Substrate-Integrated Nonradiative Dielectric (SINRD) Waveguide for THz Integrated Circuits and Systems

In this work, a theoretical and experimental investigation of substrate-integrated nonradiative dielectric (SINRD) waveguide is conducted in terahertz (THz) band. Parametric effects on operation bandwidth and transmission performance are studied. An alumina-based SINRD waveguide with a thickness of 0.254 mm is first demonstrated in WR3-band. The performance of the presented SINRD waveguide is then experimentally verified. The demonstrated SINRD waveguide has an average measured insertion loss of 3.5 dB (3 dB in simulation) from 240 to 330 GHz. A substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) with the same materials and dimensions has an average measured insertion loss of 5.5 dB (3 dB in simulation) over the same bandwidth. The metalized-via-free process of SINRD waveguide makes the low-cost manufacturing and low-loss performance more appealing than that of the well-known SIW with metalized via holes/walls for applications in the development of THz integrated circuits and systems.