Modeling of the substrate influence on multielement THz detector operation

Abstract

The development of THz multielement uncooled imagers based on focal plane arrays (FPAs) requires an optimization of the system parameters to achieve a homogeneous sensitivity of the array elements. Results of numerical simulation of the eight-element linear array of planar antennas with detecting elements, on a substrate of finite dimensions are presented. We establish how the substrate thickness h and the relative permittivity epsilon influence antenna pattern and antenna-detector matching for each element. We show that the antenna pattern depends on the detector position more than the antenna-detector impedance matching. The gain of array elements, the antenna-detector matching, and the homogeneity of the detector sensitivity can be simultaneously optimized by the proper choice of the substrate thickness h and the relative permittivity epsilon. We show that multielement systems with large substrate thickness and high relative permittivity are not suitable for the imaging system implementation. To achieve uniform multielement system sensitivity, substrates with low permittivity (epsilon < 5) and/or low thickness (h < 60 mkm for the Si substrate) should be used. Finally, we investigate the operation of the detector array with optimally chosen substrate parameters together with the focusing lens, and show that the system is able to work as FPA without significant image corruption.