Metasurfaces for Reconfiguration of Multi-Polarization Antennas and Van Atta Reflector Arrays

• Main Authors: Mohammed Alharbi, Meshaal A. Alyahya, Subramanian Ramalingam, Anuj Y. Modi, Constantine A. Balanis, Craig R. Birtcher
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-08-01
• Series: Electronics
• Subjects: reconfigurable antennas; surface wave array antenna; metasurface ground plane; low-profile; square-ring antennas; van Atta reflector
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/9/8/1262

This paper discusses the application of metasurfaces for three different classes of antennas: reconfiguration of surface-wave antenna arrays, realization of high-gain polarization-reconfigurable leaky-wave antennas (LWAs), and performance enhancement of van Atta retrodirective reflectors. The proposed surface-wave antenna is designed by embedding four square ring elements within a metasurface, which improves matching and enhances the gain when compared to conventional square-ring arrays. The design for linear polarization comprises of a 1 × 4 arrangement of ring elements, with a 0.56<inline-formula><math display="inline"><semantics><mi>λ</mi></semantics></math></inline-formula> spacing, placed amidst periodic patches. A 2 × 2 arrangement of ring elements is utilized for reconfiguration from linear to circular polarization, where a similar peak gain with better port isolation is realized. A prototype of the 2 × 2 array is fabricated and measured; a good agreement is observed between simulations and measurements. In addition, the concepts of the design of polarization-diverse holographic metasurface LWAs that form a pencil beam in the desired direction with a reconfigurable polarization are discussed. Moreover, recent developments incorporating polarization-reconfigurability in metasurface LWAs are briefly reviewed. In the end, the theory of van Atta arrays is outlined and their monostatic RCS is reviewed. A conventional retrodirective array is designed using aperture-coupled patch antennas with a microstrip-line feeding network, where the scattering from the structure itself degrades the performance of the reflector. This is followed by the integration of judiciously synthesized metasurfaces to reconfigure and improve the performance of retrodirective reflectarrays by removing the above-mentioned undesired scattering from the structure.