Terahertz antennas and feeds

Abstract

Terahertz antennas present a different set of challenges to the antenna designer typically striving for very high performance while at the very limit of the chosen fabrication process. Many of the same design techniques used at lower frequencies are still applied, but fabrication constraints impose significant limitations on the type of structure that can be used, forcing the designer to consider unique fabrication processes or completely new antenna structures. Through advances in fabrication and computational techniques, the variety of terahertz antennas is growing. This chapter presents a range of antennas applied at these frequencies from 1.9 THz horn antennas to superconducting planar arrays. The chapter will cover different antenna technologies and feeds such as corrugated horn antennas, smooth-walled profiled horn antennas, multi-flare angle horn antennas, lens antennas, microlens leaky wave antennas, metasurface antennas, antenna arrays, off-chip antennas, and others. It will detail theory, simulation, fabrication techniques, and state-of-the-art antenna results in all these different technologies at millimeter and terahertz frequencies. The chapter will also provide details for terahertz antennas in the context of terahertz systems.