Software-defined Reconfigurable Antenna Using Slotted Substrate Integrated Waveguide for Ka-band Satellite-on-the-Move Communication

A software-defined pattern reconfigurable Ka-band antenna for high-speed satellite-on-the-move (SOTM) application is presented. The proposed antenna employs the concept of travelling-wave slotted integrated waveguide to achieve a high-directivity radiation beam as needed for satellite communications. The substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) is employed as the antenna's main structure to lower the antenna's cost and weight. To realize the radiation-pattern configurability at a certain frequency, hundreds of computer-controlled PIN diodes are installed on the top slotted layer of the SIW structure to control the effective distance between the slots. The design parameters of the antenna are calculated using the leaky-wave space harmonic theory and further verified by full-wave simulations. As a proof of concept, a linear array with total length of 20 cmx1 cm is designed and simulated. Up to +/- 20 degrees steering range of the main beam can be achieved with 15 dBi gain. In a planar structure of dimensions 20 cmx20 cm, the gain is increased to 22 dBi gain at 20 GHz.