The Future of THz Sensing

The Tera-Hertz portion of the spectrum presents unique potentials for advanced applications. Currently the THz spectrum is revealing the mechanisms at the origin of our universe and provides the means to monitor the health of our planet via satellite based sensing of critical gases. Potentially time domain sensing of the THz spectrum will be the ideal tool for a vast variety of medical and security applications. Presently, systems in the THz regime are extremely expensive and consequently the THz spectrum is still the domain of only niche (expensive) scientific applications. The main problems are the lack of power and sensitivity. The wide unused THz spectral bandwidth is, herself, the only widely available resource that can compensate for these problems. The availability of BW also suggests broad band approaches for the front ends that would not make sense at lower frequencies because all the spectral BW is already used. But, so far, when scientists try to really use the bandwidth, they run into an insurmountable physical limit: antenna dispersion. Antenna dispersion modifies the signal’s spectrum in a wavelength dependent manner in all types of radiation, but is particularly deleterious to THz signals because the spectrum is too wide and with foreseeable technology it cannot be digitized. The goal of this talk is to introduce to the audience the concepts that will eliminate the dispersion bottle neck from the future Advanced Antenna Architectures and show how these achievements will revolutionize Time Domain Sensing, Spectroscopic Space Science and Security Radars. The talk will show how Antenna break-through’s can pole volte THz imaging technology into the 21-th century. Also the talk will show a coherent path toward critically important enabling technologies which will satisfy the electrical engineering needs of the next 30 years and in the long run will enable wireless communications at speed a million times higher than now.

A. Neto

17-2-2012 14:00:00