Dual-band periodic beam scanning antenna using eighth mode substrate integrated waveguide based metamaterial transmission line

Abstract

In this paper, a novel dual-band periodic metamaterial antenna with a continuous beam scanning property from backward to forward directions is first proposed by using an eighth mode substrate integrated waveguide (EMSIW) based metamaterial transmission line (MTM TL). The proposed beam scanning antenna consists of 11 unit cells of the EMSIW based MTM TL, and the unit cell of MTM TL is designed by etching two different interdigital fingers on the upper ground of EMSIW. The MTM TL has two balanced composite right/left-handed (CRLH) passbands, and exhibits a continuous phase constant changing from negative to positive values within the two passbands. For verification, the proposed dual-band periodic beam scanning antenna is fabricated and measured. The measured results show that the fabricated beam scanning antenna has two operating frequency bands of 4.2–6.2 GHz (38.5%) and 10.2–11.1 GHz (8.5%), with a return loss better than 10 dB, and achieving a continuous beam scanning property from backward −62° to forward +55°and backward −27° to forward +18° within the two operating frequency bands, respectively. The measured peak antenna gain is 14.7 and 11.7 dB in the first and second operating frequency band. Moreover, the proposed antenna has a filtering capability in the two operating frequency bands. Besides, the measured and simulated results of the proposed dual-band periodic antenna are in good agreement with each other, indicating that the significance and effectiveness of this method to design beam scanning antenna.