CRLH leaky-wave real-time spectrum analyzer (RTSA) with unrestricted time-frequency resolution

A novel real-time spectrum analyzer (RTSA) is presented. This RTSA exploits the frequency-space mapping property of the composite right/left handed (CRLH) leaky-wave structure to generate spectrograms with unrestricted time-frequency resolution, not available in current competing systems. Moreover, it exhibits the advantages of low computational burden, frequency scalability and broadband (UWB) operation. The system is demonstrated by both full-wave analysis and experiments for various test signals.