A comprehensive survey of "metamaterial transmission-line based antennas: design, challenges, and applications"

Alibakhshikenari, M. et al. (2020) A comprehensive survey of "metamaterial transmission-line based antennas: design, challenges, and applications". IEEE Access, 8, pp. 144778-144808. (doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3013698)

Abstract

In this review paper, a comprehensive study on the concept, theory, and applications of composite right/left-handed transmission lines (CRLH-TLs) by considering their use in antenna system designs have been provided. It is shown that CRLH-TLs with negative permittivity (ε < 0) and negative permeability (μ < 0) have unique properties that do not occur naturally. Therefore, they are referred to as artificial structures called "metamaterials". These artificial structures include series left-handed (LH) capacitances (CL), shunt LH inductances (LL), series right-handed (RH) inductances (LR), and shunt RH capacitances (CR) that are realized by slots or interdigital capacitors, stubs or via-holes, unwanted current flowing on the surface, and gap distance between the surface and ground-plane, respectively. In the most cases, it is also shown that structures based on CRLH metamaterial-TLs are superior than their conventional alternatives, since they have smaller dimensions, lower-profile, wider bandwidth, better radiation patterns, higher gain and efficiency, which make them easier and more cost-effective to manufacture and mass produce. Hence, a broad range of metamaterial-based design possibilities are introduced to highlight the improvement of the performance parameters that are rare and not often discussed in available literature. Therefore, this survey provides a wide overview of key early-stage concepts of metematerial-based designs as a thorough reference for specialist antennas and microwave circuits designers. To analyze the critical features of metamaterial theory and concept, several examples are used. Comparisons on the basis of physical size, bandwidth, materials, gain, efficiency, and radiation patterns are made for all the examples that are based on CRLH metamaterial-TLs. As revealed in all the metematerial design examples, foot-print area decrement is an important issue of study that have a strong impact for the enlargement of the next generation wireless communication systems.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work is partially supported by RTI2018-095499-B-C31, Funded by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Gobierno de España (MCIU/AEI/FEDER,UE), and innovation programme under grant agreement H2020-MSCA-ITN-2016 SECRET-722424 and the financial support from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under grant EP/E022936/1.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Liu, Dr Bo
• Authors: Alibakhshikenari, M., Virdee, B. S., Azpilicueta, L., Naser-Moghadasi, M., Akinsolu, M. O., See, C. H., Liu, B., Abd-Alhameed, R. A., Falcone, F., Huynen, I., Denidni, T. A., and Limiti, E.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy
• Journal Name: IEEE Access
• Publisher: IEEE
• ISSN: 2169-3536
• ISSN (Online): 2169-3536
• Published Online: 03 August 2020
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2020 IEEE
• First Published: First published in IEEE Access 8: 144778-144808
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License