Frontiers in Physics (Oct 2020)

A Novel Electronically Controlled Two-Dimensional Terahertz Beam-Scanning Reflectarray Antenna Based on Liquid Crystals

  • Jun Yang,
  • Pengjun Wang,
  • Shuangyuan Sun,
  • Ying Li,
  • Zhiping Yin,
  • Guangsheng Deng

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fphy.2020.576045
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8

Abstract

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This study investigated a novel electronically controlled two-dimensional beam-scanning reflective array antenna (reflectarray), which uses nematic liquid crystals. A double-dipole resonance structure is used as the phase-shift unit for the reflectarray for the required phase compensation. The simulation shows that, for about 7 GHz bandwidth of the phase shift range, over 360° can be achieved at the F-band. In addition, a novel wiring scheme is proposed to reduce the adverse effect of the biasing line on the phase-shift performance and simplify the manufacturing process. A simulation of the designed 39 × 39 reflectarray shows that the maximum beam steering range, maximum gain, and side-lobe level at 115 GHz are 20°, 16.55 dBi, and −8.4 dB, respectively.

Keywords