Microwave Antennas and Metasurface Antenna: From Fundamental Research to Applications

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "A:Physics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 9538

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Guest Editor
Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Kongju National University; Cheonan 31080, Republic of Korea
Interests: electromagnetic periodic structure applications; metausrface; frequency selective surface
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Research on metamaterials and metasurfaces has exploded over the past two decades and has opened up new opportunities for antenna design. The metasurface comprises an array of unit cells that are much smaller than the wavelength, so the properties of a customized electromagnetic surface can be obtained. It can be applied to the development of low-cost, light-weight and small-sized antennas, and can be applied to flat or curved structures with very thin thickness and electrically large surfaces. Because wavefront control, aperture amplitude and phase control can be performed, various applications such as gain enhancement, operating bandwidth enhancement, aperture efficiency improvement, RCS reduction, radiation control such as beam steering, and polarization control are possible. Recently, research on antennas related to metasurfaces has focused on active metasurface research such as real-time reconfiguration according to environmental changes, metasurface research with a large-scale electrically large nonlinear response, optimization of metasurface antenna design using artificial intelligence algorithms such as deep learning, and the application of 5G/6G communication using IRS(Intelligent Reflecting Surface) using metasurfaces. In this Special Issue, we would like to present research papers, short communications and review articles focusing on various studies on the improvements in the performance of antennas using metasurfaces and their use in related fields.

Prof. Dr. Ic-Pyo Hong
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • metamaterials
  • metasurface antenna
  • wavefront control
  • reconfigurable metasurface
  • intelligent reflecting surface

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

9 pages, 1857 KiB  
Article
Passive Type Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface: Measurement of Radiation Patterns
by Biswarup Rana, Sung-Sil Cho and Ic-Pyo Hong
Micromachines 2023, 14(4), 818; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi14040818 - 05 Apr 2023
Viewed by 1864
Abstract
The demand for unprecedented data and ubiquitous wireless connections have led to the adoption of new types of transmitters and receivers. Additionally, different new types of devices and technologies need to be proposed for such demand. Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is going to [...] Read more.
The demand for unprecedented data and ubiquitous wireless connections have led to the adoption of new types of transmitters and receivers. Additionally, different new types of devices and technologies need to be proposed for such demand. Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is going to play a very significant role in the upcoming beyond-5G/6G communications. It is envisioned that not only the RIS will be deployed to assist and create a smart wireless environment for the upcoming communications, but also the receiver and transmitter can be fabricated using RIS to make a smart and intelligent transmitter and receiver. Thus, the latency of upcoming communications can be reduced very significantly using RIS, which is a very important factor. Artificial intelligence assists communications and shall be adopted widely for the next generation networks. In this paper, radiation pattern measurement results of our previously published RIS have been provided. This work is the extension work of our previously proposed RIS. The polarization-independent passive type of RIS working in the sub-6 GHz frequency band using low-cost FR4-substrate was designed. Each unit cell with dimensions of 42 mm × 42 mm had a single-layer substrate backed by a copper plate. A 10 × 10-unit cell array was fabricated to check the performance of the RIS. Such types of unit cells and RIS were designed to set up initial measurement facilities in our laboratory for any kinds of RIS measurements. Full article
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14 pages, 6286 KiB  
Article
A Single-Layer Multimode Metasurface Antenna with a CPW-Fed Aperture for UWB Communication Applications
by Shu Jiang, Zhiqiang Liu, Huijun Yang and Dongquan Sun
Micromachines 2023, 14(2), 249; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi14020249 - 19 Jan 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1517
Abstract
A single-layer multimode metasurface antenna is proposed with a coplanar waveguide (CPW)-fed aperture. The ultra-wideband (UWB) performance is implemented based on a three-step evolution process with the aid of characteristic mode analysis (CMA). Considering the efficient excitation with a fixed feeding structure, the [...] Read more.
A single-layer multimode metasurface antenna is proposed with a coplanar waveguide (CPW)-fed aperture. The ultra-wideband (UWB) performance is implemented based on a three-step evolution process with the aid of characteristic mode analysis (CMA). Considering the efficient excitation with a fixed feeding structure, the metasurface modal current variation at different frequencies is analyzed and optimized, in addition to that at the resonant frequency. Correspondingly, the metasurface is firstly designed utilizing an array of 4 × 4 patches. Then, the 1 × 3 and the 1 × 1 parasitic patch arrays are located near the edge patches. Finally, every patch is split into two by a center slot along the current distribution of the required polarization. Four resonant modes of the metasurface become more desirable step by step and can be efficiently excited over the entire band. To enhance the impedance matching level, a pair of 5-stage gradient transitions are added to the CPW-fed slot. The slot mode combined with the four modes further improves the bandwidth. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed antenna exhibits a 3 dB gain bandwidth of over 74% (4.0–8.7 GHz) with a peak gain of 8.2 dBi. The overall dimensions of the prototype are 1.40λ0 × 1.40λ0 × 0.075λ0 (λ0 is the free-space wavelength at 6 GHz). Full article
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9 pages, 3296 KiB  
Article
A High Quality-Factor Optical Modulator with Hybrid Graphene-Dielectric Metasurface Based on the Quasi-Bound States in the Continuum
by Chaolong Li, Hongbo Cheng, Xin Luo, Ziqiang Cheng and Xiang Zhai
Micromachines 2022, 13(11), 1945; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi13111945 - 10 Nov 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1333
Abstract
In this paper, we combine the dielectric metasurface with monolayer graphene to realize a high quality(Q)-factor quasi-BIC-based optical modulator, and the corresponding modulation performances are investigated by using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method, which can be well fitting by the Fano formula based [...] Read more.
In this paper, we combine the dielectric metasurface with monolayer graphene to realize a high quality(Q)-factor quasi-BIC-based optical modulator, and the corresponding modulation performances are investigated by using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method, which can be well fitting by the Fano formula based on the temporal couple-mode theory. The results demonstrate that bound states in the continuum (BIC) will turn into the quasi-BIC with high Q-factor by breaking the symmetry of every unit of the metasurface. Meanwhile, the amplitude and bandwidth of transmission based on the quasi-BIC mode can be efficiently adjusted by changing the Fermi energy (EF) of monolayer graphene, and the maximum difference in transmission up to 0.92 is achieved. Moreover, we also discuss the influence of the asymmetry degree to further investigate the modulation effect of graphene on the quasi-BIC mode. Full article
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12 pages, 4768 KiB  
Article
Parameters and Measurement Techniques of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces
by Biswarup Rana, Sung-Sil Cho and Ic-Pyo Hong
Micromachines 2022, 13(11), 1841; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi13111841 - 27 Oct 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2326
Abstract
Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided wireless communications systems are one the promising wireless communication system where the wave can be guided by the RIS. It is envisioned that beyond-5G/6G communication will have a low-cost, high spectral efficiency, high energy efficiency, and smart wireless environment. [...] Read more.
Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided wireless communications systems are one the promising wireless communication system where the wave can be guided by the RIS. It is envisioned that beyond-5G/6G communication will have a low-cost, high spectral efficiency, high energy efficiency, and smart wireless environment. In this paper, initially, different measurement techniques of the RIS have been discussed, which are available in the literature. Then, a new type of RIS has been proposed. Finally, a different parameter measurement technique for our proposed RIS has been presented. A low-cost FR4 substrate with a height of 1.6 mm was considered to design the RIS in the sub-6 GHz frequency band. Another important thing is that our proposed IRS is a single-layer substrate backed by a copper plate. The area of each unit cell was 42 mm × 42 mm. The RIS was designed to operate at the central frequency of the 3.5 GHz frequency band. The novelty of the proposed RIS is that it is a polarization-independent structure. Thus, polarization-related losses can be overcome using this structure. A 10×10-unit cell array was designed to check the radiation performance. The magnitude of the reflection coefficients was measured in our laboratory for the proposed configuration. Full article
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18 pages, 9360 KiB  
Article
Design of Low-RCS Broadband High-Gain Antennas Based on Transmission Array Metasurface
by Jia Lu, Xiangyu Cao, Lili Cong, Kefeng Ji and Kun Gao
Micromachines 2022, 13(10), 1614; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi13101614 - 27 Sep 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1571
Abstract
In this paper, a low-RCS broadband high-gain antenna based on metasurface transmission array is proposed, consisting of two parts: a metasurface transmission array and a feed antenna. When designing the metasurface transmission array, the phase compensation method is used to achieve the beam [...] Read more.
In this paper, a low-RCS broadband high-gain antenna based on metasurface transmission array is proposed, consisting of two parts: a metasurface transmission array and a feed antenna. When designing the metasurface transmission array, the phase compensation method is used to achieve the beam convergence effect of metasurface in the broadband. By designing the elements and using the checkerboard arrangement, the RCS of the incident wave with fixed polarization can be reduced more than 10 dB at X band or Ku band. The feed antenna is designed as a microstrip magnetic and electric dipole antenna, which has the characteristics of small structure and wide impedance bandwidth. An antenna that can reduce RCS by more than 10 dB in Ku band is simulated and measured. The measurement and simulation results show that the −10 dB operating bandwidth of the high-gain antenna designed in this paper is 6.7~13.5 GHz, and the relative bandwidth is 67%. The designed metasurface can effectively improve the gain of the antenna in the operating frequency band. In this way, the design of high-gain antenna is realized, and the antenna has an obvious RCS reduction effect on the vertically incident y-polarized wave in the whole Ku band. The method to design an antenna in this paper realizes the regulation of radiation and scattering at the same time, which has important reference significance for expanding the function of transmission array antennae and has great application value. Full article
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