<scp>1‐D</scp> reconfigurable <scp>graphene‐strips leaky‐wave</scp> antenna with different feeders for wide scanning angles

Abstract

This paper introduces electronic-beam switching graphene-strips leaky-wave antenna (GS-LWA) for THz wireless communications with different feeding structures. The antenna is constructed from graphene-strips printed on silicon oxide substrate with total dimensions of 1350 × 300 × 35 μm3. The graphene tunable conductivity is used to control the GSLWA radiated beam direction without changing its physical structure. A scanning range of 94° (from −68° to 26°) is achieved at 2 THz using different codes. The effect of different plane wave launchers on the radiation characteristics of GS-LWA is investigated. A planar substrate integrated waveguide horn antenna as a plane wave launcher is designed. It introduces a peak gain of 18.2 dBi with a bandwidth of 21.95% and SLL of 10.6 dB. End-fire radiation from parabolic reflector is employed to launch plane-wave in the GS-LWA. A matching BW of 0.82 THz is achieved with peak gain of 18 dBi. A coplanar fed Yagi-Uda like structure element is studied using a single element and two elements array. The two elements array provided the highest matching of −40 dB over BW of 6% and gain of 16.5 dBi. Finally, tapered microstrip line is investigated. It introduced the lowest SLL −16.1 dB with a gain of 17.5 dBi and BW of 39.57% (from 1.5 to 2.24 THz). The selection of proper feeding structure depends on the required matching BW, peak radiated gain, and the lowest SLL. Full-wave analysis of the GS-LWA launched by different feeding methods is introduced.