Liquid crystal-based wideband reconfigurable leaky wave X-band antenna

Abstract

In this paper, a pattern and frequency reconfigurable leaky wave X-band antenna based on liquid crystal is designed. The frequency sweep characteristics of traditional leaky wave antennas are replaced by electrical properties of liquid crystal materials. Through the liquid crystal tuning, the main lobe pattern is deflected by 25 degrees at a frequency shift of 1GHz, where the liquid crystal tuning is saturated at 20V bias voltage. The relative frequency reconfigurable bandwidth is 19%, the relative pattern reconfigurable bandwidth is 9.3% and the maximum gain is 10dBi. Moreover, the pattern and frequency response are well preserved during the tuning.