Miniaturized Photonic Terahertz Receivers for Imaging and Sensing

Photoconductive antennas (PCAs) are well established as optoelectronic terahertz receivers. Size-reduction of emitter and receiver is key to address future applications like wireless communication, imaging and radar with optoelectronic continuous-wave (cw) terahertz systems. At the same time, directivity optimization and detailed knowledge of the radiation pattern is required. In this paper, we present a miniaturized PCA receiver and compare it to a state-of-the-art receiver. In a free-space scenario, where no additional terahertz optics are used, the miniaturized receivers perform up to + 10 dB beyond state-of-the-art. Radiation pattern measurements of both receivers are carried out between 100GHz and 1 THz, showing a 300 GHz extended main lobe with the miniaturized device.