Concentric Annular Leaky Wave Antenna Array and Its Application to Self-Sensing Smart Antenna for Radio Wave Coverage in 2-D Confined Spaces

Abstract

A beam-changeable concentric annular Leaky-Wave Antenna (LWA) array is proposed, which contains two annular LWAs with constant-interval slots. By changing the excitations of the two LWAs, the radiation beam can be changed to different shapes and in different directions i.e. single beam to normal direction, conical beam to 40° and a synthetic beam. A theoretical model for analyzing the radiation properties of the LWA array is put forward, and a prototype of the array with the radius of 42.6 mm and the height of 4 mm is fabricated. By comparing simulation and the measurement results, it is found that the proposed LWA array exhibits a very well expected performance. The proposed antenna array is then applied to construct a self-sensing smart antenna which can provide flexible radio wave coverage according to the positions of users. Image-aware function is integrated into the smart antenna, and a series of tests including received power and Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) measurements are carried out in indoor scenarios. The results verify the effectiveness of the design.

Keywords

• Leaky wave antenna array
• theoretical model
• pattern synthesis
• beamforming
• smart antenna