Electronically beam-steerable, low-sidelobe composite right-left-handed (crlh) metamaterial array antenna

A composite right- and left-handed (CRLH) metamaterial unit cell comprising:

• a first substrate and a second substrate;
• an intermediate region defined between the first and second substrates;
• series capacitors for electrically coupling the unit cell to one or more adjacent unit cells, and parallel inductors for electrically coupling the unit cell to ground;
• the series capacitors and parallel inductors together forming a composite right- and left-hand metamaterial structure;
• a volume of liquid crystal located in a cavity disposed within the intermediate region;
• and
• at least one electrically isolated ground patch, the at least one isolated ground patch being electrically isolated from ground and configured as a virtual ground connection capable of generating a potential difference in the volume of liquid crystal.

A wireless communication device comprising:

• an antenna for receiving and transmitting wireless signals, the antenna including:
• a first substrate;
• a second substrate;
• a composite right- and left-handed (CRLH) metamaterial array disposed between the first and second substrates, the metamaterial array including:
• at least one pair of first and second rows of unit cells, one of the first and second rows of unit cells being controllable to operate in left-hand mode, and the other of the first and second rows of unit cells being controllable to operate in right-hand mode, the at least one pair being configured to propagate a radiation pattern along a first axis;
• each unit cell including a volume of liquid crystal with a controllable dielectric value and at least one isolated ground patch electrically isolated from the first and second substrates, the at least one isolated ground patch being configured as a virtual ground connection capable of generating a potential difference for tuning the dielectric value of the volume of liquid crystal;
• the first and second row of unit cells being oriented end-to-end along the first axis and separated from each other by a first distance;
• and
• a phase variable liquid-crystal loaded lens provided on the CRLH metamaterial array, the lens being controllable to be phase variable along at least a second axis orthogonal to the first axis;
• and
• a processing device for providing control signals to the antenna, the control signals enabling tuning of the volume of liquid crystal, to control direction of a beam of the antenna along the first axis;
• and the control signals enabling control of the lens, to control direction of the beam along the second axis.