Millimeter-Wave Beam Steerable Slot Array Antenna Using an Inter-Digitated Capacitor Based Corrugated SIW

Abstract

A new class of electronically beam-steerable corrugated substrate integrated waveguide (CSIW) slot array antenna operating at 26 -29 GHz has been developed. The conventional via based walls of SIWs or stub-based walls of CSIWs have been replaced with an inter-digitated capacitor (IDC) structure to enable reconfigurability. This novel IDC-CSIW is shown to have a lower transmission loss compared with conventional CSIWs in the literature. A new mathematical method has been described to calculate the cut-off frequency of CSIWs. The surface of the IDC-CSIW is then loaded with longitudinal slots, building a leaky-wave architecture. Radiation from individual slots is controlled by shorting the IDC at specific points using PIN diodes. The antenna is fed at either end using a singlepole-double-throw (SPDT) switch to achieve a 2D reconfigurable beam. A compact switched array of two IDC-CSIWs is demonstrated to produce a continuous full sector coverage of 120° in the azimuth plane, and ±15° in the elevation plane, providing a 2D beam-steer with a stable gain of ~13.5 dBi and an efficiency greater than 80%.

Full 360° beam steering millimetre‐wave leaky‐wave antennas coupled with bespoke 3D‐printed dielectric lenses for 5G base stations

“…Measured radiation patterns at 28 GHz in the azimuth plane with and without the lens for Feed 1 and Feed 2. Legends specify different configurations of p‐i‐n diodes within the corrugation as explained in [16]. …”

“…The change in beam‐angle is achieved with different p‐i‐n diode configurations as explained in [16]. The bespoke lens demonstrates a gain enhancement of 7.6 dB averaged over the frequency band.…”

“…To understand the base‐station setup and the bespoke lens design, it is important to understand the source antenna. A leaky‐wave architecture was achieved using a 6‐slot array on an IDC‐based corrugated SIW, as described in [16]. The IDC is loaded with p‐i‐n diodes to manipulate the surface current distribution, and hence, change the beam angle direction.…”

Fixed frequency beam‐steering using bow‐tie slot based dielectric filled waveguide antenna array

“…Several antennas have been shown in the literature using guiding structures such as substrate integrated waveguides (SIW) and dielectric filled waveguides (DFW) to produce both freq.-controlled beam-scanning and fixedfreq. beam-steering [11][12][13]. This paper presents an array of DFW with bow-tie slots to produce a fixed-freq.…”

Wideband leaky‐wave antenna with dumbbell‐shaped slots on substrate integrated waveguides with twisted corrugations

“…Corrugations in SIW were first introduced in 2008 as a potential solution where the array of vias was replaced with corrugations or an array of inductive stubs, creating a virtual electric wall in the H-plane [9,10]. Several iterations of such waveguides have been shown in the literature such as straight [11][12][13], bent [14], or folded corrugations [15], and are very well known to create new LWAs. However, such corrugated SIWs (CSIW) tend to have very high transmission loss (>2 dB per 10 cm length of the waveguide), and hence, the antennas tend to have low efficiency [14,16,17].…”