Terahertz Microstrip Leaky-Wave Antenna for WR1.0 Band

This paper presents the first THz periodic microstrip Leaky-wave antenna (LWA) with a suppressed open stopband for WR1.0 band between 0.75 and 1.1 THz for future communication applications. The designed 20-unit cell LWA on 20 µm InP substrate has been simulated in CST. The return loss is better than 17 dB, and the insertion loss is higher than 20 dB for the whole domain. Furthermore, the LWA has a maximum total efficiency of 76.12% at 0.77 THz. In addition, the beam steering capabilities show a scanning range of 92° in the WR1.0 band when sweeping the frequency from 0.75 THz (-35°) to 1.1 THz (57°). On the other hand, the realized gain varies between 12.6 and 14.1 dBi at 0.75 and 1.0 THz, respectively. Finally, the paper discusses a concept to enable the fabrication of very thin InP substrate and a technique to facilitate the characterization on wide InP substrate.