Abstracts - Dipartimento di Elettronica Applicata
Abstracts - Dipartimento di Elettronica Applicata
Abstracts - Dipartimento di Elettronica Applicata
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Meta 2010 & FEM 2010 – Rome, 13-15 December 2010<br />
Experimental investigations on<br />
woodpile EBG metamaterials<br />
Luca Di Palma (1) , Fabrizio Frezza (2) , Lara Pajewski (1) , Emanuele Piuzzi (2) ,<br />
Cristina Ponti (1) , Giorgia Rossi (1) , and Giuseppe Schettini (1)<br />
(1) Roma Tre University, Department of Applied Electronics<br />
Rome, Italy – E-mail: g.schettini@uniroma3.it<br />
(2) Sapienza University, Department of Information Engineering,<br />
Electronics, and Telecommunications<br />
Rome, Italy – E-mail: fabrizio.frezza@uniroma1.it<br />
Electromagnetic Band.Gap (EBG) materials are a class of artificial materials made by<br />
a perio<strong>di</strong>c arrangement of <strong>di</strong>electric and/or metallic unit cells, which allow to control<br />
the propagation of electromagnetic waves along certain <strong>di</strong>rections, depen<strong>di</strong>ng on the<br />
perio<strong>di</strong>city [1]. They can be employed to design a novel class of planar antennas, with<br />
properties of enhanced <strong>di</strong>rectivity [2]-[5].<br />
In this work, a three-<strong>di</strong>mensional EBG with woodpile unit cell is presented, that has<br />
been implemented into two alumina prototypes. Experimental measurements have<br />
given a full characterization of the frequency selectivity through the structure,<br />
especially when employed as a cavity resonator, with two identical mirrors separated<br />
by an air-gap. For this particular layout, the effect of the field polarization, and of the<br />
gap length, on the frequency response, has been deeply investigated. The main result<br />
is the existence of transmission peaks when the air-gap is a multiple of the<br />
wavelength, which, as far as symmetric cavities are concerned, may be applied to the<br />
design of resonator antennas. Starting from a microstrip patch, a new compound<br />
ra<strong>di</strong>ator has been built, placing the ground plane of the basic ra<strong>di</strong>ator in the symmetry<br />
plane of the EBG resonator, and removing its lower part. Many antenna layouts can<br />
be implemented, accor<strong>di</strong>ng to the woodpile orientation, and the <strong>di</strong>stance between the<br />
ground plane and the woodpile superstrate. Compared to the basic ra<strong>di</strong>ator, the<br />
woodpile-covered antenna has narrow beam-width, and reduced side-lobe level, and a<br />
gain enhancement up to 10 dB has been measured on several antenna layouts.<br />
References<br />
[1] J. D. Joannopoulos et al., Photonic Crystals: Mol<strong>di</strong>ng the Flow of Light, Princeton University<br />
Press, Princeton NJ 2008.<br />
[2] F. Yang and Y. Rahmat-Samii, Electromagnetic Band Gap Structures in Antenna Engineering,<br />
Cambridge University Press, New York 2009.<br />
[3] Y. J. Lee, J. Jeo, R. Mittra, and T. S. Bird, “Application of Electromagnetic Bandgap (EBG)<br />
superstrates with controllable defects for a class of patch antennas as spatial angular filters,” IEEE<br />
Trans. Ant. Propag., 53, 224-235, 2005.<br />
[4] A. R. Weily, L. Horvath, K. P. Esselle, B. C. Sanders, and T. S. Bird, “A planar resonator antenna<br />
based on a woodpile EBG material,” IEEE Trans. Ant. Propag. 53, 216-223, 2005.<br />
[5] F. Frezza, L. Pajewski, E. Piuzzi, C. Ponti, and G. Schettini, Analysis and experimental<br />
characterization of an alumina woodpile-covered planar antenna,” Proc. 40th European<br />
Microwave Conference 2009, 200-203, Paris, France, Sept. 28-30 2010.<br />
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