Enabling electromagnetic applications of negative-refractive-index transmission-line metamaterials part II

Abstract

The 1-Dimensional (1-D) metamaterial phase-shifting lines presented in [1] can be used to develop compact and broadband, non-radiating, metamaterial feed-networks for antenna arrays. These can be used to replace conventional TL-based feed-networks, which can be bulky and narrowband. For series-fed arrays, the proposed metamaterial feed-networks have the advantage of being compact in size, therefore eliminating the need for conventional TL meander lines. In addition, the metamaterial feed-networks are more broadband when compared to conventional TL feed-networks, which enables series-fed broadside arrays to experience less beam squint when operated away from the design frequency. For parallel-fed arrays, the proposed metamaterial feed-networks have the potential to significantly reduce the size of the feed networks by completely collapsing the traditionally used TL-based binary tree feed-network. © 2004 IEEE.