Abstract
While terahertz communications are considered to be the future solutions for the increasing demands on bandwidth, terahertz equivalents of radio frequency front-end components have not been realized. It remains challenging to achieve wideband, low profile antenna arrays with highly directive beams of radiation. Here, based on the complementary antenna approach, a wideband 2 × 2 cavity-backed slot antenna array with a corrugated surface is proposed. The approach is based on a unidirectional antenna with a cardiac radiation pattern and stable frequency characteristics that is achieved by integrating a series-resonant electric dipole with a parallel-resonant magnetic dipole. In this design, the slots work as magnetic dipoles while the corrugated surface radiates as an array of electric dipoles. The proposed antenna is realized at 1 THz operating frequency by stacking multiple metallized layers using the microfabrication technology. S-parameter measurements of this terahertz low-profile metallic antenna array demonstrate high efficiency at terahertz frequencies. Fractional bandwidth and gain are measured to be 26% and 14 dBi which are consistent with the simulated results. The proposed antenna can be used as the building block for larger antenna arrays with more directive beams, paving the way to develop high gain low-profile antennas for future communication needs.
Highlights
To support the advancement of terahertz (THz) systems for wireless communications[1, 2], sophisticated antennas are in urgent need
The antenna, designated as the magneto-electric dipole[24], is a special kind of complementary antenna consisting of an electric dipole and a magnetic dipole[25], co-located with orthogonal directions, and with the electric dipole operated in series resonance and the magnetic dipole operated in parallel resonance
The electric signal propagating in the waveguide is coupled to the antenna through a transverse slot etched on the upper surface of the waveguide
Summary
To support the advancement of terahertz (THz) systems for wireless communications[1, 2], sophisticated antennas are in urgent need. Microfabrication technologies similar to those used in the semiconductor industry have been applied to form on-chip integrated antenna arrays on silicon (Si) substrates[10,11,12] These integrated chips often suffer from drawbacks such as low efficiency or gain, substrate modes, and back radiation related to the low resistivity and high relative permittivity of Si. At THz frequencies, most of these designs are not applicable due to the difficulties encountered in conventional integrated circuit (IC) fabrication. The magneto-electric dipole concept has been successfully applied for developing high performance wideband antenna array for microwave mobile communications and 60 GHz millimeter-wave wireless systems. For THz operation, their structures are too complicated to be realized by conventional fabrication techniques
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