Dielectric Loaded Reconfigurable SIW Slot Antenna Array

A novel passive/mechanical technique is proposed in this paper, to tune the operating frequency of substrate integrated waveguide slot antenna array, by loading dielectric rods at the center of the slots as well as outside of the slots. The antenna array is designed using 3D electromagnetic simulation. Then it is fabricated and verified with measured results. The operating frequency is reconfigured with a simultaneous change in the relative permittivity of all the dielectric rods, which are fabricated in-house from the widely used substrates. For all the tuning cases, the array is maintaining good similarity in radiation patterns and with a gain of 9.3 dBi. This simple cost-effective mechanical tuning technique eliminates the use of any external DC bias circuitry, hence reducing parasitic effects and loss involved in the widely used active reconfigurable circuits. This initial investigation demonstrates a frequency tunability of 11.3 % (at X-band), which is the highest ever reported, even using active tuning techniques. This reconfigurable antenna array is developed for wideband and high-speed point-to-multipoint communication, especially in remote areas where power is very limited. Further, the proposed technique is suitable to overcome fabrication uncertainties and temperature variation in on-field post-installation tuning.