Integrated Horn Antennas for Terahertz Applications

We are developing integrated and receivers antennas for terahertz applications. As the remote-sensing/radio-astronomical frequencies are pushed higher into the millimeter and submillimeterwave regions, integrated antennas and receivers become competitive with standard waveguide receivers. The integrated receivers consist of an antenna integrated directly with a matching network/mixer. Integrated antennas and receivers are easier to manufacture, more reliable and much less expensive than waveguide receivers. The integration also allows the use of linear or two-dimensional arrays without a dramatic increase in cost. The heart of an integrated receiver is the planar antenna and the antenna/mixer matching network. We have concentrated our efforts into the development and optimization of the high-efficiency integrated horn antenna (Fig. 1). The antenna consists of a dipole suspended in a pyramidal cavity etched in Silicon.The horn antennas are typically between lA and 1.5A-square, and show excellent patterns at 93 GHz with a directivity around 10-12 dB. In the past year, we have achieved significant advance in the analysis and optimization of integrated horn antennas and the projects are summarized below: