All-dielectric rod antenna array for terahertz communications

All-dielectric rod antenna array for terahertz

communications
Withawat Withayachumnankul,1, a) Ryoumei Yamada,2 Masayuki Fujita,2, b) and
Tadao Nagatsuma2
1)
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide,
SA 5005, Australia.
2)
Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, 1-3 Machikaneyama,
Toyonaka, Osaka 560-8531, Japan.
(Dated: 29 March 2018)
The terahertz band holds a potential for point-to-point short-range wireless
communications at sub-terabit speed. To realize this potential, supporting
antennas must have a wide bandwidth to sustain high data rate, and must
have high gain and low dissipation to compensate for the free space path loss
that scales quadratically with frequency. Here we propose an all-dielectric rod
antenna array with high radiation efficiency, high gain, and wide bandwidth.
The proposed array is integral to a low-loss photonic crystal waveguide plat-
form, and intrinsic silicon is the only constituent material for both the antenna
and the feed to maintain the simplicity, compactness, and efficiency. Effective
medium theory plays a key role in the antenna performance and integrability.
An experimental validation with continuous-wave terahertz electronic systems
confirms the minimum gain of 20 dBi across 315–390 GHz. A demonstration
shows that a pair of such identical rod array antennas can handle bit-error-free

15 February 2025 17:43:39

transmission at the speed up to 10 Gbps. Further development of this antenna
will build critical components for future terahertz communication systems.
Keywords: Terahertz antenna; terahertz communications; broadband an-
tenna; dielectric rod antenna; effective medium; photonic crystal waveguides

I. INTRODUCTION

Research activities in terahertz communications have become intensive in recent years.1

This is in response to the congestion at lower microwave and millimeter-wave frequency
bands due to the exponential growth of wireless devices and associated high-quality mul-
timedia. According to Shannon theorem, moving to higher frequencies offers wider band-
width and thus higher channel capacities. Conceptually, a single terahertz band within
an atmospheric transmission window can carry over 100-Gbps wireless data across a few
hundred of metres.1 Indeed, terahertz links cannot replace existing mobile communication
channels because of stringent alignment of a transmitter-receiver pair at higher frequencies.
However, such high-capacity links are in demand to serve between fixed base stations of
future mobile networks, within large data centres, at data kiosks, and for intra-/inter-chip
communications. One major challenge towards terahertz communications lies in radiating
antennas that must have high directivity to compensate free-space path loss, high efficiency
to preserve precious terahertz power, and wide bandwidth to support large channel capacity.
At terahertz frequencies, metals can no longer be considered as quasi perfect electric
conductors. Ohmic loss is non-negligible, particularly when oscillations of surface currents
are involved, as in resonant metallic antennas. Despite that, nearly all existing terahertz
antennas were made of metals2 . Additionally, these antennas typically co-locate and co-
operate with either electronic3,4 or photonic5 sources, and as such the designability of the
antennas and the functionality of the platform are limited. For terahertz communication

a) Electronic mail: [email protected]

b) Electronic mail: [email protected]
All-dielectric rod antenna array for terahertz communications 2

demonstrations, high-gain radiation is supported by augmenting parabolic reflectors, lenses,

or horns.6–8 While the bandwidth, gain, and efficiency of these components are attractive,
their size and shape greatly limit the integrability. Recent studies employed compact di-
electric resonator antennas to mitigate or eliminate Ohmic loss in metallic antennas.9–11
However, the gain and bandwidth were relatively limited. As an alternative, non-resonant
planar travelling-wave antennas promise integrability, wideband performance, and low dis-
sipation.
In principle, a single tapered dielectric rod antenna12,13 can be employed to achieve high-
gain radiation. This type of antenna gradually leaks a guided mode into free-space to form
a large effective aperture. Such a rod antenna possesses broad bandwidth, high gain, low
insertion loss, and frequency-independent radiation pattern. The feed for a rod antenna
can be a dielectric waveguide.14,15 So far, all terahertz-range implementations were in the
form of a single rod fed by a horn antenna or a local source.16–18 Achieving high radiation
gain can be accomplished by extending the rod length. However, this method is restricted
by the fragility of the long tapering. To put this into perspective, a numerical estimation
suggests a rod length of over 50 mm or 55 wavelengths to attain the gain of 20 dBi at
330 GHz (see the Supplementary Material). An alternative means to attaining high gain
is to employ an array of multiple rod antennas to increase an effective aperture size. Such
arrays were implemented for millimeter waves,19–21 but the feed networks were complicated
and not scalable to the terahertz range. Additionally, those rod antenna arrays were with
limited density and expandability due to a large feed extent.
In this article, we present an array of dielectric rod antennas to support wireless commu-
nications at terahertz frequencies between 300–400 GHz. This antenna array is designed to
work in conjunction with a photonic crystal waveguide platform. High radiation gain can be

15 February 2025 17:43:39

realized from a number of rod antennas, together forming a large effective aperture. This ar-
ray is fed by a flaring dielectric waveguide to reduce the complexity of the feed network and
to accommodate the array density and scalability. The feed length can be greatly shortened
by the use of an effective medium to correct the wavefronts across the aperture. The entire
structure, comprising the antenna array and the photonic crystal platform, can be built all
at once on a single dielectric material. This integrated structure simplifies the fabrication
process, and fully complies with the restrictions imposed by micro-fabrication technology.
Since both the feeding photonic crystal waveguide and antenna are all-dielectric, Ohmic loss
associated with metals is entirely eliminated. Importantly, the design consolidates knowl-
edge from both the microwave and optics domains with the involvement of dielectric rod
antenna, photonic crystal waveguide, and effective medium.

II. DESIGN PRINCIPLE

A. Overview

As shown in Fig. 1, the proposed antenna is established as a part of the free-standing

photonic crystal platform. The structure comprises a photonic crystal waveguide, a planar
horn or flaring section, an effective medium, and an array of tapered dielectric rod antennas.
These planar components work together to couple a guided mode with free-space radiation.
All the components are defined into a 200-µm thick silicon slab in the form of air through-
holes. This silicon is intrinsic and float-zone, and thus exhibits very small dissipation
loss22 in the terahertz range, i.e., tan δ ≈ 0.00002 at 1 THz. It suggests that the antenna
efficiency is close to 100%. The bulk refractive index of silicon is around 3.418 in this
frequency range.22 A high contrast between the refractive indices of bulk silicon and free
space results in strong wave confinement and overall compact structure. Furthermore, the
contrast yields an effective medium with a potentially large variation in the effective index,
which can accommodate a wide range of artificial dielectric components. In this section,
we discuss each components in Fig. 1 in detail. All the simulations are carried out by using
CST Microwave Studio.
The feed employs an existing low-loss photonic crystal waveguide that supports a dom-
All-dielectric rod antenna array for terahertz communications 3

Effective
lens

Waveguide Flaring

Tapered rod
antenna array
x
z

FIG. 1. Render of optimal dielectric rod antenna array and feed. Visible in this image from left to
right are the photonic crystal waveguide, flaring section, effective medium, and tapered rod array.
All the dimensions are given in the Supplementary Material.

inant transverse-electric (TE) mode with an electric field in-plane and a magnetic field
out-of-plane.23 This TE mode is present between 315–336 GHz, within which the waves are
tightly confined in plane by the photonic-bandgap effect, and out of plane by the total-
internal reflection. The attenuation in this waveguide is less than 0.1 dB/cm. In order
to feed an array of dielectric rod antennas, this waveguide flares into a planar dielectric

15 February 2025 17:43:39

waveguide that supports a TE0 mode with an electric field in the x direction. The photonic
crystal remains alongside the flaring section to prohibit in-plane leakage.24 The mode con-
version between the photonic crystal waveguide and the planar dielectric waveguide is with
negligible insertion loss. It should be noted that the two TE modes are distinctive, due
to different naming conventions. By definition, only the former that has an electric-field
component in the propagation direction. For the planar dielectric waveguide, all modes are
slow-wave with evanescent field out of plane.
This flared-out planar dielectric waveguide feeds an array of identical dielectric rod an-
tennas. Each rod antenna loosely operates in its HE11 mode, and is spaced apart from an
adjacent one by 200 µm. The rods are tapered such that the guided mode gradually leaks
into free space in both transversal directions. Given the spacing of the rod array, grating
lobes can be expected around 1.5 THz, well above the frequency range of interest. Since
this feed scheme entails no sophisticated power dividers, the rod antennas can be closely
packed and readily expandable. Typically, a larger aperture size would translate directly to
a larger antenna gain.25 However, the validity of this relation is limited to some extent. As
the aperture grows larger, in-plane cylindrical waves become obvious in the flaring section.
In other words, a wave travelling from the photonic crystal waveguide to each dielectric rod
antenna acquires a distinctive phase delay due to different path lengths. This leads to a
diverging beam in free space. As a consequence, the achievable gain saturates at around
12–15 dBi for a given tapered rod length. A possible solution is to increase the ratio between
the length and the width of the flaring section to reduce the difference in the path lengths.
However, the approach obviously undermines the compactness of the feed.
In principle, a lens should be inserted between the flaring section and the rod array to
equalize the phase delay for different paths, i.e., stronger delay on-axis and weaker delay for
longer diverging paths off-axis. Based on this requirement, we adopt effective medium theory
to perform this lensing function without introducing additional materials or fabrication
steps. The framework of effective medium has been realized to create different devices,
as for example, a gradient-index lens for free-space terahertz waves,26 a planar Luneburg
lens,27 and even an optical cloak.28 For our work, a two-dimensional array of subwavelength
cylindrical air thru-holes is created into the planar dielectric waveguide, and the effective
modal index of this waveguide can be controlled via the hole density. Thus, spatial phase
variation across the aperture can be produced. Reflection at the lens-waveguide interfaces
should be minimal to avoid additional insertion losses and gain variation with frequency.
All-dielectric rod antenna array for terahertz communications 4

B. Effective medium in dielectric waveguide

First, we consider the effective permittivity ϵeff of bulk silicon perforated by an array
of cylindrical air holes. For the propagation mode under consideration, the electric-field
polarization is always perpendicular to the axis of these air holes. In this case, the 2D
Maxwell-Garnett approximation establishes that29
(ϵ0 + ϵsi ) + (ϵ0 − ϵsi )ζd
ϵeff = n2eff = ϵsi , (1)
(ϵ0 + ϵsi ) − (ϵ0 − ϵsi )ζd
where ζd is a fill factor, ϵ0 = 1 is the relative permittivity of free space, and ϵsi = n2si = 11.68
is the relative permittivity of silicon, which is constant in the terahertz range. For a square
lattice of air holes, the fill factor ζd can be calculated from πd2 /(4a2 ), where d is the
diameter of an air hole and a is the lattice constant, i.e., the distance between the centers
of adjacent holes. This approximation is valid when the hole array is in the sub-wavelength
regime, i.e., the lattice constant a is much smaller than the shortest wavelength of guided
waves. Under this assumption, diffraction and bandgap effects do not play a role. It is
noteworthy that this effective medium inherits its non-dispersion from bulk silicon.
Then, we consider the relevant mode of propagation inside the planar silicon waveguide,
and how this mode is affected by the presence of subwavelength air holes. Between 300–400
GHz, the dielectric waveguide made of a 200-µm thick silicon slab can support two TE
modes, namely TE0 and TE1 , the former of which has no cutoff frequency and the latter
has its cutoff at 241 GHz. However, only the fundamental mode is of interest here, since
the TE1 mode is asymmetric and thus cannot be excited by the photonic crystal waveguide.
The propagation constant β of TE modes in this free-standing planar dielectric waveguide,

15 February 2025 17:43:39

as shown in the inset of Fig. 2, can be expressed in the transcendental form as30
{ }
t√ mπ β 2 − k02
tan 2
(neff k0 ) − β −
2 2 = , (2)
2 2 (neff k0 )2 − β 2
where k0 is the free-space wavenumber, t = 200 µm is the waveguide thickness, m = 0 is the
fundamental propagation mode, and neff is the effective refractive index of the constituent
dielectric materials. For bulk silicon, neff equals 3.418, while neff for perforated silicon can
be obtained from Eq. 1. Based on Eq. 2, at 400 GHz, the wavelength of the TE0 mode inside
an unperforated silicon slab equals 240 µm. Thus, the lattice constant of air holes must
be less than 120 µm to maintain the validity of effective medium approximation. In the
following designs, the lattice constant is 100 µm or less. For this choice of lattice constant,
the first bandgap appears at around 470 GHz, well above the frequency range of interest.
Figure 2(a) shows how the dispersion relation of the planar waveguide changes with the
diameter of air holes with a lattice constant of 100 µm. It can be seen that the guided
mode remains below the light line with no free-space coupling. In addition, Fig. 2(b) shows
the corresponding effective modal indices, nwg = β/k0 , which will be used in designing
the effective medium for phase correction. It is clear that the modal index decreases with
an increase in the hole size. In addition, this modal index is dispersive as a consequence
of the guided mode, i.e., higher frequency components experience slightly larger effective
refractive index due to tighter field confinement. However, within the frequency range of
interest between 300 and 400 GHz, the dispersion is moderate, and the following calculations
assume frequency-independent modal indices taken at 330 GHz. Figure 2(b) also provides
a comparison with numerical results that show general agreement. The deviation between
the analytical and numerical results, particularly for large hole diameters, is because of
the Fabry-Perot effect inside the simulated waveguide. The reflections arise since the wave
impedance of the ports matches that of the mode in the silicon slab, but not in the effective
medium.

C. Design of effective lens

An effective lens can be designed based on the relation between the hole diameter and
the effective modal index. The phase distribution of this lens necessary to compensate the
All-dielectric rod antenna array for terahertz communications 5

500 3.5

m
(a) (b)

90 µ
d = 0 µm

ne
d=
400 3.0

Light li
d = 0 µm

Frequency (GHz) 300 2.5

Modal index
n
i co
sil
200 2.0

ulk
nb
ei
lin a×a
100 1.5
ht

d = 90 µm
Lig

d y
t silicon z
0 Analytical Numerical
1.0
0 1 2 3 4 300 400
Wavenumber (×10⁴ rad/m) Frequency (GHz)

FIG. 2. Effect of the subwavelength hole array on the guided mode. (a) Dispersion relation for
the TE0 mode inside the planar dielectric waveguide. The lattice constant a of the hole array is
set to 100 µm, while the hole diameter d varies between 0 µm and 90 µm with a step size of 10
µm. The results are obtained by using Eq. 2 with an assumption of homogeneous material. This
assumption excludes the bandgap effect that occurs around 470 GHz due to the periodicity of the
hole array. (Inset) A planar dielectric waveguide in free space with a square lattice of air holes.
(b) Corresponding effective modal indices nwg = β/k0 for the TE0 mode. The analytical results

15 February 2025 17:43:39

are from Eq. 2, while the numerical results are from CST Microwave Studio.

phase difference due to wave propagation in the flaring section is given as

√
ϕlens (x) = nwg,d=0 k0 ( F 2 + x2 − F ) + ϕ0 , (3)
where nwg,d=0 is the modal index of the dielectric waveguide without a hole array, F is the
focal length, and ϕ0 is an arbitrary phase constant. It is noteworthy that engineering phase
convention is adopted throughout. Equation 3 assumes a fixed modal index over the flaring
section for simplicity. Practically, this modal index varies along the propagation or z axis
due to the evolution of the guided mode, as discussed in Section II A. The focal length F
can be adjusted around the flare length to compensate this spatial modal index variation.
The phase offset ϕ0 enforces negative phase values associated with phase retardation inside
the lens. Equation 3 implies that this lens induces strongest phase delay in the center where
x = 0.
On the other hand, the phase response available from the effective medium is given as
ϕavail = −nwg,d k0 l , (4)
where nwg,d is the modal index of the dielectric waveguide loaded with an array of air
holes with a diameter d, and l is the length of this effective lens along the z axis. This
phase response can be tailored to match the phase requirement in Eq. 3 by varying either
the modal index nwg,d or the length l. The latter option implies a constant index contrast
across the aperture, and thus a considerable Fabry-Perot effect. Thus, we opt for the former
option to fix the length l but vary the hole diameter d along the x direction, as illustrated
in Fig. 3. The smallest hole diameter dmin locates around x = 0 to induce a strongest delay,
while the largest hole diameter dmax locates on the edges. The physical length l of this
effective lens can be determined from these two hole sizes—dmin limited by the fabrication
and dmax by the acceptable impedance mismatch with the solid dielectric waveguide. The
maximum phase difference available from the two hole extrema must satisfy the maximum
phase difference required by Eq. 3. Thus,
√
nwg,d=0 k0 ( F 2 + x2max − F )
l= . (5)
(nwg,dmin − nwg,dmax )k0
All-dielectric rod antenna array for terahertz communications 6

l = N×a

dmax
a×a

s
r gin g w a v efr o nt
Flaring section

Effective lens
Waveguide
dmin

D iv e
x
z
dmax

FIG. 3. Effective lens for wavefront correction. Waves emerging from the photonic crystal waveg-
uide diverge as they propagate through the flaring section. These diverging waves can be collimated
by using the effective lens made of an array of cylindrical air holes.

3.0
Numerical phase (a) (b)
-30
Phase (rad)

Analytical phase

Modal index
Phase from effective medium
2.5

-40
2.0

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Required index
Index from effective medium
-50 1.5
80 0.08
Hole diameter (μm)

(c) (d)

Reflectance
0.06
60
0.04
40
0.02
20 0.00
-4 -2 0 2 4 -4 -2 0 2 4
Lateral position (mm)

FIG. 4. Effective lens design for optimal rod antenna array. (a) Phase profiles for the lens at 330
GHz. The analytical phase profile is obtained from Eq. 3, while the numerical phase is obtained
from CST Microwave Studio across the flare end. The three curves overlap nearly completely.
(b) Required modal indices calculated from Eq. 7, and modal indices available from the effective
medium. (c) Corresponding hole diameters rounded to the nearest integers. (d) Reflectance at
the lens-waveguide interface. This reflectance is calculated from [nwg,d=0 − nwg,d (x)]2 /[nwg,d=0 +
nwg,d (x)]2 .

The number of air holes along the z axis thus equals N = l/a, rounded to the nearest
integer. The phase constant ϕ0 in Eq. 3 must be equal to the phase accumulation along the
z axis at x = 0, or
ϕ0 = −nwg,dmin k0 N a . (6)
Finally, the required modal index as a function of the position x can be calculated by
equating Eqs. 3 and 4
ϕlens (x)
nwg,d (x) = − , (7)
k0 N a
and the corresponding hole diameter at each discrete x location can be found from the
relation discussed in Section II B. Notably, provided that the guided mode is approximately
nondispersive, this phase correction approach works in broadband due to the true time
All-dielectric rod antenna array for terahertz communications 7

(a)

x
z 2 mm

(b)

(c)

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FIG. 5. Fabricated antenna arrays. (a) Optimal antenna array with an aperture width of 8 mm
and a rod length of 8 mm. (b,c) Nonoptimal antenna arrays without and with effective lens for
comparison. The aperture width is 5.7 mm and the rod length is 8 mm. For all antennas, the
sharp tail on the left couples with a hollow rectangular waveguide of the measurement system. The
images are with the same scale, but subject to different camera perspectives. The dimensions of
all antenna arrays are available in the Supplementary Material.

delay of the effective lens. Figure 4(a) shows that the phase profile available from the
effective medium can track well with the required phase profile, despite the discretization
of hole diameters in a 1-µm step. In Fig. 4(b,c), the modal index profile, together with
the corresponding hole diameter profile, suggests a strongest delay and a minimal index
contrast at x = 0. This configuration results in negligible reflection around the central axis
of the lens, as shown in Fig. 4(d).

III. ANTENNA CHARACTERISTICS

The optimal rod antenna array, including the effective lens and the waveguide feed, is
fabricated at once by deep reactive-ion etching. This process forms vertical air holes and
gaps through a silicon wafer of 200 µm thick. Figure 5(a) shows one fabricated sample.
All the components are precisely developed. Particularly, the smallest and largest holes
with diameters of 20 µm and 144 µm can be co-fabricated in a single run. The photonic
crystal waveguide, excluding the flaring part, extends to 8.2 mm for handling purposes.
The tapered dielectric waveguide of 3.0 mm long on the opposite end of the antenna can
insert into and couple with a WR-3 hollow rectangular waveguide, which is the output port
of the measurement setup. Through this tapered waveguide, the dominant TE10 mode in
the rectangular waveguide gradually converts to the fundamental mode inside the photonic
crystal waveguide with less than 0.2 dB insertion loss, i.e. 95.5% coupling efficiency, across
the spectral band of interest (see the Supplementary Material).23 Shown in Fig. 5(b,c) are
other two nonoptimal antenna arrays to observe the performance of the effective lens.
All-dielectric rod antenna array for terahertz communications 8

LO ×36
SG Tx array Rx horn
RF IF
×9 SA

33.3 – 300 – Mixer

43.3 GHz 90 GHz
Sync.

FIG. 6. Measurement system based on terahertz electronics. This system is used for the gain
and radiation-pattern measurements for all antenna designs. SG: signal generator, SA: spectrum
analyzer, Tx: transmitter, Rx: receiver, LO: local oscillator, RF: radio (terahertz) frequency, and
IF: intermediate (microwave) frequency.

Measurement Simulation
25
(a) (b)
Optimal array with lens

20
Absolute gain (dBi)

Nonoptimal array with lens

15

10

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5 Nonoptimal array without lens

0
300 320 340 360 380 300 320 340 360 380
Frequency (GHz)

FIG. 7. Absolute-gain profiles for different antennas from measurement (a) and simulation (b).
These profiles account for the insertion loss of the feeding photonic crystal waveguide of 8.2 mm.

The fabricated antenna arrays are characterized for their frequency-dependent gains and
radiation patterns in the E- and H-planes, i.e., xz- and yz-planes, respectively. A diagram
for the measurement setup is illustrated in Fig. 6. The signal generator delivers a continuous
wave that is tuned around 40 GHz. This signal is directly fed into a 9× multiplier. The
resulting terahertz signal ranging between 300 and 390 GHz excites the antenna under test.
A WR-3 diagonal horn antenna is used at the receiver side instead of a standard conical horn
antenna to reduce standing waves in free space. The transmitting and receiving antennas
are separated by 300 mm. Connected to the receiving horn antenna, the mixer with a built-
in 36× multiplier works together with the spectrum analyzer to down-convert the received
terahertz signal to a microwave signal. Absorbers are placed around the antenna pair to
minimize reflections. The gain of the antenna under test is calibrated with a reference
standard conical horn antenna. The radiation pattern measurement is carried out with an
automated system at an angular step size of 1◦ . Waveguide twists are employed to access
the orthogonal plane for the radiation pattern measurement.

A. Comparison of antenna gain

This section presents a comparative study on the radiation gains of the three antennas,
including the optimal array in Fig. 5(a) and the nonoptimal arrays without and with effective
lens in Fig. 5(b,c). The effective lens for the nonoptimal rod array has a linear variation
in the hole diameters, and thus the phase distribution approximates Eq. 3. In addition,
All-dielectric rod antenna array for terahertz communications 9

the aperture width for the nonoptimal arrays is 5.7 mm, succeeded by the optimal one of
8.0 mm. Figure 7 shows the gain profiles obtained from the measurement and simulation
with general agreement. Some discrepancies are caused by nonideal alignment, spurious
reflections, and higher-order modes in the rectangular waveguide. All the results account
for the insertion loss in the 8-mm photonic crystal waveguide. Thus, all the antennas exhibit
a lower cut-off at around 315 GHz due to the absence of guided modes in the waveguide
below this frequency.23 The noise floor yields the artificial gain level in the measurement
around 300 GHz. Good matching between the antennas and the feed is evident from the
simulated return loss that is higher than 10 dB within the frequency band of interest.
Among the three designs, the nonoptimal rod antenna array with no lensing shows the
lowest performance with the gain varying strongly around 10 dBi. Without phase correc-
tion, diverging waves are incident on the tapered rod array at oblique angles. This results
in strong interference in the forward direction, and thus gain variation as a function of
frequency. Interestingly, the maximum gain for this antenna is roughly the same level as
that obtained from a single rod antenna with the same rod length of 8 mm (see the Sup-
plementary Material). Once the effective lens is incorporated, the maximum gain of this
nonoptimal design is significantly improved from about 13 dBi to 19 dBi. A dip can be
observed around 340 to 360 GHz, due to the lens performance. Based on the rigorous de-
sign discussed in Section II, the optimal antenna array can achieve the gain of 22 dBi at
maximum, and roughly above 20 dBi across 315 to 390 GHz. The lower range is limited
by the cutoff of the photonic crystal waveguide, while the upper range by the measurement
setup. Thus, the 3-dB gain bandwidth is at least 21%. The measurable gain performance
of the optimal design is close to that of a standard conical horn antenna, marked at around
22 dBi.

15 February 2025 17:43:39

B. Near-field and far-field characteristics of optimal antenna

This section considers only the optimal design with an emphasis on its near- and far-field
characteristics. Figure 8 shows numerically-resolved field distributions inside the antennas
without and with the effective lens. As evident from both the amplitude and phase dis-
tributions in Fig. 8(a,c), the wave emerging from the photonic crystal waveguide evolves
into a cylindrical wave inside the flare. This cylindrical wave continues to diverge in free
space. Additionally, strong interference can be observed because the wave excites the rod
array at oblique angles. The presence of the effective lens in Fig. 8(b,d) clearly equalizes
the phase front and collimates the radiated beam. In this case, the interference is minimal
since all the dielectric rod antennas operate in their intended mode. No diffraction is im-
posed by this effective lens due to the subwavelength packing of hole arrays. In addition,
reflections inside the lens are not observable, as the majority of energy concentrates around
the propagation axis, where the index mismatch is minimal. A comparison of phase profiles
across the aperture in Fig. 8(e) confirms that the effective lens reduces the aperture phase
difference from about 15 radians or 2.4λ to merely 1 radian or 0.16λ.
The near-field characteristics of those antennas translate to the far-field radiation patterns
in Fig. 9. Two different frequencies at 330 and 360 GHz illustrate the beam stability across
the bandwidth of interest. As can be seen in Fig. 9(a-d), the optimal antenna without the
effective lens exhibits non-directional radiation patterns. Strong destructive interference
diminishes the radiation towards the endfire at 0◦ , and thus there is no clearly defined main
lobe. Sidelobes can be observed both in the E- and H-planes. In Fig. 9(e-h), the effective
lens plays a central role for this rod antenna array to attain the beam quality. For this
antenna, the main lobe resembles a fan beam with angular beam widths in the E- and
H-planes of 6◦ and 32◦ , respectively. A wider beam in the H-plane is due to the limited
aperture size out of plane. For a comparison, a standard horn antenna with a similar gain
has the beamwidth of about 11◦ in both planes. The sidelobe levels in the E- and H-plane
are well below −10 dB and −15 dB, respectively. The lack of grating lobes in the H-plane
implies no leakage of the mode inside the effective lens. Notably the measured patterns are
nearly indistinguishable from the numerical estimations.
All-dielectric rod antenna array for terahertz communications 10

(a) (c)

(b) (d)

Min Max 0 2π rad

15 (e)
without lens
Phase (rad)

10

5
with lens
0
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4

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Lateral position (mm)

FIG. 8. Field distributions inside optimal antennas at 330 GHz. (a,b) Instantaneous amplitude of
the tangential electric-field component for antennas without and with effective lens, respectively.
The amplitude plots are in logarithmic scale, and normalized to the same factor. (c,d) Correspond-
ing phase distributions of the Ex component for the antennas in (a,b), respectively. The phase
inside the photonic crystal is not meaningful due to the lack of propagation modes therein. (e)
Phase profiles across the aperture of the two antennas. Note that the phase profile for the case
with no lens differs from that in Fig. 4(a), as they are taken at different planes along the z axis.

IV. SHORT-RANGE WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS

This section demonstrates the use of the optimal dielectric rod antenna arrays for wireless
communications. Since the antennas are broadband and directional, they can be used for
point-to-point transmission with high data rate. Figure 10 illustrates the transceiver setup
for bit-error-rate (BER) testing and 4K-resolution video transmission. On the transmitter
side, optical signals from two tunable near-infrared lasers are modulated by on-off keying
(OOK) with Gbps data from either a pulse-pattern generator or a 4K video player. The
modulated optical signals are then amplified by an EDFA, and downconverted by a UTC-
PD into the terahertz regime at the beating frequency of 343 GHz. The resulting terahertz
carrier modulated with the digital data is then radiated by the rod antenna array into free
space. On the receiver side, an identical rod antenna array captures the radiation and
feeds into a SBD to extract the data via envelope detection. The demodulated signal is
then amplified by a preamplifier and reshaped by a limiting amplifier. The eye diagram
and bit error rate of the transmitted signal are then measured by using an oscilloscope
and a bit-error tester, respectively. For the 4K-resolution video transmission, the signal is
digitally-converted and displayed on a television.
The antenna pair is separated by 3 mm for transmitting and receiving 10 Gbps data.
Figure 11(a) shows the BER as a function of the transmitted power at the UTC-PD. It
is clear that error-free transmission, i.e. BER¡10−11 , across this distance can be attained
when the power is larger than 32 µW. A corresponding eye diagram in Fig. 11(b) is clearly
open for the 10-Gbps data. This maximum data rate is limited by the output power of the
All-dielectric rod antenna array for terahertz communications 11

Optimal design without lens

0° 0°
-30° 30° -30° 30°

-60° 60° -60° 60°

-5
-10 -5 -15 -10 90°
90°
(a) E-plane (xz) at 330 GHz (b) E-plane (xz) at 360 GHz

0° 0°
-30° 30° -30° 30°

-60° 60° -60° 60°

-5 -5
-15 -10 90° -15 -10 90°
(c) H-plane (yz) at 330 GHz (d) H-plane (yz) at 360 GHz
Optimal design with lens
0° 0°
-30° 30° -30° 30°

-60° 60° -60° 60°

15 February 2025 17:43:39

-5 -5
-15 -10 90° -15 -10 90°
(e) E-plane (xz) at 330 GHz (f) E-plane (xz) at 360 GHz
measurement
0° simulation 0°
-30° 30° -30° 30°

-60° 60° -60° 60°

-5 -5
-15 -10 90° -15 -10 90°
(g) H-plane (yz) at 330 GHz (h) H-plane (yz) at 360 GHz

FIG. 9. Normalized radiation patterns at 330 GHz (left) and 360 GHz (right). (a-d) Simulated
patterns for optimal design without effective lens. (e-h) Simulated and measured patterns for
optimal design with effective lens. The measurement is with an angular resolution of 1◦ .

UTC-PD. The antenna separation is increased to 7 mm for transmission of uncompressed

4K video signal at the bit rate of 6 Gbps. Figure 11(c) depicts a still image of this successful
error-free video transmission (see the supplementary video file). It should be noted that the
transmission distance is largely limited by the available transmission power.

V. CONCLUSION

We have proposed and experimentally validated a series of dielectric rod antenna arrays
fed by a photonic crystal waveguide. An all-dielectric route eliminates ohmic loss that is
accentuated by resonant metallic antennas at this frequency range. Critical to this antenna
array is the use of an effective medium to equalize the phase front across a large aperture
size. As a result, the optimal design attains a gain of over 20 dBi and a stable radiation
pattern across the 21% bandwidth between 315 and 390 GHz, limited by the measure-
ment system. While the gain and bandwidth performance is close to that of a standard
horn antenna, this entire dielectric rod antenna array, together with the waveguide feed,
is fully planar and can be fabricated onto a single silicon wafer at once. The experiments
All-dielectric rod antenna array for terahertz communications 12

UTC- Pre-
EDFA Attn Tx array Rx array
PD amp
SBD

~343 GHz
Laser 1 Limiting
Mod
193.543 THz amp

Laser 2
193.200 THz Scope
Amp

BERT

PPG

Signal 4K video Signal

4K TV
converter player converter

FIG. 10. Transceiver chain for short-range wireless communications. Both the bit-error-rate mea-
surement and 4K-resolution video transmission use the same terahertz source from the beating
frequency of the two near-infrared lasers. The antenna pair is fully aligned and polarization-
matched. Attn: attenuator, Amp: amplifier, PPG: pulse-pattern generator, Mod: optical modula-

15 February 2025 17:43:39

tor, EDFA: erbium-doped fiber amplifier, UTC-PD: uni-travelling carrier photodiode, Tx: trans-
mitter, Rx:receiver, SBD: Schottky barrier diode, Scope: oscilloscope, and BERT: bit-error-rate
tester.

10-1
(a) (b)
10-3
Bit error rate

10-5

10-7

10-9

10-11 50 ps/div
10 20 30
Transmitted power (μW)

4K TV (c)

UTC-PD Antennas SBD

FIG. 11. Wireless communications at 343 GHz. (a) BER as a function of the transmitted power
at the data rate of 10 Gbps. The threshold for error-free transmission is at BER = 10−11 . (b)
Measured eye diagram at a data rate of 10 Gbps with error-free transmission. (c) Uncompressed
4K-resolution video at 6 Gbps being transmitted and received by the antenna pair (see the supple-
mentary video file).
All-dielectric rod antenna array for terahertz communications 13

demonstrate error-free transmission at the data rate of 10 Gbps via OOK. This antenna im-
plementation can potentially benefit a short distance link between multi-channel, parallelly
aligned transceivers, and can be used for line scanning of objects. The design is readily scal-
able for a larger radiation gain by expanding the aperture size, and it can also be scalable
to other frequency ranges. The antennas and waveguides can also be scaled to operate in
other atmospheric windows within the terahertz range. However, the atmospheric attenua-
tion, free-space path loss, and available source power will determine the transmission range,
which in turn dictates possible communication applications. This design contributes to a
future terahertz integrated platform on photonic crystal waveguides towards short-range
communications with high data rate.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

See supplementary material for more details on the radiation gain profiles of additional rod
antennas and the dimensions of the rod antenna arrays described in Fig. 5. The coupling
between the photonic crystal waveguide and the WR-3 hollow rectangular waveguide is
elaborated therein.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We wish to acknowledge supports from the following grants: Core Research for Evolu-

15 February 2025 17:43:39

tional Science and Technology (CREST) program, Japan Science and Technology Agency
(JST) (JPMJCR1534); Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, the Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (17H01064); Australian Research Coun-
cil Discovery Projects (ARC DP170101922 and DP180103561). We thank Xiongbin Yu,
Yuki Kimura, and Yousuke Nishida for their assistance in experiments.
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15 February 2025 17:43:39

 Effective
lens

15 February 2025 17:43:39

Waveguide Flaring

Tapered rod
antenna array
x
z
 500 3.5

m
(a) (b)

90 µ
d = 0 µm

ne
d=
400 3.0
Light li
d = 0 µm
Frequency (GHz)

15 February 2025 17:43:39

300 2.5

Modal index
n
ico
sil

200 2.0
ulk
nb
ei

a×a
lin

100 1.5
ht

d = 90 µm
Lig

d y
t silicon z
0 Analytical Numerical
1.0
0 1 2 3 4 300 400
Wavenumber (×10⁴ rad/m) Frequency (GHz)
 Waveguide

Flaring section

D iv e s
r gin g w a v efr o nt
x
z
a×a

Effective lens
l = N×a

15 February 2025 17:43:39

dmin

dmax
dmax
 3.0
Numerical phase (a) (b)
-30
Phase (rad)
Analytical phase

Modal index
Phase from effective medium
2.5

-40
2.0

15 February 2025 17:43:39

Required index
Index from effective medium
-50 1.5
80 0.08
Hole diameter (μm)

(c) (d)

Reflectance
0.06
60
0.04
40
0.02
20 0.00
-4 -2 0 2 4 -4 -2 0 2 4
Lateral position (mm)
 (b)

(c)
15 February 2025 17:43:39
(a)

2 mm
z
x
 LO ×36

15 February 2025 17:43:39

SG Tx array Rx horn
RF IF
×9 SA

33.3 – 300 – Mixer

43.3 GHz 90 GHz
Sync.
 Measurement Simulation
25
(a) (b)
Optimal array with lens

20
Absolute gain (dBi)

15 February 2025 17:43:39

Nonoptimal array with lens
15

10

5 Nonoptimal array without lens

0
300 320 340 360 380 300 320 340 360 380
Frequency (GHz)
 (a) (c)

(b) (d)

15 February 2025 17:43:39

Min Max 0 2π rad

15 (e)
without lens
Phase (rad)

10

5
with lens
0
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
Lateral position (mm)
 Optimal design without lens
0° 0°
-30° 30° -30° 30°

-60° 60° -60° 60°

-5
-10 -5 -15 -10 90°
90°
(a) E-plane (xz) at 330 GHz (b) E-plane (xz) at 360 GHz

0° 0°
-30° 30° -30° 30°

-60° 60° -60° 60°

15 February 2025 17:43:39

-5 -5
-15 -10 90° -15 -10 90°
(c) H-plane (yz) at 330 GHz (d) H-plane (yz) at 360 GHz
Optimal design with lens
0° 0°
-30° 30° -30° 30°

-60° 60° -60° 60°

-5 -5
-15 -10 90° -15 -10 90°
(e) E-plane (xz) at 330 GHz (f) E-plane (xz) at 360 GHz
measurement
0° simulation 0°
-30° 30° -30° 30°

-60° 60° -60° 60°

-5 -5
-15 -10 90° -15 -10 90°
(g) H-plane (yz) at 330 GHz (h) H-plane (yz) at 360 GHz
 UTC- Pre-
EDFA Attn Tx array Rx array
PD amp
SBD

~343 GHz
Laser 1 Limiting
Mod
193.543 THz amp

15 February 2025 17:43:39

Laser 2
193.200 THz Scope
Amp

BERT

PPG

Signal 4K video Signal

4K TV
converter player converter
 10-1
(a) (b)
-3
10
Bit error rate

10-5

10-7

10-9

10-11 50 ps/div

15 February 2025 17:43:39

10 20 30
Transmitted power (μW)

4K TV (c)

UTC-PD Antennas SBD