Although silicon based technologies form the core of the semiconductor industry, at mm wave and THz frequencies, historically the device technologies of choice have been those that take advantage of superior properties of III-V semiconductors such as e.g. GaAs, InP and InN. However Si based technologies (CMOS, SiGe) are steadily making inroads into the high frequency market due to ever-increasing operation frequency and their lower cost. In the coming years CMOS, the cheapest technology of all will be able to handle signals well above 100 GHz. E.g. the 20 nm gate length will result in a maximum oscillation frequency of 560 GHz.

The research activities here deal with the design of high performance mm wave telecom transmit-receive front ends and with the study of sensor chip front end architectures, including beam steering solutions by means of antenna arrays.