Research of the SPiN diodes for silicon-based reconfigurable holographic antenna

Abstract

Silicon-based solid state plasma antennas were characterized by its wide radiation range, good stealth characteristic, and dynamic reconfigurability, which have broad application prospects in the future. In this paper, investigations of surface PiN diodes developed for silicon-based reconfigurable holographic antennas have been demonstrated for using millimeter-wave communication systems. The SPiN diodes have been extensively discussed, and the obtained results (simulations and experiments) confirm the applicability of these devices for dynamically reconfigurable antennas. A carrier concentration of 1018–1019 cm−3 has been achieved within the optimized SPiN diode. Reconfigurable holographic antennas based on SPiN diodes that were activated by the injection of dc current were demonstrated in this paper. The resonance frequencies at 60 GHz and 64.5 GHz have been easily achieved by turning on or off different sections of the reconfigurable dipole antenna, while the radiation efficiencies were 85.1% and 83.8%, respectively. A double-layer holographic structure was also investigated in this paper. The study reveals that a novel reconfigurable antenna with SPiN diodes has been formed in a single system and has numerous advantages over the traditional antenna.