2-D Fixed-Frequency Terahertz Beam Steering With Microactuated Leaky-Wave Structure

2-D Fixed-Frequency Terahertz Beam Steering With Microactuated Leaky-Wave Structure

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach to terahertz beam steering by physically altering the waveguide instead of employing phase shifters. By tilting one plate in a parallel plate waveguide structure by just a fraction of a degree in two dimensions, the radiation emitted through a leaky-mesh on the other plate can be steered by many times the tilt angle with a leverage effect. The authors derive actuator speed requirements to tilt one plate to track moving human targets, model the physical phenomena over frequency from 220-320 GHz, design and fabricate the parallel plate waveguide structure and leaky mesh, and measure actual performance at 280 GHz. ±37° horizontal steering range is achieved with ±0.169° plate tilt, and 18° vertical steering is achieved with 0.2mm plate transition.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10577480