Tunable Liquid Crystal MTM SIW LWA for continuous scanning at fixed frequency

Abstract

In this study, a novel tunable CL CRLH leaky wave antenna is designed using both substrate integrated waveguide and meta-materials technologies. This structure is loading by 25 CRLH meta-materials unit cells and fed by a tapered microstrip line transition. This antenna is simulated and analyzed by the CST Microwave Studio software. The simulated results indicating that by tuning the permittivity tensor of the LC materials, it is possible to obtain a wide scanning range from backward to forward direction including broadside at the fixed frequency 14.2 GHz.