Improvement of the Reflection Coefficient of Waveguide-Fed Phased-Array Antenna Using Liquid Crystal

This work investigates the improvement of the active reflection coefficient of waveguide-fed phased-array antenna using liquid crystal layers. The anisotropic properties of liquid crystal layer can be employed to eliminate blind scan angle and improve the wide angle impedance matching of the waveguide-fed phased array antenna. The modal analysis of the waveguide-fed phased-array antenna which is covered with uniaxial anisotropic liquid crystal layers is considered. The analytical method is assumed for infinite arrays and is used to optimize the wide angle impedance matching over broad angular range of the array. The analytical results have been verified using simulation software. In this paper it is proposed to use anisotropic liquid crystal to improve the reflection coefficient of waveguide-fed phased-array antennas. Also it is proposed to employ the reconfigurable properties of liquid crystal to engineering the analytical optimization.