An investigation of the dynamic beam-steering capability of a liquid-crystal-enabled leaky-wave antenna designed for 5G applications

Abstract

In this Letter, an investigation is performed on the utilization of nematic liquid crystal (NLC) cells in the design of leaky-wave antennas (LWAs) for millimeter-wave (mm-wave) radiation in order to dynamically control its beam scanning capability at a single frequency. A NLC compound is sandwiched between two single-sided copper-plated substrates allowing a traveling wave to be guided through a substrate-integrated waveguide. The tuning capabilities of the structure, based on the use of K15 or GT7-29001 as the middle layer, were evaluated for different biasing conditions demonstrating the associated dynamic scanning of the main beam. A quasi-periodic LWA was designed to operate in the 5G mm-wave band, thus supporting a fast-wave propagation with tunable phase constant and dynamic beam steering at a single frequency. The simulated results clearly illustrate a dynamic beam scanning range of 45° through the use of an external bias voltage ranging between 0 and 40 V. These results are quite promising creating a fertile ground for the utilization of NLCs in the design and fabrication of LWAs for 5G wireless communication networks.

Plasma-enabled microwave modulation for continuous beam scanning

“…f p is the plasma frequency with the form 1 2π e 2 n ε0me . Substituting equation ( 9) into equation (6), that is,…”

“…The electron density of these two columns is 0.5 × 10 17 m −3 , thus δε can be obtained by equation (9). We substitute the perturbation term δε and the incident field D (0) into equation (6) and then obtain the field distribution, as shown in figure 2(b). After introducing the transmission modulation on the original aperture field, the beam direction is slightly deflected.…”

“…Beam scanning antenna system has various applications including wireless mobile communications, radar detection and satellite fields [1][2][3]. The antenna radiation direction can be modulated by various techniques, but almost all of them fall into two major categories, either mechanical techniques or electrical techniques [4][5][6][7]. Mechanical reflector antennas and phased array antennas are the representatives of these two types of technologies, respectively [8,9].…”

Overview of Metamaterials-Integrated Antennas for Beam Manipulation Applications: The Two Decades of Progress

“…In this regard, MMs are strong candidates to realize 5G antennas of required characteristics. In the literature, various approaches have been proposed for manipulating the antenna radiation characteristics, such as the electrical [32], [33], optical [34], [35], and mechanical methods [36], [37], integrated lens antennas [38], [39], and using the phased array antenna-based phase shifters [40], [41], the traveling wave antennas [42], [43], the beam-forming network (BFN) like the butler matrix [44], [45], and artificial materials, including Frequency Selective Surface (FSS) [46]− [48], Metasurface [49]− [51], Artificial Magnetic Conductor (AMC) [52], [53], Electromagnetic Band-Gap (EBG) [54]− [56], and MMs [57], [58].…”

A Promising Ka Band Leaky-Wave Antenna Based on a Periodic Structure of Non-Identical Irregularities

“…5G millimeter-wave bands use frequency bands in the 24-100 GHz range [8][9][10][11][12], which can support many devices [13][14][15][16] and demonstrate the performance of outlining 5G service requirements [17,18]. Leaky-wave antennas (LWAs) are highly promising directional antennas for millimeter and submillimeter waves [19][20][21] because they can achieve higher directive radiation [22][23][24] with single or multiple feedings [25,26], resulting in a compact structure [27] with low energy consumption [28,29]. Numerous studies have discussed the functionality of resonant cavities by using the LWA principle [30][31][32][33][34][35].…”