A BST-Integrated Capacitively Loaded Patch for K-a- and X-band Beamsteerable Reflectarray Antennas in Satellite Communications

    Authors

    K. K. Karnati; Y. Shen; M. E. Trampler; S. Ebadi; P. F. Wahid;X. Gong

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag.

    Keywords

    Barium strontium titanate (BST); microstrip antenna; phase shifters; reflectarray antenna; sputtering; unit cell; waveguide simulator; IMPROVEMENT; ELEMENT; DESIGN; Engineering, Electrical & Electronic; Telecommunications

    Abstract

    Tunable reflectarray unit cells operating at K-a- and X-bands are presented in this paper using barium strontium titanate ( BST) technology. A patch antenna is capacitively loaded with a narrow gap in the middle and a thin-film BST layer is deposited under the patch. By tuning the dc-bias voltage across the gap, the dielectric properties of the BST layer are changed and then an integrated tunable capacitor is realized. The proposed design is evaluated using both full-wave simulations and measurements. Due to the monolithic integration of the tuning mechanism with the unit cell, the antenna element can be applied at millimeter-wave frequencies without suffering from packaging and bonding problems. The effects of substrate thickness, system pressure, and operating frequency on the performance of the BST-integrated unit cell are presented. An overall phase range of 298 degrees and 263 degrees with maximum reflection losses of 16 and 8.8 dB at K-a- and X-bands, respectively, are measured when the unit cells are operated for maximum phase range. By judiciously selecting the frequency of operation, a phase range of 250 degrees with maximum reflection losses of 5.6 and 5.8 dB at 30.7 and 10.27 GHz are achieved. The presented analysis provides guidelines for optimizing the unit cell's performance required for efficient beam-scanning reflectarray antennas.

    Journal Title

    Ieee Transactions on Antennas and Propagation

    Volume

    63

    Issue/Number

    4

    Publication Date

    1-1-2015

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    1324

    Last Page

    1333

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000352702400015

    ISSN

    0018-926X

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