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2026-05-01
Surface Wave Couplers for Terahertz Wireless Communication Receiver Front Ends
By
Progress In Electromagnetics Research, Vol. 185, 87-96, 2026
Abstract
Free-space electromagnetic waves can be coupled into on-chip propagating surface waves (SWs), a process that holds great promise for receiver front-ends in wireless communication systems. However, it has traditionally faced challenges in coupling efficiency and in controlling the on-chip wavefront of SWs. To address these challenges, we design and experimentally demonstrate SW couplers operating in the terahertz regime based on metal-insulator-metal resonators. Our devices achieve not only broadband and highly efficient coupling, with an efficiency exceeding 60% over a 20 GHz bandwidth, but also enable directional steering of the excited SWs to designated on-chip ports. In this way, mode conversion and onchip routing functionalities are seamlessly integrated into a single compact component. Based on this design, we fabricated devices and implemented corresponding terahertz wireless communication links, successfully demonstrating 16-QAM data transmission in both single-link and dual-link configurations.
Supplementary Information
Citation
Yanfeng Zhao, Jiajun He, Cong Liu, Xiaoyuan Hao, Xizhi Li, Wei Wu, Quan Xu, Xueqian Zhang, and Jiaguang Han, "Surface Wave Couplers for Terahertz Wireless Communication Receiver Front Ends," Progress In Electromagnetics Research, Vol. 185, 87-96, 2026.
doi:10.2528/PIER26031707
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