The DARPA/Northop chip reportedly has excellent properties, with a gain of 9dB at 1THz, and 10dB at 1.03THz. “Gains of six decibels or more start to move this research from the laboratory bench to practical applications—nine decibels of gain is unheard of at terahertz frequencies,” says Dev Palmer, DARPA’s THz Electronics program manager. “This opens up new possibilities for building terahertz radio circuits.”