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Electronically controlled beam steering leaky wave antenna in nematic liquid crystal technology
Author(s) -
Ma Shuang,
Wang PengYuan,
Meng FanYi,
Fu JiaHui,
Wu Qun
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international journal of rf and microwave computer‐aided engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.335
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1099-047X
pISSN - 1096-4290
DOI - 10.1002/mmce.22188
Subject(s) - leaky wave antenna , liquid crystal , beam steering , microstrip , waveguide , materials science , microwave , optics , broadband , antenna (radio) , optoelectronics , microstrip antenna , impedance matching , beam (structure) , electrical impedance , physics , telecommunications , electrical engineering , engineering
A novel nematic liquid crystal (LC) technology‐based electronically controlled leaky wave antenna (LWA) with microstrip‐waveguide conversion working mechanism and wide beam steering range is presented in this article. The LWA is a combination of an inverted microstrip structure and rectangular waveguide. According to the characteristics of LC materials in microwave band, a broadband microstrip‐waveguide conversion device is proposed. The gradient slot leaky wave structure is combined with the microstrip‐waveguide conversion device to form an electronically controlled LWA with continuous tunable beam. Simulation and experiment results show that the LWA proposed in this article has a 32° beam scanning range at 12 GHz and good impedance matching and stable gain, suggesting the great potential of nematic LC materials for extensive applications in microwave band in the future.