Abstract

Terahertz waveguide components incorporating integrated RF circuits have now been realised with state of the art performance to 2.5THz. Presently such technology is limited to specialist applications such as remote sensing and radio astronomy. There are many other potential applications for this frequency region but the associated cost of the hardware is restricting its use. Fortunately, the size and geometry of waveguide at terahertz frequencies ideally lends itself to fabrication via a number of micromachining techniques promising to dramatically reduce its cost. In addition, the use of micromachining allows the realisation of waveguide components that otherwise could not be fabricated via conventional machining at these frequencies. Excellent RF performance is now being obtained with fully micromachined terahertz components. This paper describes some of the techniques presently being developed and implemented in this exciting new area of RF technology.