We report on the successful implementation of a photonic-based beam steering approach for point-to-multipoint terahertz (THz) communications. The frequency-agile radiation properties of a THz leaky-wave antenna connected to a photodiode are utilized in the remote transmitter for generating multiple individually steerable THz beams. The approach benefits from the ultra-wide frequency tunability of optical heterodyne systems for frequency-agile THz beam steering. Moreover, the approach allows to exploit high performance and mature optical modulation techniques for generating THz beams with a high data capacity. In the THz receiver, a carrier frequency insensitive envelope THz detector based upon a single Schottky-barrier diode is used. In detail, THz communications in the 300 GHz band (WR3.4) with a maximum steering angle up to 90° is reported. Experimentally, for single steerable THz beam operation, a record high data rate of 35 Gbit/s at a wireless distance of 30 cm is achieved using two-level pulse amplitude modulation. Also, longer wireless distances up to 110 cm with 5 Gbit/s are demonstrated. Furthermore, point-to-multipoint THz communications is reported using two individually steerable THz beams carrying 10 Gbit/s and 5 Gbit/s over 70 cm and 50 cm, respectively.

In this paper, the design of frequency reconfigurable planar antenna by incorporation of metasurface superstrate (FRPA-MSS) is presented using an artificial neural network. The dual-layer radiating structure is created on a 1.524 mm thick Rogers RO4350B substrate board (εr = 3.48, tan δ = 0.0037). The candidate antenna is designed and analyzed using a high-frequency structure simulator (HFSS) tool. The transfer matrix method is employed for the successful retrieval of electromagnetic properties of the metamaterial. Frequency reconfiguration is achieved by placing the metasurface superstrate onto the rectangular patch antenna. A simplified ANN approach has been employed for the design of metasurface incorporated proposed antenna. Presented prototypes are characterized through experimental measurements. It is found from the practical observations that the proposed antenna effectively reconfigures the tuning range from 5.03 to 6.13 GHz. Moreover, the presented antenna operates efficiently with agreeable gain, good impedance matching, and stable pattern characteristics across the entire operational bandwidth. The experimental results obtained validate the simulated performance.