Radiation Pattern Reconfigurable Antenna Using Liquid Metal Vias

Alkaraki, Shaker; Kelly, James; Allayioti, Marion

Abstract

This paper presents a moderately high directivity (∼12 dBi) antenna having a reconfigurable radiation pattern. The proposed antenna, illustrated in Fig. 1 , is closely based on existing designs [1]-[2]. The proposed antenna consists of a driven element, surrounded by four parasitics. Both the driven element and parasitics, are circular microstrip patch resonators and all have a radius of 9.6mm. The driven element is fed using an SMA connector and energy from this element couples into the parasitics. Each parasitic incorporates a chill hole. A key novelty of the work is that we use a commercially available liquid metal (EGaIn) based on an alloy of Gallium to fill the hole and form a via. When the via is in place we say that the parasitic is ON. Consequently that particular parasitic is short circuited to ground, causing it to act as a reflector. This has the effect of reducing the electric field strength on the surface of those patches to a very low level which effectively deactivates the excitation of TMu mode, as shown in Fig. 2(a) and (b). The beam, therefore steers away from the ON state parasitics. When the via is removed we say that the parasitic is OFF and it acts as a director. The OFF state parasitics have the effect of increasing the aperture area of the antenna and hence the directivity. The antenna is designed on a substrate with a thickness of 1 mm and dielectric constant of 2.7. The overall dimensions of the proposed antenna are 34 mm × 34 mm

Citation

Alkaraki, S., Kelly, J., & Allayioti, M. (2021, August). Radiation Pattern Reconfigurable Antenna Using Liquid Metal Vias. Presented at 2021 IEEE-APS Topical Conference on Antennas and Propagation in Wireless Communications, APWC 2021, Honolulu, HI, USA

• Presentation Conference Type: Edited Proceedings
• Conference Name: 2021 IEEE-APS Topical Conference on Antennas and Propagation in Wireless Communications, APWC 2021
• Start Date: Aug 9, 2021
• End Date: Aug 13, 2021
• Acceptance Date: Aug 9, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Sep 21, 2021
• Publication Date: Aug 9, 2021
• Deposit Date: Sep 26, 2023
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Pages: 1-1
• Book Title: 2021 IEEE-APS Topical Conference on Antennas and Propagation in Wireless Communications (APWC)
• ISBN: 9781665413893
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/APWC52648.2021.9539582
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/25077275
• Publisher URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9539582