Sher Nawaz’s research while affiliated with Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology and other places

There is a growing interest in investigating the Sub-Terahertz (sub-THz) spectrum as a possible means of reducing congestion in the existing radio and microwave frequency bands. These bands offer transmission speeds of up to 100 Gbps and serve as a crucial link between microwave and infrared frequencies, allowing for a multitude of applications in various domains such as imaging, communication, screening, and sensing. One of the key challenges in sub-THz communication is the designing of highly efficient THz antennas. To tackle this difficulty, this work presents a novel planar V-shaped slotted patch antenna intended for use in the sub-THz band. The proposed antenna employs a photonic bandgap (PBG) stucture with silicon dioxide (SiO2) as the substrate material to overcome the difficulties associated with propagation in dielectric materials at high frequencies. The proposed antenna has a footprint of 400 µm x 610 µm x 80 µm. The geometry consists of a full ground plane placed underneath the SiO2 substrate and a radiating copper based patch on the top surface. The radiating patch has five carefully placed V-shaped slots, that achieve a resonance at the center frequency of 0.3 THz while covering a wide fractional bandwidth of 14%. The orientation and placement of the V-shaped slots are achieved via the characteristic modes analysis (CMA) technique. The utilization of the PBG also provides a high directivity and gain of 6.25 dBi and 5.4 dBi respectively. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the suggested antenna to be a viable candidate for sub-THz communications.