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

Abstract

We propose novel wide-angle frequency scanning metasurface antenna and antenna array fed by spoof plasmonic waveguide. The spoof plasmonic waveguide adopts the ultra-thin corrugated metallic strip which can support and propagate spoof surface plasmon polariton (SSPP) with high efficiency. By compensating the momentum difference between SSPP and free-space propagation modes via constant phase gradient, metasurface antenna can exhibit wide-angle and continuous radiation property according to the Generalized Snell's law. A prototype is designed, fabricated and measured, which consists of a wideband polarization rotating transmissive phase gradient metasurface (TPGM) placed a certain distance above spoof plasmonic waveguide. Such antenna works in a wideband range from 6.8 to 14.0 GHz, and the main beam can continuously scan from the forward direction to the backward direction with high efficiency. The measured results show that the scanning angle can reach 55°, which agree well with the simulated and theoretically calculated results. Furthermore, the proposed metasurface antenna can be combined easily as an antenna array with a simple feed network. Compared to single metasurface antenna, the antenna array exhibits the pencil-shaped directional radiation property, and the average gain of antenna array is obviously enhanced. The proposed frequency scanning metasurface antenna is of great value in the design of conformal antenna and the large aperture antenna array, especially on curved faces.

Spoof surface plasmonics: principle, design, and applications

“…Based on this principle, Cui's group has previously proposed a SSPP emitter by controlling phase modulations produced by the phase-gradient metasurface on the ultrathin metallic strips in 2015 [84], which makes spoof SPP waves convert into spatial propagating waves. Besides, some representative works according to the generalized Snell's law are proposed one after another starting from 2018 [85][86][87][88]. In that year, Chen's group achieved a frequency scanning LWA by decoupling SSPPs via phase gradient metasurface (PGM), as illustrated in figure 12(a) [85].…”

Novel high‐efficiency and ultra‐compact low‐pass filter using double‐layered spoof surface plasmon polaritons

“…At present, many studies based on SSPPs have been proposed for microwave circuits or wireless communication systems, such as multi‐band filter, 8 leaky wave antennas, 9,10 bandpass or low‐pass filter, 11–16 filtering antenna, 17 and so on. However, most of these SSPPs structures are still limitations 8,11–16 .…”

Compact spoof surface plasmon polariton leaky‐wave antenna with consistent gain

“…In Reference 11, the SSPP LWA with an artificial magnetic conductor reflector was introduced to improve performance, but it turned the single‐layer conductor structure into a complex 3D structure, which lost the advantage of the SSPP TL. In Reference 14, a leaky wave antenna with an enhanced angular scan rate (ASR) using high permittivity materials is presented, while the processing cost is relatively high.…”