Electronically Steerable Ferrite Patch Antennas

We propose a novel design for two dimensional steerable millimeter wave (MMW) antennas. The design consists of an array of microstrip patch antennas deposited on a ferrite substrate. Since the radiation/scattering pattern from a ferrite element is related to the magnetization state of the ferrite, the radiation profile resulting from an antenna array consisting of ferrite elements is therefore a function of the applied external magnetic field. It has been shown in the past that one dimensional steerable beams may be generated through the use of corrugated ferrite image lines or ferrite disc scatterers. We have also shown recently that two dimensional beam steering is possible by the use of a two dimensional ferrite patch antenna array. The steering rates in these two cases were about the same. Two dimensional steerable ferrite patch antennas will be fabricated and optimized for conformal array applications. We propose that ferrite patch antennas will be used in automotive sensing system for collision avoidance. By exploiting unique features of ferrite patch antennas, such as circular polarization and frequency modulation, our proposed work will provide the following advantages: sensitivity, target recognition, signal identification, and distance and speed characterizations.