Terahertz Quasi-Optical Broadband Monopulse Feed Network Technology

The quasi-optical transmission is a guided wave technology with the intrinsic property of low insertion loss and high-power capacity, which provides a promising solution for mono-pulse technology in the terahertz frequency band. In this work, a compact broadband low insertion loss quasi-optical mono-pulse feed network technology is proposed. The innovation is to achieve broad bandwidth through compensating technology for optical path difference and to obtain lower insert losses by reflective phase correction technology. Experimental results show that the terahertz quasi-optical broadband mono-pulse feed network system owns a 20GHz bandwidth both in azimuth or elevation, with channel insertion loss below 4dB, side-lobe below -14dB, and null depth exceeding -20dB at THz frequencies. These results confirms that the functional requirements and technical indicators fully meet the demands of some compact broadband mono-pulse beam pointing and tracking systems.