EurekAlert February 18, 2022
Researchers at MIT have built the most precise, electronically steerable, terahertz antenna array, called “reflectarray” which contains nearly 10,000 antennas onto a device the size of a credit card. It can precisely focus a beam of terahertz energy on a tiny area and control it rapidly with no moving parts. The researchers demonstrated the device by generating 3D depth images with military-grade resolution and twice the angular resolution of those produced by a large radars. The new phase shifter design consumes no power at all. The reflectarray uses one main source of energy to fire terahertz waves at the antennas, which then reflect the energy in a direction that the researchers control. After receiving the energy, each antenna performs a time delay before reflecting it, which focuses the beam in a specific direction. According to the researchers it could be useful as an imager for a self-driving car, as it can see through bad weather, could be well-suited for autonomous drones because it is lightweight and has no moving parts, and the technology could be applied in security settings, enabling a non-intrusive body scanner that could work in seconds instead of minutes…read more.Â