Reconfigurable liquid crystal reflectarray with extended tunable phase range

Author

Bildik, Saygin ; Dieter, Sabine ; Fritzsch, Carsten ; Frei, Michael ; Fischer, Christoph ; Menzel, Wolfgang ; Jakoby, Rolf

Author_Institution

Inst. of Microwave Eng. & Photonics, Tech. Univ. Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

fYear

2011

fDate

12-14 Oct. 2011

Firstpage

404

Lastpage

407

Abstract

A coupled microstrip structure is investigated consisting of three fingerlike patches which are designed for liquid crystal technology. A unit cell based on the coupled structure is realized and characterized with a waveguide simulator. The proposed structure has a measured tunable phase range of 582°. It is used as an antenna element to design a reconfigurable reflectarray. The realized antenna is composed of 16×16 elements, and a slotted substrate integrated waveguide is used to illuminate it. Antenna patterns for desired main beam directions are synthesized at W-band with a developed Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm. Beam steering capability of the reflectarray is presented by steering the main beam to various angles applying the bias voltages obtained from the optimization algorithm.

Keywords

antenna radiation patterns; beam steering; liquid crystals; microstrip antenna arrays; particle swarm optimisation; reflectarray antennas; slot antenna arrays; W-band; antenna patterns; beam steering capability; coupled microstrip structure; extended tunable phase range; liquid crystal technology; particle swarm optimization algorithm; reconfigurable liquid crystal reflectarray; slotted substrate integrated waveguide; Antenna measurements; Arrays; Feeds; Liquid crystals; Substrates; Voltage measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Radar Conference (EuRAD), 2011 European

Conference_Location

Manchester

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-1156-5

Type

conf

Filename

6101038