Low-Loss Low-Cost Substrate-Integrated Waveguide and Filter in GaAs IPD Technology for Terahertz Applications

A low-loss and low-cost terahertz (THz) substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) and a SIW filter implemented in a commercially-available GaAs integrated-passive-devices (IPD) technology are proposed for THz applications. Ellipse vias penetrating through a 100-mu m thick GaAs substrate are employed to realize a low-loss SIW. The via's orientation is designed as being transverse, instead of being longitudinal, to the propagation direction of the input wave, which can improve the insertion loss by 2.7 dB at 415 GHz due to lower signal leakage from the waveguide. The proposed SIW is able to provide simulated insertion loss of only 0.39 dB/mm, i.e., 0.14 dB/lambda(g), at 340 GHz. A new SIW filter structure using the ellipse vias is proposed which not only successfully realizes a low-loss fourth-order Chebyshev filter under hard design-rule-check (DRC) rules imposed by the IPD technology, but also can enhance out-of-band rejection by 10.5 dB at 390 GHz as compared with conventional waveguide filters. A slot-coupled coplanar waveguide (CPW) to SIW transition structure without any impedance tuning stub required is also proposed to measure the proposed SIW and SIW filter. The proposed transition structure can give simulated insertion loss of 0.7 dB at 340 GHz while keeping return loss better than 10 dB from 307 to 374 GHz. Eight samples are measured to demonstrate the robustness of the proposed designs against process variations. Experimental results show that the proposed transition structure with a 220-mu m long SIW and the SIW filter can provide measured insertion loss of 0.7 and 3.6 dB at 327.5 GHz, respectively. The reasons for the discrepancy between the simulation and measurement results are identified and discussed in detail. As compared with prior works, the proposed SIW and SIW filter exhibit lower loss, lower cost, higher repeatability, higher reliability, and mass-producible capability. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first demonstration of the THz SIW and THz SIW filter designs using a commercially-available and mass-producible IPD technology reported thus far.