Plasma antenna array design with matrix form

Antennas formed with plasma, which is also defined as the fourth state of matter, are plasma tubes mostly in the form of rod antennas, that can be used instead of classical metallic antennas. While the plasma is active in the plasma tubes, it behaves like a conductor, but when the plasma excitation is stopped and plasma turned to passive, it becomes almost transparent, or in other words, invisible to the radar. This feature has increased the frequency of use of plasma antennas, especially in recent years, and has made it a solution for areas that need radar stealth features. This thesis study aimed to obtain a plasma rod antenna and an antenna array consisting of these rod antennas. Fluorescent tubes, which are plasma tubes produced for lighting purposes, were used as the plasma element. A coupler has been designed and simulated so that RF power can be applied to the related plasma element. By using the obtained plasma element as an element of an antenna array, a linear antenna array consisting of 4 elements was designed and simulation results were obtained. In order to control the radiation pattern of the antenna array, the pattern reconfiguration/beamforming is obtained by placing the reflector/deflecting plasma tubes without RF feed with a matrix array around the active array elements. Pattern suppression is achieved with plasma tubes activated in one direction, while the array radiation pattern is almost unaffected when the reflective/deflective plasma tubes are in the passive state.