Millimeter-Wave and Terahertz Leaky wave Antennas

Abstract

In this project, a millimeter-wave (mmW) and Terahertz (THz) antenna based on several innovative designs will be designed, fabricated and tested. In the nowadays world, although the high gain antennas working on high frequency range have already been designed, their structures are complex and can only be fabricated in the factory. The complicated structure represents that the working range and the performance are hard to be adjusted. If a leaky wave antenna working at high-frequency range which has both the higher maximal gain and a relatively simple structure, it will be a great breakthrough. After searching for the existing design of the high gain antennas and analysing their strengths and weaknesses, the suitable method and features will be extracted from the designs. Then a relatively simple method will be used to build a surface wave generator. With the surface grating technique, the antenna can be created by turning a surface wave into a high gain leaky wave. An adjustable and straightforward construct leaky wave antenna working at 100Ghz will then be fabricated. For mmW leaky wave antennas, the 3D printing technology and metallization will be applied to realize the designs. Finally, the printed-circuit-board technology will be used to conduct the THz frequency at 0.1 THz. In this project, a leaky wave antenna working at 100Ghz which both has maximal gain reaching 24.2dbi and over 12 percent bandwidth successfully designed. Although an insufficient production process encountered, a leaky wave antenna which has maximal gain reaching 19.7dbi and lower than -8.8S11 can be fabricated. Considering that it is difficult to design and fabricate a 100Ghz antenna in the laboratory, the results are acceptable.