Patent ID: 9385770
Filing Date: 2016-07-05
CPC Classification: H04B

Claim Text:
1. An apparatus comprising a plurality of antenna cells electrically connected with one another and configured to generate an electrical output signal in response to electromagnetic radiation from a millimeter-wave or terahertz range received by the plurality of the antenna cells, wherein: each of the antenna cells is configured to perform coherent detection of the electromagnetic radiation and comprises (i) a respective antenna structure and (ii) a respective electrical down-converter circuit coupled to the respective antenna structure and configured to generate a respective component of the electrical output signal by mixing a first local oscillator signal and an electrical signal generated by the respective antenna structure in response to the electromagnetic radiation; the plurality of the antenna cells are electrically connected with one another to combine said respective components in a manner that causes the electrical output signal to have a greater power than a power of any of said respective components; the apparatus is configured to generate the electrical output signal in response to the electromagnetic radiation having a carrier wavelength; the plurality of the antenna cells are arranged in a spatial array in which directly spatially adjacent antenna cells are spaced by a distance that is approximately equal to the carrier wavelength; the apparatus is configured to generate the electrical output signal in response to the electromagnetic radiation that is modulated with data over a sequence of symbol periods; and the spatial array has a linear size that is smaller than a symbol length in the modulated electromagnetic radiation.