Planar log-periodic antennas on extended hemishperical silicon lenses for millimeter/submillimeter wave detection applications

In this paper, the radiation properties of log-periodic (LP) antennas on extended hemispherical dielectric lenses are investigated. The starting point is the far field pattern for the log-periodic antenna on a semi-infinite silicon substrate obtained from numerical simulation. Then the effects of extended hemispherical silicon dielectric lenses on this far field pattern are evaluated using ray tracing and field integration techniques. The far fields patterns out of the lenses are derived as a function of the extension length (L), from which the optimum L can be determined. The coupling efficiencies of the pattern to Gaussian beams are also calculated. The computation results show that the log-periodic antennas have good performance in terms of impedance and pattern and can be used in many submillimeter/THz systems. The simulation methods are verified by comparing the simulation results with experimental data from literature. The utilized approach represents an effective method for log periodic antenna-lens system design at millimeter/submillimeter wavelengths.