New Publication: Scalable Graphene Rectennas for the Terahertz Range
We would like to congratulate Dr. Andreas Hemmetter and the entire research team on the publication of their new research article, “Enhanced coupling efficiency in geometric terahertz rectennas based on scalable CVD graphene”, in the journal Discover Electronics.
Harvesting and utilizing electromagnetic energy from future wireless communication networks could become a key technology for autonomous sensors and IoT applications. The newly published work marks an important step in this direction by introducing geometric graphene rectennas for the terahertz frequency range. The devices operate at room temperature and without external bias at frequencies of up to 0.68 THz.
A key challenge in geometric rectifiers is combining quasi-ballistic charge transport with scalable fabrication technology. Instead of using commonly employed mechanically exfoliated graphene, the research team relied on commercially available CVD graphene and fabricated the devices on 2-inch wafers. This represents an important step toward industrially relevant manufacturing processes.
Another key aspect of the work is the innovative device design. By connecting three geometric rectifiers in parallel, the input resistance was reduced and impedance matching with the antenna was significantly improved. As a result, the coupling efficiency increased from 2.1% to 7.4%. At the same time, the measured terahertz responsivity increased by almost a factor of five compared with a single rectifier.
The developed devices achieved an intrinsic peak responsivity of 11.8 V/W and a minimum thermal noise-equivalent power of 1.9 nW/√Hz. Particularly noteworthy is that these values were achieved without source-drain or gate bias. The results highlight the potential of geometric graphene rectennas as a basis for future scalable THz detectors and systems for harvesting energy from wireless networks.
The work was carried out as part of a successful international collaboration between AMO, RWTH Aachen University, Goethe University Frankfurt, the University of Udine, Marche Polytechnic University, and Vilnius University. In addition to first author Andreas Hemmetter, numerous researchers from the participating partner institutions contributed to the project.
The research was supported by the European GreEnergy project, the 2D Pilot Line, the DFG Priority Programme INTEREST, and the Lithuanian Science Foundation.
We are pleased to have contributed to this development and congratulate Andreas Hemmetter and all researchers involved on this successful publication.
The publication is available open access and can be accessed here.
