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

10-13 Oct. 2011

Firstpage

1292

Lastpage

1295

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

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Conference (EuMC), 2011 41st European

Conference_Location

Manchester

Print_ISBN

978-1-61284-235-6

Type

conf

Filename

6101792