Radiation-Scattering–Integrated Design of Multi-Functional Metasurfaces Based on Antenna-Embedded Substrates

The integration of the metasurface and antenna has brought new vitality to function integration and performance improvement for metasurfaces. In this study, we propose a radiation-scattering–integrated (RSI) design method of functional metasurfaces by incorporating antenna radiators into the substrates. The antenna radiators can also be considered as a band-stop frequency selective surface (FSS) embedded within the dielectric substrate, which adds up to the degree of freedom (DOF) in tailoring electromagnetic (EM) properties of the substrate. In this way, not only radiation function is added to the metasurfaces but also the original scattering-manipulation function is augmented. As an example, we apply this method to the design of a metasurface that can achieve a high radiation gain in-band and low-RCS out-of-band simultaneously. An antenna array was first designed, which uses circular patches as the radiators. Then, the antenna array was used as the substrate of a typical polarization conversion (PC) metasurface. The circular patch lies between the ground plane and the PC meta-atom, providing optimal electrical substrate thickness for PC at two separate bands. By adjusting structural parameters, the operating band of the antenna array can be made to lie in between the two PC bands. In this way, the metasurface can simultaneously possess high-gain radiation function in-band and high-efficiency PC function for RCS reduction out-of-band. A prototype was fabricated and measured. Both the simulated and measured results show that the metasurface can achieve satisfactory radiation gain in-band and significant RCS reduction out of band. This work provides an alternative method of designing multi-functional metasurfaces, which may find applications in smart skins and others.

Ultra-Thin Chiral Metasurface-Based Superoscillatory Lens

The metasurface-based superoscillatory lens has been demonstrated to be effective in finely tailoring the wavefront of light to generate focal spots beyond the diffraction limit in the far-field that is capable of improving the resolution of the imaging system. In this paper, an ultra-thin (0.055 λ0) metasurface-based superoscillatory lens (SOL) that can generate a sub-diffraction optical needle with a long focal depth is proposed, which is constructed by ultra-thin chiral unit cells containing two metal split-ring resonators (SRR) with a 90° twisted angle difference cladded on both sides of a 1.5 mm-thick dielectric substrate, with a high linear cross-polarized transmission coefficient around 0.9 and full phase control capability at 11 GHz. Full-wave simulation shows that SOL generates a sub-diffraction optical needle within 10.5–11.5 GHz. At the center frequency, the focal depth is 281 mm (10.3 λ0) within 105–386 mm, the full width at half maximum (FWHM) is 18.5 mm (0.68 λ0), about 0.7 times the diffraction limit, generally consistent with the theoretical result. The proposed ultra-thin chiral metasurface-based SOL holds great potential in integrating into practical imaging applications for its simple fabrication, high efficiency, and low-profile advantages.

Design of Flexible 3.2 GHz Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antenna for S-Band Communication

This paper presents the design, simulation, realization and analysis of flexible microstrip patch antenna for S-band applications. The proposed design also adopts the conformal structure by utilizing flexible substrate. Conformal or flexible structure allows the antenna to fit with any specified shape as desired. The antenna patch dimensions is 43 mm × 25 mm without SMA connector. The patch is etched on the flexible dielectric substrate, pyralux FR 9111, with a relative dielectric constant of εr = 3 and the thickness of substrate, h = 0.025 mm. The antenna is designed to resonate at 3.2 GHz. The return loss (RL) of the simulation is -35.80 dB at the center frequency of 3.2 GHz. The fabricated antenna prototype was measured at different bending angles scenarios including 0º, 30º, 60º, and 90º. The measurement of antenna prototype shows that the center frequency is shifted to the higher frequency of 3.29 GHz, compared to the simulation result. Among these scenarios, measurement at bending angle of 90º gives the best performance with RL = - 31.38 dB at 3.29 GHz, the bandwidth is 80 MHz, and the impedance ZA = 48.36 + j2.04 Ω. Despite a slight differences from simulation results, the designed antenna still performs well as expected.

Design and Simulation of Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antenna with Triple Slot for X Band

In the present work an attempt has been made to design and simulation of rectangular microstrip patch antenna with triple slot for X band using microstrip feed line techniques. HFSS High frequency simulator is used to analyse the proposed antenna and simulated the result on the return loss, radiation pattern and gain of the proposed antenna. The antenna is able to achieve in the range of 8-12 GHz for return loss of less than -10 dB. The operating frequency of the proposed antenna is 8.4 GHz & 11 GHz with dielectric substrate, ARLON of = 2.5 and h= 1.6mm. Keywords: ARLON substrate material, FEM, Microstrip Feed Line, X band

Orthogonal Printed Microstrip Antenna Arrays for 5G Millimeter-Wave Applications

This article presents the design of a planar MIMO (Multiple Inputs Multiple Outputs) antenna comprised of two sets orthogonally placed 1 × 12 linear antenna arrays for 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) applications. The arrays are made of probe-fed microstrip patch antenna elements on a 90 × 160 mm2 Rogers RT/Duroid 5880 grounded dielectric substrate. The antenna demonstrates S11 = −10 dB impedance bandwidth in the following 5G frequency band: 24.25–27.50 GHz. The scattering parameters of the antenna were computed by electromagnetic simulation tools, Ansys HFSS and CST Microwave Studio, and were further verified by the measured results of a fabricated prototype. To achieve a gain of 12 dBi or better over a scanning range of +/−45° from broadside, the Dolph-Tschebyscheff excitation weighting and optimum spacing are used. Different antenna parameters, such as correlation coefficient, port isolation, and 2D and 3D radiation patterns, are investigated to determine the effectiveness of this antenna for MIMO operation, which will be very useful for mmWave cellphone applications in 5G bands.

Double Narrow Fano Resonances via Diffraction Coupling of Magnetic Plasmon Resonances in Embedded 3D Metamaterials for High-Quality Sensing

We theoretically demonstrate an approach to generate the double narrow Fano resonances via diffraction coupling of magnetic plasmon (MP) resonances by embedding 3D metamaterials composed of vertical Au U-shaped split-ring resonators (VSRRs) array into a dielectric substrate. Our strategy offers a homogeneous background allowing strong coupling between the MP resonances of VSRRs and the two surface collective optical modes of a periodic array resulting from Wood anomaly, which leads to two narrow hybridized MP modes from the visible to near-infrared regions. In addition, the interaction effects in the VSRRs with various geometric parameters are also systematically studied. Owing to the narrow hybrid MP mode being highly sensitive to small changes in the surrounding media, the sensitivity and the figure of merit (FoM) of the embedded 3D metamaterials with fabrication feasibility were as high as 590 nm/RIU and 104, respectively, which holds practical applications in label-free biosensing, such as the detection of medical diagnoses and sport doping drugs.

Trends in the development of sensor devices based on surface plasmon resonance (Review)

Trends in the development of modern sensory devices based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) are considered. The basic principles of construction of SPR sensor are given. For excitation of surface plasmons on the surface of sensitive elements of biosensory, a prism of total internal reflection is used or a dielectric substrate are used. A thin (dozens nm) film of high-conductive metal (mainly gold or silver) is applied to the working surface of the prisms or dielectric substrate. In a typical observation experiment, SPR is measured dependence on the angle of increasing light intensity, reflected by the resonance sensitive surface of the prism (chip). The optical schemes and principles of work of various SPR sensors are considered: - SPR Sensors with angular modulation, which are the most commonly used method based on the corner registration, in which the SPR occurs. The surface of the metal film is irradiated by monochromatic light and scans on a certain range of angles. There is a kind of SPR sensors with angular modulation, in which there is no mechanical scan of the angle of fall. Such sensors are entirely necessary for excitation of PPRs a set of angles is obtained due to a divergent or convergent light beam. - PPR sensors with a wavelength modulation is based on fixing an angle of falling light at a certain value and modulation of the wavelength of the incident light. Excitation of surface plasmons leads to a characteristic failure in the spectrum of reflected radiation. - Phase sensitive SPR sensors in which a change in the phase of the light wave associated with the surface plasma is measured on one corner of the fall and the wavelength of the light wave and is used as the output signal. - SPR imaging sensors in which the Technology of SPR imaging (SPRi) combines the sensitivity of the SPR with spatial image capabilities. The SPRI circuit uses as a fixed angle (as a rule, a slightly left angle of the SPR) and a fixed wavelength to measure changes in the reflection ability (Δ% R) that occur when the curve of the SPR is shifted due to the change in the refractive index above the surface of the sensor element. - SPR imaging sensors polarization contrast. In order to improve the quality of high-performance SPR imaging sensors in terms of sensitivity and resolution, the method of polarization contrast is used Disadvantages and advantages of SPR sensors are constructed with different principles are considered. The design and prospect of the use of achromatic and suburchast wave plates in the PPR imaging sensors with polarization contrast are considered.

High-Isolation UWB MIMO Antenna with Multiple X-Shaped Stubs Loaded between Ground Planes

A miniaturized ultra-wideband multiple-input multiple-output (UWB MIMO) two-port antenna with high isolation based on FR4 is designed in this article. The size of the antenna is only 18 × 28 × 1.6 mm3. The MIMO antenna consists of two identical antenna elements symmetrically placed on the same dielectric substrate in opposite directions. By loading three crossed X-shaped stubs between two unconnected ground planes, high isolation and good impedance matching are achieved. The working frequency band measured by this UWB MIMO antenna is 1.9–14 GHz, and the isolation is kept above 20.2 dB in the whole analysis frequency band. Good radiation characteristics as well as envelope correlation coefficient (ECC, <0.09), mean effective gain (MEG), and channel capacity loss (CCL) in the passband meet the requirements of the application, which can be applied to the UWB wireless communication system. To verify the applicability of the proposed method for enhancing the isolation between antenna elements, the two-port antenna structure was extended to a four-port antenna structure. In the case of loading the X-shaped stubs to connect to the ground plane, the isolation of the antenna is maintained above 15.5 dB within 1.7–14 GHz.

Dual Band Patch Antenna Based on Letter Slotted DGS for 5G Sub-6GHz Application

To design a multiband microstrip patch antenna, the Defected Ground Structure (DGS) technique is applied to add a disturbance effect in the surface current distribution and create a multi-resonance frequency. Furthermore, and in the aim to achieve a high gain, a high superstrate is added above the basic antenna design. The developed antenna is dedicated to the 5G sub 6GHz band application. The proposed antenna is based on RO5880 dielectric substrate of ɛ=2.2 and has an overall dimension of 77×70.11×1.6 mm3. The antenna operates at a sub 6GHz frequency range (at 4.53 to 4.97 GHz) and fits in 5G band application standard. Using CST Studio Suite Electromagnetics (EM) Solver, antenna’s performances are investigated; an average gain of 5 dB with acceptable radiation efficiency is obtained at the operating frequencies, suitable for sub-6GHz 5G application. The proposed antenna is fabricated, and experimental analysis is conducted using ROHDE & SCHWARZ ZVB20 network analyser, which shows a good agreement with the simulation analysis.