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A mm-Wave Beam-Steerable Leaky-Wave Antenna with Ferroelectric

Publikacja / Publication Substructure,
Nyzovets Denys, Yashchyshyn Yevhen
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http://repo.pw.edu.pl/info/article/WUTb523170a169c4dbfa49d5ad00148f998/
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Data opublikowania w Repozytorium /
July 23, 2019
Deposited in Repository on
Identyfikator pliku / File identifier WUTcf592db04d8944c6a4b501c328626a6b
Identyfikator publikacji / Publication identifier WUTb523170a169c4dbfa49d5ad00148f998
Nyzovets Denys, Yashchyshyn Yevhen: A mm-Wave Beam-Steerable Leaky-
Wave Antenna with Ferroelectric Substructure, In: 2019 13th European
Cytuj tę wersję / Cite this version
Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), 2019, Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, ISBN 9781538681275, pp. 1-4
 13th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2019)

A mm-Wave Beam-Steerable Leaky-Wave Antenna

with Ferroelectric Substructure

Denys Nyzovets, Yevhen Yashchyshyn

Warsaw University of Technology
Institute of Radioelectronics and Multimedia Technology, Warsaw, Poland
D.Nyzovets@ire.pw.edu.pl, E.Jaszczyszyn@ire.pw.edu.pl

Abstract—In this paper, a novel mm-wave beam-steerable There are four main ways for beam steering that can be
antenna with ferroelectric substructure is presented. achieved by using:
Ferroelectric substructure is placed under grounded substrate • electronic devices (FET-switches, PIN-diodes, varactors
of antenna and coupled with it by three slots etched in internal diodes) [2];
metallic sheet. The radiation pattern control capability is
demonstrated by varying the permittivity of the ferroelectric • electro-mechanical devices (MEMS-switches) [3];
substructure. The proposed antenna is an excellent solution for • electro-optical devices (optically controlled
a low-cost mm-wave beam-forming due to high radiation semiconductor switches) [4];
efficiency, high gain, low-profile, and low cost of fabrication. • tunable materials (ferrites, liquid crystals, ferroelectric)
Index Terms—antennas, beam-steering, ferroelectric [5-9].
material, leaky-wave antennas, mm-wave. Electronic devices are most widely used for beam
steering. The beam direction of the antenna can also be
I. INTRODUCTION controlled by changing the properties of materials used as an
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antenna substrate. Well known materials which are suitable

The key advantage of wireless systems operating in mm- for beam-steering are ferrites, liquid crystals and
wave frequencies is the large bandwidth available in this ferroelectrics. The properties of materials can be changed by
band. For example, W-band (75-110 GHz) can provide high- applying external magnetic (for ferrites) or electric (for
speed links with data throughput more than 10 Gbps. liquid crystal and ferroelectric) field.
The most important challenges for mm-wave The LWA based on the ferrite consists of ferrite filled
communication systems are to overcome free space path loss waveguide without a lateral metal wall or with slots made on
which is higher than in conventional low-frequency bands the side wall [5]. Under the magnetic field applied to the
and to provide adaptive and precise alignment of antenna ferrite their permeability is changed, which in turn effects the
beam. Typically, beam-steering in microwave frequency radiation direction of antenna.
band is achieved by means of phase-shifting or switching [1]. Liquid crystals (LCs) are perspective candidates for
However, such approach is not feasible in mm-wave range steerable LWA at high frequencies due to their controlled
due to absence of required components. permittivity and low losses. Liquid crystal is a nonlinear
To overcome difficulties of transmission in mm-wave material. Orientation of their molecules can be changed
range, high-gain and beam-steerable antennas at the under the influence of an external static electric field. Tuning
transmitting and the receiving side are required. According of dielectric permittivity allows to control the phase constant
to the general cost reduction trend, this paper describes a new and the radiation beam direction of the LWA [6]. LC
leaky-wave antenna (LWA) as low-cost alternative for mm- requires a low bias voltage for control, which simplifies the
wave array antennas and presents simulation results which control circuit. However, the complexity of integration in
have proved electronic steering capabilities. antenna structure and slow response limits application of LC
The main advantages of this antenna are: high gain, wide in antennas.
bandwidth and ability of electrical beam steering at fixed An example of steerable antenna based on a tunable
frequency. ferroelectric has published in [7]. It is built on a multilayered
substrate, which consists of a thin layer of ferroelectric,
II. STEERABLE LEAKY-WAVE ANTENNAS located between two conventional dielectric layers. Change
Conventional LWAs are not capable for beam scanning of the dielectric permittivity leads to the change of the total
at a fixed frequency. In order to overcome this issue, beam- dielectric permittivity of the whole multilayer substrate,
steerable LWAs have been introduced over the last decades. which in turn changes radiation pattern of the antenna.
In order to provide fixed-frequency scanning some active Antennas based on ferroelectric material have many
elements have to be integrate into the LWA structure. advantages in terms of continuous scanning, lightweightness
and compactness.
 13th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2019)

III. NEW ANTENNA CONCEPT

The antenna, which has been presented in [8], uses
ferroelectric ceramic-polymer as a substrate. The antenna is
fed asymmetrically with quasi-TEM line. Wider microstrip
transmission line (acting on the first higher order mode)
operates as antenna. The biasing of the ferroelectric substrate
is achieved by using special DC-block. Fig. 1 shows this
electrically controllable scan antenna. Fig. 2. Cross-section of the scan antenna on ferroelectric substrate.
Thickness of the ferroelectric ceramic-polymer substrate
is ℎF=0.2 mm. Ferroelectric permittivity can be changed with
proper DC-bias. Fig. 2 shows the cross-section of this scan
antenna on ferroelectric substrate.
However, this antenna has some disadvantages. First of
all the DC biasing is applied to the antenna aperture directly.
It provides limitation because high voltage has to be used for
scanning. To avoid this disadvantage, we propose a new
concept of beam-steerable LWA.
Our new concept is also based on microstrip line in
which the first higher order mode is excited. Conventional
microwave substrate has been used instead of ferroelectric
substrate. For providing the control feasibility the Fig. 3. Configuration of the proposed LWA.
ferroelectric thin film has been added under bottom ground,
where slots are performed.
Proposed new concept in comparison with the previous
one eliminates DC-block, which isolates RF part from high
voltage DC bias and reduces level of DC voltage, because
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thickness of ferroelectric film could be reduced to a few

micrometers. Fig. 3 illustrates the basic structure of the
antenna. The conventional substrate is a grounded LCP
substrate with relative permittivity of εr=3.78 and loss
tangent of tanδ=0.0045. LCP is an organic substrate with
excellent electrical properties in high frequency up to 110
GHz. LCP substrate is suitable for millimeter-wave
applications. On top of the LCP substrate the microstrip
LWA is formed. The antenna aperture length is L=7.14 mm
and width is W=0.76 mm (Fig. 4).
As mentioned previously, LCP substrate is stacked with
ferroelectric substructure, which thickness is ℎF=0.005 mm Fig. 4. The structure of the microstrip leaky-wave antenna.
and permittivity εt. The dielectric permittivity of the
ferroelectric εt can be changed by applying DC electric field
across the ferroelectric film. For this functionality the bottom
of the ferroelectric substructure is metalized in order to
enable the DC bias voltage (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5. Cross-section of the LWA with stacked substrates.

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS

The characteristics of the proposed LWA have been
Fig. 1. The structure of the scan antenna on ferroelectric substrate [8]. simulated using electromagnetic simulator FEKO. Fig. 6
 13th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2019)

presents the parameter S11 for different values of ferroelectric Fig. 8 shows the antenna realized gain for different values of
permittivity from 8 to 23. These low values of ferroelectric the ferroelectric permittivity. The realized gain of the
permittivity can be obtained by using a ceramic-polymer antenna is greater than 6 dBi across the bandwidth of 90–95
composite [9]. Fig. 7 shows the ability of the beam-steering GHz.
by tuning the dielectric permittivity of the ferroelectric
substructure. V. CONCLUSION
A novel mm-wave beam-steerable antenna with
ferroelectric substructure has been presented. The proposed
antenna is an excellent solution for a low-cost mm-wave
beam-forming due to high radiation efficiency, high gain,
low-profile, and low cost of fabrication. The antenna
provides a realized gain higher than 6 dBi in the minimum 5
GHz bandwidth (e.g. from 90 to 95 GHz). The sector of the
scanning in the fixed frequency is around 7° (e.g. from 25° to
32° for 92 GHz).
The presented solution is quite innovative, promising and
seems to be easy to implement due to the use of technology
that has already been developed. This is especially true for
production of ferroelectric ceramic-polymers.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Fig. 6. Simulated S11 parameters for different values of the ferroelectric The work presented in this article was supported by
permittivity. H2020 ITN CELTA project under grant number 675683 of
Call: H2020-MSCA-ITN-2015.
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