CMP2 – mmWave and SubTHz Components and Systems
Wednesday, 3 June 2026, 17:00-18:30, room Sala 3 (1st floor)
Session Chair: Nuutti Tervo (University of Oulu, 6G Flagship, FI)
E-Band Antenna Design Challenges and Mitigation Techniques
Mehrab Ramzan and Shahanawaz Kamal (Barkhausen Institut, Germany); Muhammad Umar (Barkhausen Institute, Germany); Muhammad Sajjad Ahmad (Barkhausen Institut, Germany); Padmanava Sen (Research Group Leader, Barkhausen Institut gGmbH, Germany & Barkhausen Institut gGmbH, Germany)
In this paper, the design challenges of E-band antennas are presented and the techniques to mitigate them are discussed with antenna design examples. At first, the limiting factors associated with high frequency connectors are discussed and compared with the ideal wave-ports on a coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission line design. Then, the high frequency connector is integrated with the 60 GHz patch antenna. The advantages and disadvantages of using long and short CPW lines are also examined. The results are evaluated in terms of bandwidth constraints and effect on the radiation pattern of a 60 GHz antenna, highlighting the mitigation techniques.
Towards 2D mmW/THz Broadband Antenna Arrays for Beamsteering
Kalliopi Spanidou (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain); Muhsin Ali (LeapWave Technologies, Spain); Simon Nellen (Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Germany); Daniel Headland (The University of Adelaide, Australia); Robert Kohlhaas (Heinrich-Hertz-Institut, Germany); Alejandro Rivera-Lavado (LeapWave Technologies, Spain); Luis Gonzalez Guerrero and Guillermo Carpintero (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain)
This work presents the first realization of a photonics-based two-dimensional (2D) array architecture concept that combines a three-dimensional (3D) dielectric rod waveguide (DRW) antenna with a 4×4 InP-based photodiode (PD) array. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed approach supports 2D beam-steering at carrier frequencies of at least up to 210 GHz. Preliminary characterization results of the monolithically integrated 4×4 InP PD array, which incorporates semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), confirms wideband THz generation. Furthermore, the proposed architecture mitigates microscale assembly challenges through a novel alignment concept for chip-level integration. This paves the way towards broadband THz sources for next generation communications systems.
Sub-THz Programmable Metasurfaces: Design, Fabrication, and Performance Assessment
Bilal Ouardi (CEA Leti, France); Sergio Matos (Iscte-IUL / Instituto de Telecommunicações, Portugal); Qi Luo (University of Herfordshire, United Kingdom (Great Britain)); Noaman Naseer (University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom (Great Britain)); Luis M. Pessoa (INESC TEC & Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal); Tomas Mingates, Jonas Deuermeier and Asal Kiazadeh (NOVA University Lisbon, Portugal); Tung Duy Phan and Ping Jack Soh (University of Oulu, Finland); Jose Luis Gonzalez Jimenez (Université Grenoble-Alpes/CEA-Leti, France); Luca Lucci (CEA Leti, France); Alexandre Siligaris (Cea, Leti, Minatec, France); George C. Alexandropoulos (University of Athens & University of Illinois Chicago, Greece); Ronan Sauleau (Universite de Rennes, France); Antonio Clemente (CEA-Leti, France)
This paper presents several metasurface (MS) designs for dynamic wavefront manipulation at sub-terahertz (sub-THz) frequencies, which have been recently developed within the SNS JU project TERRAMETA. The proposed designs operate in either reflection or transmission modes. The first design is a 1-bit reflective MS employing memristor-based switching technology, operating at 140 GHz with beam steering up to ±45° and insertion loss of 2.7 dB. The second design is a reflective, microfluidic-actuated MS operating at 140 GHz, offering high flexibility and supporting both single- and multi-bit configurations. The third design is a 1-bit transmissive MS based on 45 nm RF-SOI CMOS switches, operating at 280 GHz and achieving 27.8 dBi gain with ±60° beam steering capability and 14.9% aperture efficiency. A static transmissive MS at 280 GHz is also demonstrated, achieving 34.5 dBi measured gain with 20% aperture efficiency over a 25 GHz bandwidth. These designs and accompanying results represent significant improvements in loss reduction and steering capability compared to prior sub-THz programmable MSs, enabling practical deployment in next generations of wireless systems.
Memory-Based PA Modeling for D-Band Communication System Simulation
Meng Li, Adam Cooman and Claude Desset (IMEC, Belgium)
The D-band is a promising candidate for high-speed, low-latency communication systems. However, power amplifier (PA) modeling at D-band frequencies is challenging due to technology diversity and significantly wider bandwidths compared to conventional narrowband systems. In this work, we propose a simplified Lookup Table-based Parallel Hammerstein (LUT-PH) model along with a corresponding evaluation methodology. The LUT-PH model is systematically compared with the Memory Polynomial (MP) model using an InP D-band PA as a case study. Results show that, under identical extraction and evaluation conditions, the MP model achieves higher modeling accuracy, while the LUT-PH model exhibits greater robustness under varying signal bandwidths and input backoff (IBO) levels. System-level simulations further reveal that bandwidth variations have a limited impact when the IBO is selected close to the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of the input signal, whereas their influence becomes more pronounced at higher IBO values. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to comprehensively discuss, compare, and integrate wideband memory models within a D-band system simulation.
An Open-Source Hardware-Aware Sub-THz Radio-Stripe Simulator
Tijl Schepens and Thomas Feys (KU Leuven, Belgium); Thomas Eriksson (Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden); Gilles Callebaut (KU Leuven, Belgium)
Sub-Terahertz radio-stripe and distributed MIMO architectures promise extreme spatial reuse and multi-GHz bandwidths, but the cascaded fiber front-haul and RF hard- ware impairments strongly shape end-to-end performance. This paper presents an open-source, configuration-driven simulator that models the full waveform-level signal chain from CP-OFDM baseband generation in the central unit, through measurement-parameterized polymer microwave fiber and coupler links, to booster/active Radio Units (RUs) with configurable nonlinearity, noise, in-phase and quadrature imbalance, and oscillator phase noise and carrier frequency offset. Wireless propagation is supported via lightweight deterministic and stochastic per-subcarrier channel models as well as site-specific ray-tracing datasets generated with a companion Sionna ray-tracer module. The simulator exports intermediate waveforms and system metrics (e.g., normalised mean square error, signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio, bit error rate) to enable reproducible studies of impairment accumulation, calibration, and algorithmic choices such as RU selection and beam management.
