A metamaterial photonic bandgap (MTM-PBG) periodic structure is used as a decoupling frame to improve the isolation between transmit-receive (T/R) sections of densely packed array antenna in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. With this technique the MTM-PBG structure is shown to effectively suppress surface wave propagations between the T/R array antennas by an average of 12 dB. MTM-PBG layer comprises a periodic arrangement of dielectric circles etched in the cross-shaped microstrip frame that is inserted between the radiating elements. Unlike other recently reported methods, the advantages of the proposed technique are: (i) simplicity; (ii) cost effectiveness as there is no need for short-circuited via-holes or 3D metal walls; and (iii) can be retrofitted in existing array antennas. The proposed T/R array antennas were designed to operate over an arbitrary frequency range (9.25-11 GHz) with a fractional bandwidth (FBW) of 17.28%. With this technique (i) the side-lobes are reduced; (ii) there is minimal effect on the gain performance; and (iii) the minimum edge-to-edge gap between adjacent radiating elements can be reduced to 0.15 at 9.25 GHz.

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Presented here is a reactively loaded microstrip transmission line that exhibit an ultra-wide bandgap. The reactive loading is periodically distributed along the transmission line, which is electromagnetically coupled. The reactive load consists of a circular shaped patch which is converted to a metamaterial structure by embedded on it two concentric slit-rings. The patch is connected to the ground plane with a via-hole. The resulting structure exhibits electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) properties. The size and gap between the slit-rings dictate the magnitude of the reactive loading. The structure was first theoretically modelled to gain insight of the characterizing parameters. The equivalent circuit was verified using a full-wave 3D electromagnetic (EM) solver. The measured results show the proposed EBG structure has a highly sharp 3-dB skirt and a very wide bandgap, which is substantially larger than any EBG structure reported to date. The bandgap rejection of the single EBG unit-cell is better than − 30 dB, and the five element EBG unit-cell is better than − 90 dB. The innovation can be used in various applications such as biomedical applications that are requiring sharp roll-off rates and high stopband rejection thus enabling efficient use of the EM spectrum. This can reduce guard band and thereby increase the channel capacity of wireless systems.