Passive electric monopole array for terahertz surface wave launcher

Micron-scale passive grounded quarter-wave electric monopole antennas can be constructed by direct-drawing a polymer into micropillars, followed by metallization. This technique is proposed for the realization of a homogeneous 2D array of passive electric monopoles, with an operating frequency of 500 GHz. The array utilizes grating lobes, as opposed to phased array techniques, to couple obliquely incident radiation to a surface wave in the transverse plane. Numerical simulations verify the operation of the antenna array as a surface wave launcher.