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Investigation and application of a liquid crystal loaded varactor in a voltage tunable CRLH leaky-wave antenna at Ka-band

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2015

María Roig ,
Matthias Maasch ,
Christian Damm  and
Rolf Jakoby
María Roig*
Affiliation:
Institute for Microwave Engineering and Photonics, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
Matthias Maasch
Affiliation:
Institute for Microwave Engineering and Photonics, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
Christian Damm
Affiliation:
Institute for Microwave Engineering and Photonics, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
Rolf Jakoby
Affiliation:
Institute for Microwave Engineering and Photonics, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
*
Corresponding author: M. Roig Email: roig@imp.tu-darmstadt.de
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Abstract

In this work, a voltage tunable interdigital capacitor loaded with liquid crystal (LC) is investigated and its application for a composite right/left-handed leaky-wave antenna (LWA) is demonstrated. The tuning capability of the varactor is confirmed by simulation and measurement. A material tunability of 25% of the used LC yields a measured varactor tunability of 9%. Based on this, a tunable LWA with a beam scanning of 14 degrees at 26.7 GHz is implemented and measured.

Keywords

Antenna designModeling and measurementsMeta-materials and Photonic bandgap structures
Type
Research Papers
Information
International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies , Volume 7 , Special Issue 3-4: European Microwave Week 2014 , June 2015 , pp. 361 - 367
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and the European Microwave Association 2015 

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References

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