Design and Analysis of L-Band Reconfigurable Liquid-Metal Alloy Antennas

Efficient reconfigurable antennas are highly sought after in all communication applications for the ability to reduce space cost while maintaining the ability to control the frequency, gain, and polarization. The ability to control these parameters allows a single antenna to maximize its performance in a wide range of scenarios to satisfy changing operating requirements. This thesis will describe reconfigurable antennas using liquid-metal alloys that give the system this ability by injecting or retracting the liquid metal from various channels. After simulations were performed in an electromagnetic simulation software, proof-of-concept models were built, tested, and compared to the simulations to verify the results.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Thews, Jonathan Tyler

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Michaels, Alan J.
• Brown, Gary S.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Hendricks, Robert Wayne
• Davis, William A.

• liquid metal
• antenna
• reconfigurable
• EGaIn
• eutectic
• gallium
• indium
• L-band

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:10719

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/78007