Abstract
We propose a beam reconfigurable micro-strip quasi-Yagi-Uda (QYU) antenna operating at terahertz (THz) frequencies. The antenna, on a metal-backed SiO2 substrate, consists of a metallic micro-strip transmission line, a metallic reflector, a metallic half-round micro patch, and three groups of monolayer-graphene-patch directors. Because the conductivities of the graphene patches can be electrically tuned, the radiation direction of the QYU antenna can be dynamically controlled by adjusting the bias voltages applied to the graphene patches. The basic properties and the tunable behaviors of the antenna are systemically simulated and optimized. It has very fast modulation speed and very low return loss. In particular, the numerical results show that the main radiation lobe angle φ (azimuth angle) of the QYU antenna can be swept from 30° to 150° in θ=60° (zenith angle) plane with different configurations of bias voltages applied to the graphene-patch directors. The proposed antenna is very suitable for THz beam reconfigurable applications, such as phased array radar systems.
The beam reconfigurable antennas have attracted growing interests, the beam directivities and the radiation patterns of which can be dynamically changed according to demand. Such antennas have the potentials to avoid noise sources, provide larger coverage by steering the angle of the main lobe, and improve the beam steering capability
In recent years, many investigations have been performed in the research of graphene-based reconfigurable THz antennas and a series of progress has been achieved. Dragoman et al. designed a graphene-based THz dipole antenna and confirmed that the radiation characteristics can be controlled by applying a bias voltage to graphen
The Yagi-Uda antenna was first reported in 192
In this paper, a type of graphene-based beam reconfigurable QYU antennas working at THz frequencies is proposed. Graphene patches are used to replace the metallic parasitic elements in the conventional Yagi-Uda antenna, and the patches are divided into three groups, each of which is as a director. Because the complex conductivity of graphene can be tuned by applying different bias voltages, by switching the states of different group of graphene-patch directors, the graphene patches can be operated as directors or not, and the function of sending (receiving) signals only toward (from) the target direction is achieved. When bias voltages are applied to different graphene-patch directors, the beam direction of the proposed device can be scanned in the wide-angle (azimuth angle φ) range of 30°-150° in zenith angle θ=60° plane. Moreover, it has very fast modulation speed, low return loss, and high radiation efficiency.
Graphene is a two-dimensional material composed of one layer of carbon atoms with a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice structure, which was first obtained in 2004 by Geim and Novoselo
, | (1) |
and
, | (2) |
where e is the electron charge, ω is the angular frequency, KB is the Boltzmann constant, ℏis the reduced Plank constant, T is the temperature in Kelvin, EF is the Fermi energy, µc is the chemical potential, and Γ=1/2τ is the carrier scattering rate with τ the carrier scattering time.
In the microwave, THz, and far-infrared spectral bands, theoretical and experimental investigations show that the optical conductivity of graphene satisfies the widely used Drude mode
. | (3) |
The Fermi energy EF is a function of carrier concentration N,
, | (4) |
where vF is the Fermi velocity, and the positive (negative) sign in the formula represents the electron (hole) doping.
From equations (3) and (4), the intra-band optical conductivity can be controlled by adjusting the Fermi energy (carrier concentration) in graphene. The bipolar electrical doping effect of graphene allows its electron (hole) concentration to be continuously changed up to 1
Recently, beam reconfigurable antennas have attracted many interests in wireless communicatio

图1 天线原理图和基本性能参数,(a)天线的俯视图,(b)天线的侧视图,(c)反射系数S11,(d)石墨烯-贴片的两种状态下天线E面辐射方向图(状态1:无偏和状态2:加偏置电压)
Fig.1 Schematic of the proposed antenna and the basic performance parameters, (a) Top view, (b) Side view, (c) Reflection coefficient S11, and (d) Simulated radiation patterns in E-plane for the two working states of the antenna (states 1 and 2 for the cases of unbiased and biased)
The features of the proposed antenna are numerically simulated with the ANSYS High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) softwar
L | 130 | wm | 5 | lrs | 300 | g | 8 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
W | 190 | lr | 50 | ld | 50 | T | 0.2 |
lm | 540 | wr | 150 | wd | 179 | ts | 30 |
tk | 0.2 | p | 10 |
The antenna structure shown in

图2 (a)天线结构示意图,(b)反射系数S11,(c) E面辐射方向图,(d)天线在不同工作状态下的θ= 60°平面辐射方向图
Fig.2 (a) Schematic of the antenna with two groups of directors, (b)Reflection coefficient S11, (c) E-plane radiation pattern and (d) θ=60° plane radiation pattern of the proposed antenna operating at different states.
For the antenna structure mentioned in subsection 2.2, the main lobe can be swept from 60° to 120° in θ=60° plane. In order to increase the steering angle, a QYU antenna with three groups of graphene-patch directors is considered. In this case, we find that a rectangle driven metallic patch does not work well. Therefore, the driven metallic patch is changed from a rectangle patch to a half-round patch, and the structure of the improved antenna is shown in

图3 (a)天线结构示意图, (b)反射系数S11, (c) E面辐射方向图, (d) 天线在不同工作状态下的θ= 60°平面辐射方向图
Fig. 3 (a) Structure of the antenna with three groups of directors, (b) Reflection coefficient S11 of the proposed antenna operating at different states, (c) E-plane radiation pattern, and (d) Radiation pattern in θ=60° plane
Working state of antenna | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Return loss (dB) | -36 | -32 | -43 | -32 | -36 | -44 |
Voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) | 1.03 | 1.12 | 1.01 | 1.12 | 1.03 | 1.01 |
-10 dB bandwidth | 9% | 12% | 8% | 12% | 8% | 14% |
Angle of main lobe (φ) | 150° | 110° | 90° | 60° | 30° | 90° |
Gain (dB) | 6.6 | 7.8 | 8.7 | 7.8 | 6.6 | 7.5 |
Radiation efficiency | 85% | 90% | 85% | 90% | 85% | 96% |

图4 (a-1)~(a-4)和(b-1)~(b-4) ,三维辐射方向图.(c-1)~(c-4) 天线在不同工作状态下表面电流分布图,其中,(a-1),(b-1),和(c-1)对应状态 1;(a-2),(b-2),和(c-2)对应状态2;(a-3),(b-3),和(c-3)对应状态3;(a-4),(b-4),和(c-4)对应状态 6
Fig.4 (a-1)~(a-4) and (b-1)~(b-4), 3D radiation patterns in different planes.(c-1)~(c-4) Surface current (Js) distributions for the proposed antenna in different working states. (a-1), (b-1), and (c-1) for state 1; (a-2), (b-2), and (c-2) for state 2; (a-3), (b-3), and (c-3) for state 3; (a-4), (b-4), and (c-4) for state 6.
In this Section, the effects of the relaxation time in graphene and the p-doped silicon strip are discussed. The graphene quality is primarily determined by the relaxation time. In the above simulations, the relaxation time 20 ps in graphene is selected. In

图5 (a)和(b)在2.2节中提出的天线辐射方向图, (a)石墨烯的不同电子弛豫时间, (b)有轻掺杂硅条和没有轻掺杂硅条. (c)和(d)在2.1节中提出的天线的辐射方向图, (c)石墨烯-贴片导向器施加不同偏置电压, (d)石墨烯-贴片导向器工作在无偏状态 (施加0 eV偏压)和没有石墨烯-贴片导向器
Fig.5 (a) and (b) Radiation patterns of antenna proposed in Section 2.2, (a) With different electron relaxation times in graphene, (b) With and without p-doped silicon strips,(c) and (d) Radiation patterns of antenna proposed in section 2.1, (c) With different bias voltages applied to the graphene-patch directors, and (d) With graphene-patch directors with µc=0 eV and without graphene-patch directors.
We also study the effects of the p-doped silicon strips. As shown in
, | (5) |
where n0 is the electron density, e is the electron charge, me is the electron effective mass, ε0 is the vacuum dielectric constant and ε is the dielectric permittivity.
The p-doped silicon, which we choose has a very low doping concentration (1e15 c
The magnitudes of bias voltages applied to the graphene patches are considered for the antenna mentioned in section 2.1, as shown in
In this work, reconfigurable QYU micro-strip antennas with graphene-patch directors are proposed. Because the complex conductivity of graphene can be tuned by changing the bias voltages, the graphene patches can be electrically switched between metallic state and dielectric state. Therefore, the graphene-patch directors can be electrically reconfigurable and the main lobe angle of the antenna can be electrically swept in a large range in θ=60° plane (60° to 120° for the configuration of two graphene-patch directors and 30° to 150° for the configuration of three graphene-patch directors). The reconfigurable behaviors of the antenna are not sensitive to the scattering time of graphene. It is expected that such a graphene-based antenna is attractive for THz application in the future.
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