THz Antenna Fabrication and Measurement Facilities (TERRA)

This Strategic Equipment proposal aims to facilitate an integrated "digital" manufacturing and characterisation capability in the UK for a wide range of THz antennas and passive components, which, in turn, will accelerate the impact of our THz research and serve both S&T communities in the UK to align with the EPSRC priority area of "21st Century Products", especially for Metamaterials and Manufacturing with reduced materials pallet. We aim to achieve this by combining a state of the art millimetrewave spherical near-field antenna measurement system with a state-of-the-art sub-micron resolution 3D printer to provide rapid prototype fabrication and test of antennas and devices up to 500GHz. This will be installed within the already extensively equipped Antenna Measurement Laboratory (AML) at Queen Mary and will form the Thz antEnna fabRication and measuRement fAcilities (TERRA).
TERRA consists of three key items of equipment, firstly the NSI compact antenna multi-test system operating at frequencies up to 500 GHz, will be the first of its kind in the UK for THz antenna measurement and will serve to enhance our world-leading AML test facilities at RF/Microwave and THz frequencies. Secondly a pair of 140-220 GHz THz transmit/receive modules, which will fill the frequency band gap in our current Keysight vector network analyser (value £420k), giving us overall test capability from 10 MHz to 325 GHz (extendable to 500 GHz in the future). The final key component of TERRA is the Nanoscribe 3D laser lithography system that provides a fast and powerful platform for micro and nanofabrication, at the highest resolution commercially available with a writing area of up to (100 x 100)mm and 3mm height.
For future THz antennas, agile beam steering will be a frequent requirement (not least for 5G millimetrewave antennas) and the requested NSI system is the ONLY system that can characterise such antennas at the prototype stage prior to the expensive and time consuming packaging process. Such capability can rapidly reduce development time and cost-to-market of new millimetrewave antennas and so will be of major impact to UK universities and industry.
TERRA will be housed in the AML and the existing full-time Manager will administrate usage, supervision, advertising, future training and maintenance. To extract the maximum capability from TERRA, we will create a new full-time TSO (technical support officer Grade 4) post (supervised by the AML Manager). To maximise the external use of TERRA, we will register TERRA equipments as Small Research Facility (SRF) allowing academic users to incorporate hire costs into new research proposals. For industrial access, the priority will be given to our EPSRC collaborative partners, mainly QinetiQ, Catapult, DSTL, NPL, Leonardo, ESA, Huawei and Airbus as well as the SME's we support. QinetiQ have already offered an iCASE PhD studentship to TERRA to help fully exploit the capability offered by the facility. It is envisaged that by the end of year 2 there will be a (50/30/20)% split between QMUL, external RCUK funded academic partners and industry respectively.
The emergence of new technologies such as 5G and future generations of wireless communications means that UK industry needs facilities such as TERRA to support this important sector of the UK economy, the application of radio alone contributes in excess of £13 billion to UK GDP and supports more than 400,000 jobs. The changing nature of the science and technology base, e.g. materials by design, additive manufacturing and industry 4.0 etc. means that facilities accessible to UK industry and academia, such as TERRA, will provide vital training to a new generation of engineers needed to be skilled in the technologies of tomorrow, not the past. UK Industry will need these new skills, both to survive and increase productivity post-Brexit.

The TERRA facility consisting of the Nanoscribe 3D laser lithography system and the NSI compact millimetrewave antenna multi-test system will provide a fast and powerful platform for micro and nanofabrication of millimetrewave antennas and devices, and then to take these devices and fully characterise their radiation characteristics up to 325GHz. This dual capability will be a unique facility within the UK.
TERRA will become part of QMUL's extensive Antenna Measurement Laboratory (AML) which has a long history in pioneering millimetrewave antenna measurements, including the construction of Europe's first 200GHz Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR) in 1992, which was used to characterise the BAE Systems space based AMSU-B 183GHz microwave sounder for low earth orbit radiometry. With TERRA the AML can offer one of the most comprehensive THz antenna prototype manufacture and measurement facilities in the UK.
During the installation and commissioning phase of TERRA we will undertake publicity events to engage both partner universities and industrial as well as research groups from a wider THz community such as TERANET. This promotion will include press releases to magazines and journals (e.g. IET E&T, IEEE "Microwaves" and "A&P" magazines) as well as national and international conferences and meetings such as LAPC, EuCAP, Cambridge Wireless, ARMMS, AMTA all of which Antenna Group members regularly attend. AML already has an extensive web presence (https://antennas.eecs.qmul.ac.uk) and this will be expanded to include the TERRA facilities. AML already serves a number of SME customers in London and the South East and when TERRA is operational we will hold a QMUL funded open day to promote AML, its unique millimetrewave capability and especially the TERRA facility. This will be organised by the QMUL Science & Engineering Faculty Business Development Manager, who has run previous promotions for the Antenna Group's research capability.

Our current experience with hiring out AML facilities has shown that what started out as a small measurement programme for industry often leads to further research projects to tackle fundamental issues related to device characterisation. Thus, facilities such as TERRA will act as a focal point for enhanced engagement with the industry. As stated in the Case for Support we intend to register TERRA as a Small Research Facility (SRF) allowing academic users to access our facilities via EPSRC funding. A large benefit to the academic team will be the increase in scientific research, which will be accelerated through the proposed large interdisciplinary collaborations. The PI and Co-PIs already have a strong track record in publishing their findings in journals such as Nature Comms, Physical Review Letters and IEEE Transactions. Staff exchange between industry and QMUL will also result in knowledge share and foster a culture of working across the traditional academic-industrial boundaries to benefit both parties.

Our staff and students will need to be trained to operate the TERRA facilities and we will open this training up to other universities staff who wish to use the facility through direct hire or via SRF. The uniqueness of the TERRA facility will mean that these trained individuals will have highly valuable skills for industry. The emergence of new technologies such as 5G and future generations of wireless communications means that UK industry needs facilities such as TERRA to support this important sector of the UK economy, the application of radio alone contributes in excess of £13 billion to UK GDP and supports more than 400,000 jobs. The changing nature of the science and technology base, e.g. materials by design, additive manufacturing and industry 4.0 etc. means that facilities accessible to UK industry and academia, such as TERRA, will provide vital training to a new generation of engineers needed to be skilled in the technologies of tomorrow, not the past.