Modeling the THz response of antenna-coupled Silicon MOSFETs

The validation of simulations tools for microelectronic devices and circuits at frequencies reaching high into the THz regime is a challenging task. For the case of Si MOSFETs used as detectors of cw THz radiation, we show that both the TSMC RF foundry model and our physics-based in-house tool ADS-HDM, which is designed to capture plasmonic channel effects at all frequencies correctly, reproduce the performance of detectors from 0.4 to 1.2 THz remarkably well. The good agreement between the two models has its roots in the short momentum scattering time of charge carriers in the channels of MOSFETs.