Electrical & Computer Engineering, Department of
Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
2013
Citation
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 61, NO. 4, APRIL 2013
Abstract
We propose the concept and design of terahertz (THz) phase shifters for phased antenna arrays based on integrally- gated graphene parallel-plate waveguides (GPPWGs). We show that an active transmission-line may be realized by combining GPPWGs with double-gate electrodes, in which the applied gate voltage can control the guiding properties of the gated sections. This may enable the realization of THz electronic switches and tunable loaded-lines for sub mm-wave antenna systems. Based on these active components, we theoretically and numerically demonstrate several digital and analog phase shifter designs for THz frequencies, with a wide range of phase shifts and small return loss, insertion loss and phase error. The proposed graphene-based phase shifters show significant advantages over other available technology in this frequency range, as they combine the low-loss and compact-size features of GPPWGs with electrically-programmable phase tuning. We envision that these electronic phase shifters may pave the way to viable phased-arrays and beamforming networks for THz communications systems, as well as for high-speed, low-RC-delay, inter/intra-chip communications.
Comments
© 2012 IEEE
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2012.2220327