Novel W-band Binary Pulse Compressor for Imaging and Medicine
摘要
Terahertz waves, with their excellent molecular sensitivity and biological safety, hold broad prospects in research on imaging and biological effects. However, several challenges remain in practical applications, including high attenuation of terahertz waves in media, insufficient spatiotemporal resolution in imaging, and insignificant biological effects caused by limited pulse width. This study designs a 94 GHz single-stage pulse compressor based on Binary Pulse Compression (BPC) technology, aiming to enhance the pulse power and reduce the pulse width of high-power terahertz waves. The pulse compressor utilizes a 3 dB 90° coupler and a low-loss delay line to compress phase-shift keyed signals. Specifically, it can compress 16 ns signals with phase encodings + + (Input Port 1) and + - (Input Port 2)—each coding unit being 8 ns—to 7.84 ns. During signal compression, a novel high-isolation, low-reflection power combiner is employed to realize power combining and output of two W-band electromagnetic waves in the TE10 mode of standard rectangular waveguides, with the output power increased to 3.79 times that of the original. This scheme can improve the power and spatiotemporal resolution of terahertz signals, providing a feasible solution to overcome the technical bottlenecks in terahertz imaging and terahertz biological effects.