Tunable SIW cavity backed active antenna Lt Wts

Lds3
oscillator Lts varactor

F. Giuppi, A. Georgiadis, A. Collado, M. Bozzi and Ls2 Ls1 S

L3
L. Perregrini
Ws2 Ws1
transistor
A substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) cavity backed active slot S1 D
antenna oscillator is proposed, the operation frequency of which can W1 b
be tuned by means of a properly connected varactor. The cavity L2
backed structure permits overcoming potential problems such as heat L4
L1 W4
dissipation and unwanted surface wave modes in large array implemen- Rs G Rs slot
tations, and may provide better phase noise performance. The use of
SIW technology permits a cost-effective fabrication process and Wds Ld L5 W5
simple implementation at millimetre-wave frequency, for radar and
Lds2 Lds1
communication applications. Full-wave FEM-based analysis is used
for the design of the radiating structure, while harmonic balance and
transient simulations are employed in the design of the active Lds
antenna oscillator and in the study of the stability of its steady-state sol- a c
utions. Tunable active antenna prototypes have been implemented and
measured. Fig. 1 X-band SIW cavity backed antenna oscillator
a Layout
b Top view (circuit)
Introduction: During recent years, the demand for low profile, compact c Bottom view (antenna)
and low-cost antennas has experienced unprecedented development,
along with growing interest for radar and wireless communications.
Substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology, the features of The scattering parameters obtained by the full-wave analysis have
which have been widely studied in the literature, allows for the then been imported into a circuit simulator (Agilent ADS), where a var-
implementation of compact, cost-effective waveguide-like structures actor model has been properly connected and biased. The S-parameters
using standard printed circuit board (PCB) techniques. SIW structures of this tunable structure were then evaluated in the circuit simulator,
feature low loss, high quality factor, good power handling capability, to verify its frequency tuning capability. The selected varactor diode
and can be easily integrated with planar circuitry. At present, several is the MA46H070-1056 with a control voltage VC from 0 to 20 V.
active and passive SIW circuits have been demonstrated [1]. Low The final dimensions of the geometrical parameters chosen for the
profile cavity backed antennas use a cavity to suppress undesired design of the active antenna oscillator are listed in Table 1.
surface-wave modes, and provide enough metal surface to prevent
heat dissipation problems, resulting in great advantages for large array Table 1: Final dimensions of geometrical parameters of active
configurations [2 – 4]. In addition, a proper design of the cavity can be antenna oscillator design
used to improve the phase noise performance of the oscillator [5].
In this Letter, a compact, tunable SIW cavity backed slot antenna Par. Dim. (mm) Par. Dim. (mm) Par. Dim. (mm)
oscillator is presented. The design has been carried out in two steps. Lcav 1.4 W3 0.5 Ws2 2.6
First, the radiating structure has been designed using a finite element L1 0.8 Lts 2 Lds 10
method (FEM)-based simulation software (Ansoft HFSS); then, harmo- L2 7.3 Wts 3 Ls1 7.2
nic balance (HB) and transient simulation have been used to design the L3 4.4 Lds1 2.85 Ls2 1.4
active oscillator antenna and to verify the stability of the various steady- L4 1 Lds2 3.95 D 1
state solutions. The tuning of the frequency of operation has been L5 0.4 Lds3 3.1 S 2
obtained by properly connecting a varactor to the SIW cavity. The W1 1.16 S1 0.5 Wds 0.3
dependence of the oscillation frequency of the structure with respect W2 1.1 Ws1 1.4 Lt 9.8
to variations in the biasing voltage of the varactor has been studied,
and the phase noise performance of the antenna oscillator has been
measured. Compact, single substrate active antenna oscillator prototypes Based on the obtained results of the radiating structure, an active
were built, thus demonstrating the validity of the design. cavity backed slot antenna oscillator was designed and implemented.
Use of an SIW cavity allows for a single substrate implementation,
where the slot is placed on a separate layer with respect to the active
Active antenna design: The layout of the active SIW cavity backed circuit, thus minimising the effects of the active components and bias
antenna proposed in this work is shown in Fig. 1. Full-wave simulation lines in the radiation pattern of the antenna.
by Ansoft HFSS allows for an accurate design of the radiating structure, In the presented design the gate of an NE3210S01 HJFET is con-
consisting of a slot enclosed in a SIW cavity. The slot is designed for nected to the feed line of the cavity, as shown in Fig. 1, and two
10 GHz operation, while the cavity is dimensioned in order to obtain 16 V resistors are placed between the source terminals of the device
the resonance of the TM120 mode at the same frequency. The cavity and ground in order to self-bias the circuit.
backed antenna was realised on Arlon 25N substrate with thickness of The S-parameters resulting from the analysis of the tunable cavity
0.508 mm and a dielectric constant equal to 3.38. The substrate is backed antenna were used in the harmonic balance simulator, and the
included between two copper planes connected by vias, thus creating active circuit was optimised to obtain oscillation conditions around
an SIW cavity. The radiating slot is etched in the bottom metal layer, 10 GHz. The HB simulator (Agilent ADS) was made to converge to
while the coplanar feed line in the top plane extends well beyond the the oscillating steady state using a properly defined ideal probe, as
slot in order to achieve the desired matching at 10 GHz. The topology described in [7] and references therein, while transient simulation was
of the antenna follows the one proposed in [6], with the exceptions of used to study the stability of the obtained steady-state solutions.
a smaller cavity and a ‘dogbone-shaped’ slot, which allow for a more Additionally, parallel stubs at the connection line between the antenna
compact structure. In particular, the dogbone shape is necessary to and transistor were used to stabilise the solution frequency and avoid
achieve the desired slot length within the available space in the cavity. the presence of spurious oscillations (Fig. 1).
To obtain a tunable antenna one via of the cavity wall is removed
(Fig. 1) and a varactor diode is connected between the top plane and a Results: A tunable, active antenna oscillator prototype was built and
radial stub, which creates an offset capacitance towards ground. The measured; in Fig. 2, the measured and simulated oscillation frequencies
tuning of the varactor bias voltage VC produces a change in the of the oscillator against the biasing voltage of the varactor VC are com-
loading of the cavity and consequently modifies its resonance frequency pared. The oscillation frequency varies from 9.82 to 9.98 GHz in simu-
allowing for obtaining the desired tunability. In the full-wave simulation lation and from 9.82 to 10 GHz in measurements, showing a 180 MHz
the presence of the varactor has been taken into account by defining tuning range obtained by tuning the varactor control voltage from 0
internal ports at the varactor terminal locations. to 20 V.

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 22nd July 2010 Vol. 46 No. 15

 10.05 and by processing the received signal using a vector signal analyser
measurements (VSA). The measured phase noise was approximately 2101 dBc/Hz
10.00 simulations at 1 MHz offset for control voltages in the range from 0 to 15 V. It

frequency, GHz
monotonically reduced to 2105 dBc/Hz as the control voltage was
9.95 increased to 20 V.

9.90 Conclusion: The design of a tunable X-band SIW cavity backed slot
antenna oscillator is presented. The single substrate implementation
9.85 allows for a compact, low-cost and easily integrated structure, suitable
for large array configurations. The measured prototype shows good per-
9.80 formance and a tuning range of 180 MHz, thus agreeing with simulated
0 5 10 15 20
Vc, V results.

Fig. 2 Simulated and measured frequency tuning curves of active antenna Acknowledgments: The authors thank Selva Via for the fabrication of
oscillator the prototypes. This work was carried out in the framework of COST
Action IC0803 (RFCSET). The work of A. Georgiadis and
The measured E-plane and H-plane radiation patterns of the antenna A. Collado was also supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science
oscillator’s effective radiated power (ERP) are shown in Fig. 3, for var- and Innovation project TEC2008-02685/TEC, and grants PTQ-06-02-
actor bias voltages of 0 and 20 V. The radiation pattern is essentially 0555 and PTQ-08-01-06432.
unchanged within the varactor tuning range. The gain of the SIW
cavity backed slot antenna is 4.16 dB for VC ¼ 0.
# The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2010
30 March 2010
90 doi: 10.1049/el.2010.0861
120 60 One or more of the Figures in this Letter are available in colour online.
co-pol F. Giuppi, M. Bozzi and L. Perregrini (University of Pavia, Via Ferrata
150 30
1, 27100, Pavia, Italy)
E-mail: francesco.giuppi@unipv.it
X-pol A. Georgiadis and A. Collado (Centre Tecnologic de Telecomunicacions
de Catalunya, CTTC, Av. Carl Friedrich Gauss 7, Castelldefels 08860,
180 0 Spain)
–20 –10 0 10
a
90 References
120 60
1 Bozzi, M., Perregrini, L., Wu, K., and Arcioni, P.: ‘Current and future
co-pol
research trends in substrate integrated waveguide technology’,
150 30
Radioengineering, 2009, 18, (2), pp. 201–209
2 Galeis, J.: ‘Admittance of a rectangular slot which is backed by a
rectangular cavity’, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., 1963, 11, (2),
X-pol pp. 119– 126
3 Navarro, J.A., Chang, K., Tolleson, J., Sanzgiri, S., and Lee, R.Q.: ‘A
180 0 29.3-GHz cavity-enclosed aperture-coupled circular-patch antenna for
–20 –10 0 10
b microwave circuit integration’, IEEE Microw. Guid. Wave Lett., 1991,
1, (7), pp. 170–171
Fig. 3 Measured radiation patterns (effective radiated power in dBm) for Vc 4 Haddad, P.R., and Pozar, D.M.: ‘Analysis of two aperture-coupled
equal to 0 V (solid lines) and 20 V (dashed lines) cavity-backed antennas’, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., 1997, 45,
a E-plane (12), pp. 1717– 1726
b H-plane 5 Zheng, M., Gardener, P., Hall, P.S., Hao, Y., Chen, Q., and Fusco, V.F.:
‘Cavity control of active integrated antenna oscillators’, IEEE Proc.
Microw. Antennas Propag., 2001, 148, (1), pp. 15–20
Based on the measured ERP at broadside and the measured antenna 6 Guo, Q.L., Zhi, F.H., Lin, X.D., and Ling, L.S.: ‘Planar slot antenna
gain, the radiated power is estimated to be 0.62 mW. The dissipated backed by substrate integrated waveguide cavity’, IEEE Antennas
power of the active antenna oscillator is 10.5 mW; thus, its DC to RF Wirel. Propag. Lett., 2008, 7, pp. 236 –239
efficiency is approximately 6%. The phase noise performance of the 7 Georgiadis, A., and Collado, A.: ‘Nonlinear analysis of a reflectarray cell
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ELECTRONICS LETTERS 22nd July 2010 Vol. 46 No. 15

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