IMPEDANCE MEASUREMENT OF MILLIMETER WAVE METAMATERIAL ANTENNAS BY TRANSMISSION LINE STUBS

Abstract

The paper deals with a method to measure the unknown impedance of metamaterial antenna made in Composite Right/Left- Handed (CRLH) Co Planar Wavegiude (CPW) technique for the millimeter wave frequency domain. The method uses a measurement setup made of a high frequency vector network analyzer (VNA) and an on-wafer characterization equipment. The measurement procedure consists in placing the probe-tip of the on-wafer equipment and to move it along the feedline of the antenna radiating structure until the minimum values of the return loss is reached. Using the facilities of the on-wafer equipment (micrometric screws to move the probe-tips) and knowing the geometrical dimensions of the antenna structure, the dimension and the position of an equivalent open-circuit matching stub are obtained. Then, using relationships derived from the transmission lines theory, real and imaginary parts of the unknown antenna impedance are computed.