Millimeter-Wave Beam-Steering Antenna Using a Fluidically Reconfigurable Lens

A fluidically reconfigurable millimeter-wave (mm-wave)-lensed antenna is reported that covers the band from 32 to 35 GHz. The antenna is a modified antipodal Vivaldi antenna element with a fluidically loaded dielectric lens to facilitate single-element beam-steering. The fluid used in this work is ethyl acetate (C
₄
H
₈
O
₂
) with ε
_r
= 5.0 + j1.3, tan δ = 0.26 at 33.5 GHz. The antenna element and lens are manufactured using a substrate with ε
_r
= 3.55 and tan δ = 0.0027. Experimental results show that the antenna can produce up to 25° of beam-steering at 32 GHz and up to 20° of beam-steering at 35 GHz. The maximum realized gain of the antenna is 8.6 dBi and the minimum realized gain is 5.6 dBi over the band.