Design of a reconfigurable antenna based on graphene for terahertz communication

A broadband, high radiation efficiency graphene-based reconfigurable square spiral antenna for terahertz communication is proposed. The main part of the antenna is the graphene-based square spiral microstrip patch. The proposed antenna is built and simulated using high-frequency structure simulator (HFSS). By applying different combinations of chemical potentials on the graphene layer, the operating frequency of the antenna can be varied from 0.1 to 2 THz. The tuning range of frequency and beam direction with same and different chemical potentials applied to the two graphene sheets are also studied. When the antenna is applied with different chemical potentials, the required bias voltages are much lower to achieve the same frequency tuning range, and the tuning range of beam direction is about 2.5 times that of same chemical potentials. The realized beam reconfiguration of the proposed antenna is over a wide range up to 74°, and the calculated maximum radiation efficiency of the proposed antenna at 1.48 THz is 85.06%. Therefore, the proposed reconfigurable antenna makes it extremely promising for terahertz communication system.