A novel 0.3-0.31 THz GaAs-based transceiver with on-chip slotted metamaterial antenna based on SIW technology

This paper presents a novel on-chip antenna with fully integrated 0.3-0.31 THz transceiver is implemented on 0.5μm GaAs substrate, and comprises a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), a buffer amplifier, a modulator stage, a power-amplifier, a frequency-tripler, and an on-chip antenna. The proposed on-chip antenna design is based on metamaterial (MTM) slots and substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technologies. The SIW antenna operates as a high-pass filter and an on-chip radiator to suppress the unwanted harmonics and radiate the desired signal, respectively. Dimensions of the on-chip antenna are 2×1×0.0006 mm3. The proposed on-chip antenna has an average radiation gain and efficiency of >1.0 dBi and ~55%, respectively. The transceiver provides an average output power of -15 dBm over 0.3-0.31 THz, which is suitable for near-field active imaging applications at terahertz region