A Unidirectional Beam-Scanning Antenna Excited by Corrugated Metal–Insulator–Metal Ground Supported Spoof Surface Plasmon Polaritons

Abstract

A unidirectional beam-scanning antenna is proposed. The antenna is constructed by placing a series of circular radiating elements on a 2-mm dielectric slab backed by a corrugated metal-insulatormetal (CMIM) ground. The CMIM structure is introduced not only as a ground but also as a waveguide for spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPPs). The beam-scanning function is realized through the phase difference of SSPPs fed to the radiating elements. In addition, the CMIM ground reflects downward radiation waves onto upward space, leading to a unidirectional pattern and enhanced radiation gain. Both the numerical simulation and experiment results demonstrate the good performance of the proposed antenna. They validate that the antenna achieves unidirectional radiation and scanning angle of 57 • when the frequency varies from 6.2 to 9 GHz with the frequency sensitivity of 20.4 • /GHz. The realized gains are higher than 8.11 dBi over the entire band. Compared with the published works, this paper provides a novel feed technology, a simpler structure, and higher frequency sensitivity. The high-frequency sensitivity is beneficial to reduce the bandwidth burden of the entire system. The antenna has potential applications in satellite communication. INDEX TERMS Antenna, surface plasmon polaritons, beam scanning.

A unidirectional frequency beam‐scanning antenna using composite slow‐wave waveguide based on substrate integrated waveguide and spoof surface plasmon polariton structure

“…More recently, many FBS antennas using SSPP structures have been presented [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. A planar bidirectional frequencyscanning antenna was reported by using the standing-wave characteristic of SSPP [24], in which radiation was achieved by loading two rows of patches at both sides of the SSPP waveguide.…”

The end‐fire Vivaldi antenna based on spoof surface plasmon polaritons

“…All these features undoubtedly make it more suitable for future applications, such as in flexible electronics. Ever since then many different geometries are developed to propagate the SPP wave, such as the corrugated metal–insulator–metal (CMIM) waveguide, allowing highly restricted SPP modes to propagate in a sharply curved manner with low additional transmission losses and simple manufacturing processes 10 . These designs have received extensive attention and research.…”

“…Ever since then many different geometries are developed to propagate the SPP wave, such as the corrugated metal-insulator-metal (CMIM) waveguide, allowing highly restricted SPP modes to propagate in a sharply curved manner with low additional transmission losses and simple manufacturing processes. 10 These designs have received extensive attention and research. In addition, various antennas have been constructed by taking the advantages of SPPs, [11][12][13][14][15] including multi-beam antennas, 11 leaky mode antennas, [12][13][14] and end-fire antennas.…”

Wide-Angle Frequency Scanning Metasurface Antenna Fed by Spoof Plasmonic Waveguide

“…According to the principle of reversibility, SSPPs can also be converted into free-space radiation, which has potential applications in leaky-wave antennas [16][17][18][19][20][21][25][26][27][28][29]. Continuous beam scanning leaky-wave antenna can be achieved by circular patches loaded periodically along one side of the SSPP transmission line.…”

“…Recently, a wideangle frequency scanning antenna is proposed based on a hybrid mode of a quasi-TEM mode and a SSPPs mode [18]. The wide-range scanning in a narrower band can be realized due to the nonlinear dispersion curve of SSPPs [18][19][20][21]. However, above antennas cannot modulate polarization characteristic.…”