A Miniaturized Printed Circuit CRLH Antenna-based Hilbert Metamaterial Array.

With the development of communication systems and antennas, various challenges arise that require antennas of small size with enhanced performance. Metamaterials (MTM) defects introduced a considerable solution to such a challenge. Therefore, in this paper, a lightweight with low profile antenna is designed based on a novel design of a Composite Right/Left-Handed CRLH-MTM Hilbert array. The proposed CRLH-MTM unit cell consists of a T-symmetric CRLH unit cell conjugated to the 3rdorder Hilbert on the ground plane through a T-stub structure to enhance the gain-bandwidth product. CST-MWS is used to stimulate and design the proposed antenna structure. The antenna parameters are optimized to evaluate the antenna performance in gain and S11. As a result, the antenna can operate forward and backwards with a large scanning angle ranging from +34o to - 134o with changing frequency, and dual-band extended from 3.3GHz to 4.2GHz 4.86GHz 5.98GHz with a maximum gain of 7.24dBi and 3.74dBi, respectively. The beam steering is achieved by trough controlling the switching operation of PIN diodes. As a result, the antenna can scan up to 8° from 34° to 42° at 3.5GHz with constant gain along with the operating range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]