DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF ULTRA-WIDEBAND LEAKY WAVE METAMATERIAL ANTENNAS

Abstract

This article is devoted to the design, analysis and fabrication of conventional and metamaterial leaky wave antennas. The effects of utilizing composite right/left handed structure on bandwidth, gain and beam steering are reflected. The structures with metamaterial cells conduct wider bandwidth of operation. Three different configurations of metamaterial unit cell structures are used. The mushroom ground structure is addressed as a cell which provides MTM features on Rogers 5880, traditional square patches and two reconfigurable rows sandwiched between the ground and the radiated arrays. The conventional antenna’s dimensions are 50 mm *70 mm *6.36 mm and it is implemented using Rogers RT 5880 substrate, with a relative dielectric constant of (2.2), a thickness of (3.18) mm and a loss tangent of (0.002). The overall dimensions of the MTM antenna outline the same dimensions of the conventional antenna, but its thickness is varying. The antennas are simulated by the CST microwave studio, fabricated on Roger 5880 and measured using the network analyzer. The antenna conducts a gain of (9.8 dB) and a bandwidth between 7.2 GHz and 18.4 GHz. The structure adopted in this paper achieves a novelty of applying different reconfigurable structures of metamaterial unit cells. This type of antenna can be used as a radar sensor control in industrial production lines, while those with high gain could be used for target detection. There is a good agreement between the measured and simulated results.

Keywords

• MTMs
• LWAs
• UWB CRLH