Optoelectronic THz-Wave Beam Steering by Arrayed Photomixers With Integrated Antennas

We developed a thermo-optic effect based silica optical phased array (OPA) chip and evaluated its tunability of phases of lightwaves. The THz waves, whose phases are controlled by the OPA chip, are generated from four arrayed uni-travelling-carrier photodiodes (UTC-PDs) based on heterodyne photomixng. Meanwhile, the UTC-PDs, which integrated with 4×4 slot antennas, are fabricated on a monolithic InP substrate chip for 300-GHz wave beam combining and steering. Through the optoelectronic THz-wave phase control, the feasibility of 300-GHz beam continuous steering is successfully demonstrated in a range of 50°.