Experimental Characterization of a Waveguide-Fed Varactor-Tuned Metamaterial Element Using the Coupled Dipole Framework

We confirm experimentally that the essential electromagnetic properties of a single, waveguide-fed, tunable metamaterial radiator can be described within a coupled dipole framework, providing a foundation for metasurface array antenna design. The metamaterial element considered here is an electrical...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIEEE antennas and wireless propagation letters Vol. 22; no. 2; pp. 1 - 5
Main Authors Yoo, Insang, Smith, David R., Boyarsky, Michael
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York IEEE 01.02.2023
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subjects
Antenna arrays
Antenna design
Antennas
Aperture antenna
Apertures
Beamforming
Circuits
Electromagnetic properties
Leaky wave antennas
Magnetic dipoles
Magnetic materials
Magnetic resonance
Metamaterials
Metasurfaces
Radiators
Resonance
Substrates
Tunable circuits and devices
Varactor diodes
Varactors
Waveguides
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Summary:We confirm experimentally that the essential electromagnetic properties of a single, waveguide-fed, tunable metamaterial radiator can be described within a coupled dipole framework, providing a foundation for metasurface array antenna design. The metamaterial element considered here is an electrically small aperture consisting of a complementary electric-LC resonator with its resonance frequency controlled by a pair of varactor diodes. Using the dipole framework, we reduce the detailed properties of the tunable element- which is a complex composite of electrically small resonant opening and bias circuitry- to a combination of effective magnetic and electric polarizabilities, with the magnetic response modeled by a Lorentzian resonance with a DC component. Experiments reveal that the designed element scatters the excitation fields into the waveguide and free space predominantly as a polarizable magnetic dipole, with a polarizability matching that predicted from a simulation-based polarizability retrieval. This experimental analysis validates the dipole framework, unlocking the potential for improved holographic beamforming approaches for the design and analysis of reconfigurable metasurface antennas.
ISSN:1536-1225
1548-5757
DOI:10.1109/LAWP.2022.3213668