34.3 A 32×32 Pixel 0.46-to-0.75THz Light-Field Camera SoC in 0.13μ m CMOS

Light-field (LF) refers to the spatio-directional light flow in space. In LF imaging, light rays are recorded along different positions and directions, and a 3-D scene is reconstructed with back-propagation [1]. Modern visible-light LF cameras assemble a lens array atop a megapixel (Mpx) count focal-plane array (FPA), such that each lens (macro-pixel) provides spatial sampling while the FPA pixels within a lens (sub-pixels) provide angular sampling [2]. Likewise, THz LF cameras can allow real-time 3D see-through imaging for inspection and screening applications [3]. Unfortunately, THz Mpx FPAs are infeasible as a large THz pixel area (>10× visible-light pixel) would require wafer-scale FPA fabrication, leading to impractical costs and process variations. Multi-chip packaging is an alternative for scaling the THz FPA pixel count, but it requires compact THz camera ICs with serial data interfaces (small pin count) to allow dense integration.