UCLA

Today's demand for advanced wireless communication technology is increasing and is creating a necessity to develop multiband technologies. This thesis will cover a dual-band composite right/left hand (CRLH) substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) leaky wave antenna (LWA) phased array design to operate at C-band and X-band frequencies. The proposed design has the capability of steering a pencil beam in 2 dimensions, electronically in elevation and by phase in azimuth. The design utilizes the unique properties of CRLH metamaterial designs in SIW technology to provide a single feed input antenna that is capable of producing back-fire radiation patterns at both frequency bands. The proposed design utilizes the radiating and guiding properties of CRLH transmission lines to enable antenna elements to be spaced lambda/2 from each element, where lambda is the wavelength of a designated design frequency. This allows the antenna to provide maximum scanning capability in the azimuth direction while also maintaining the highest directivity possible. The antenna design works as expected at C-band frequencies but due to some fabrication issues the performance at X-band frequencies are not ideal. For both frequency bands the 2-D scanning capability is still observed.

This thesis will cover the design steps and considerations during the design process, starting with the unit cell design, transforming it into a 1-D single band LWA, and placing the 1-D antennas into an array to create the proposed dual-band antenna. Simulation and measured results are compared and shown where applicable and future works for follow on design work is covered in the last chapter.