Development of a Sub-Unit Cell Consisting of Capacitive Gaps and Magneto-Static Particles

Sub-unit cells consisting of printed conducting gaps and magneto-static particles to form the foundation of a proposed leaky wave antenna was experimentally evaluated and the results are presented in this paper. However, for initial experimental purposes, vias were used to model the magneto-static responsive particles in the PCB substrate for both the ON and OFF states. Then the S-parameters of an N=10 cascaded (i.e., series connected) sub-unit cell in a microstrip transmission line configuration was presented and it was shown that the propagation characteristics of the interconnected cells can be controlled with magneto-static particle equivalent regions (i.e., vias). Finally, the unit cell designs were compared between two simulation software tools and the results of the printed prototypes.