DARPA-INSPIRED CIRCUIT CRUSHES ELECTRONIC SPEED RECORD

DARPA Receives Guinness Book of Records Award for for the Fastest Solid-State Amplifier Integrated Circuit

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is setting records yet again. DARPA’s Terahertz Electronics program has received the Guinness Book of Records award for the fastest solid-state amplifier integrated circuit. The Terahertz Monolithic Integrated Circuit (TMIC), which was developed by Northrop Grumman, “is a ten-stage common-source amplifier that cranks speeds of one terahertz (1012 Hz), or one trillion cycles per second.”

DARPA believe that the current state of electronics must move past (existing) speeds of 300 gigahertz and wavelengths of less than a millimeter if it is to fulfill the needs of the next generation of communications technology, spectroscopy and radar. “Terahertz circuits promise to open up new areas of research and unforeseen applications in the sub-millimeter-wave spectrum, in addition to bringing unprecedented performance to circuits operating at more conventional frequencies,” said Dev Palmer, DARPA program manager.