Characterization of Intermodulation Distortion in Reconfigurable Liquid Metal Antennas

The intermodulation distortion produced by passive and tunable liquid metal (LM) antennas is investigated. Four kinds of monopoles, including a passive copper monopole, a varactor-tuned copper monopole, a passive LM monopole, and a tunable LM monopole using electrochemically controlled capillarity (ECC), are compared for their linearity and power-handling capabilities. Linearity is assessed using a two-tone distortion test, in which two fundamental tones close in frequency result in third-order intermodulation tones at frequencies above and below the original tones separated by the frequency difference. The passive LM monopole has comparable linearity to the passive copper monopole, while the linearity of the ECC-tuned LM monopole is at least 40 dB better than that of the active varactor monopole. The reconfigurable LM antenna also handles higher power (31 dBm) before failure than does the active varactor-tuned antenna (24 dBm).