Steerable Composite Right/Left-Handed Leaky Wave Antenna for Automotive Radar Applications

Author

Matsuzawa, Shin-ichiro ; Sato, Kazuo ; Inoe, Yoshinori ; Nomura, Tsuyoshi

Author_Institution

Toyota Central Res. & Dev. Labs., Inc., Aichi

fYear

2006

fDate

10-15 Sept. 2006

Firstpage

1155

Lastpage

1158

Abstract

A novel structure for a frequency-independent steerable composite right/left-handed (CRLH) leaky wave (LW) antenna in the millimeter-wave band is proposed. This has the advantages of wide beam scanning and low profile, and is a suitable structure for mass-production. The proposed antenna has features wherein a movable dielectric slab is placed above the CRLH LW antenna, and the radiation angle can be steered by changing the distance between the slab and the antenna using compact actuators. Moreover, slots are added to the antenna to control the aperture amplitude distribution of the array antenna in order to enhance aperture efficiency. A prototype CRLH LW antenna has been fabricated with these slots, and backward-to-forward beam scanning characteristics at 76 GHz have been demonstrated successfully by measurement. A wide scanning angle from 73 to 114 deg. has been achieved experimentally. The aperture efficiency is 25.3 %

Keywords

leaky wave antennas; metamaterials; millimetre wave antennas; mobile antennas; radar antennas; road vehicle radar; 76 GHz; CRLH leaky wave antenna; aperture amplitude distribution; array antenna; automotive radar applications; compact actuators; composite right/left-handed leaky wave antenna; composite right/left-handed transmission lines; metamaterials; millimeter-wave band; wide beam scanning; Actuators; Aperture antennas; Automotive engineering; Dielectrics; Frequency; Leaky wave antennas; Millimeter wave radar; Radar applications; Slabs; Slot antennas; composite right/left-handed transmission lines; leaky wave antennas; metamaterials; millimeter waves;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Conference, 2006. 36th European

Conference_Location

Manchester

Print_ISBN

2-9600551-6-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/EUMC.2006.281162

Filename

4058031