A new generation of electron devices makes waves, trillions of them each second

In one corner is the Solid State Power Amplifier (SSPA), which in 2014 was certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s fastest solid state chip, able to operate at THz speeds. This device, made of the semiconductor indium phosphide (InP), also can boost the power of a wide swath of incoming signals some thirtyfold (that’s what the “15 dB GAIN” spec in the poster indicates). In the other corner is a micromachined Traveling Wave Tube Amplifier (TWTA), a miniaturized device that relies on a tiny vacuum chamber in which electrons and radio signals interact. This wee bruiser can boost the power of a narrower range of THz frequencies by a factor of about 200 and was a celebrated darling of the 2016 IEEE International Vacuum Electronics Conference.

Of course, in reality this need not be a fight. “Really, the two contenders, both of them made by Northrop Grumman, are working as a tag team to collectively smack down the technical barriers that until now have made many THz applications impossible to realize,” said Dev Palmer, the DARPA program manager who has overseen the two-pronged research effort. “Together, the world-record SSPA and highly-acclaimed TWTA open the way to a THz future featuring devices that can generate, detect, process, and radiate extremely high-frequency signals, and push what is possible in areas ranging from high-resolution security imaging, collision-avoidance radar, high data rate communications, and remote detection systems for dangerous chemicals and explosives.”

Image Caption: The poster depicts two leading contenders in the bid to take radio technology into the terahertz (THz) bandwidth in which more information than ever can be communicated faster than ever. The abbreviations spell out this way: SSPA, Solid State Power Amplifier; TWTA, Traveling Wave Tube Amplifier; InP, Indium Phosphide; CW, continuous wave (as opposed to pulsed operation); dB, decibels (a unit associated here with a radio signal’s power level). Click on the image below for a high-resolution version.