A re-radiating CRLH-transmission line leaky wave antenna using distributed amplifiers

In this paper, a re-radiating CRLH-transmission line leaky wave antenna using distributed amplifier structure is proposed. The active leaky wave antenna consists of four FETs and two CRLH-transmission lines separately connected to gate and drain side of the FETs, which serve as two leaky wave antennas. The gate side CRLH-transmission line operates as a receiving antenna. The signal received by the antenna will then travel to each unit-cell and be amplified through the FETs. The amplified signal then goes to the drain side CRLH-transmission line, which operates as a transmitting antenna, and will be re-radiated. Furthermore, if the two CRLH leaky wave antennas are designed to be identical, the radiated beam will be directed in the same angle but opposite direction that the incident wave arrived and can operate as a repeater or transponder. In addition, this leaky wave antenna can also perform as a high-gain frequency dependent beam-scanning antenna if properly excited from one port. A 24-cell prototype demonstrates the proposed leaky wave antenna, performing both re-radiating and beam scanning functionality.