Reconfigurable Nested Ring-Split Ring Transmitarray Unit Cell Employing the Element Rotation Method by Microfluidics

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Erdil E., TOPALLI K., Esmaeilzad N. S., Zorlu O., KÜLAH H., AYDIN ÇİVİ H. Ö.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, cilt.63, sa.3, ss.1164-1169, 2015 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 63 Sayı: 3
  • Basım Tarihi: 2015
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1109/tap.2014.2387424
  • Dergi Adı: IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1164-1169
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Beam steering, circularly polarized, element rotation method, lens array, liquid metal, microfluidics, reconfigurable, split ring, transmitarray
  • Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

A continuously tunable, circularly polarized X-band microfluidic transmitarray unit cell employing the element rotation method is designed and fabricated. The unit cell comprises a double layer nested ringsplit ring structure realized as microfluidic channels embedded in Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) using soft lithography techniques. Conductive regions of the rings are formed by injecting a liquid metal (an alloy of Ga, In, and Sn), whereas the split region is air. Movement of the liquid metal together with the split around the ring provides 360 linear phase shift range in the transmitted field through the unit cell. A circularly polarized unit cell is designed to operate at 8.8 GHz, satisfying the necessary phase shifting conditions provided by the element rotation method. Unit cell prototypes are fabricated and the proposed concept is verified by the measurements using waveguide simulator method, within the frequency range of 8-10 GHz. The agreement between the simulation and measurement results is satisfactory, illustrating the viability of the approach to be used in reconfigurable antennas and antenna arrays.