOS technologies with a much larger manufacturing capacity is favored. It should be possible to improve the performance of CMOS circuits to increase the range, and operation margin and frequency. The electronically steerable submillimeter-wave reflector technology holds the promise for improving the performance and power efficiency of submillimeter-wave imaging systems by multiple orders of magnitude, and it is a critical research area. Increasing the operating frequency from 430 GHz to 850 GHz using CMOS integrated circuits will improve the angular resolution by 2X at a given form factor (~0.15^o for a reflector diameter of 15 cm) could make the submillimeter-wave imaging competitive to the LiDAR angular resolution performance, while providing superior capabilities in visually impaired conditions and making the imaging devices more affordable.

Biography:

Kenneth O received his S.B, S.M, and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sci­ence from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA in 1984, 1984, and 1989, respectively. From 1989 to 1994, Dr. O worked at Analog Devices Inc. developing sub-micron CMOS processes for mixed signal applications, and high speed bipolar and BiCMOS processes. He was a professor at the University of Florida, Gainesville from 1994 to 2009. He is currently the Director of the Texas Analog Center of Excellence and Texas Instruments Distinguished University Chair Professor of Analog Circuits and Systems at the University of Texas at Dallas. His research group is developing circuits and components required to implement analog and digital systems operating at frequencies up to 50 THz using silicon IC technologies. Dr. O was the President of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society in 2020 and 2021. He has authored and co-authored ~310 journal and conference publications, as well as holding 15 patents. Dr. O has received the 2014 Semiconductor Industry Association University Researcher Award. Prof. O is also an IEEE Life Fellow.