Higher power terahertz sources based on diode multipliers

Solid-state sources using diode based frequency multipliers are critical for radio astronomy and atmospheric studies, as well as many other important scientific applications. This talk describes many of the technological innovations that are now used to achieve these goals and two specific recent examples that demonstrate the current capability of this technology. The first is a ∼200 GHz varactor doubler that generates greater than ∼550 mW. The second is a 2.5 THz source that generates about 5uW in the band from 2.48 to 2.7 THz. This power level can be further increased by several dB through the cooling of the final varistor multiplier stages. Prospects for further improvements and technical challenges will be discussed.