A Reconfigurable Leaky Wave Antenna

A design of a reconfigurable leaky wave antenna in the form of an 1D array of mushroom cells working at around frequency 3.25 GHz is presented. The reconfigurability is obtained by controlling capacitances of varactors connected between particular cells. The antenna array shows a control of the direction of the main lobe of the radiation pattern within a given span of elevation angles, which is achieved by setting the DC varactor bias. Both simulations and measurements verify the effectiveness of the presented antenna design. Simulations show the variation of the main lobe radiation pattern within approximately 45 degrees at 3.25 GHz when changing the applied DC voltage between 15 and 29 V. Unfortunately, the fabricated antenna specimen reaches a narrower span of elevation angles. The overall behavior is, however, similar as predicted by simulation. The designed antenna has a simple structure that can be cheaply fabricated by PCB process.