A Beam-Split Metasurface Antenna for 5G Applications

Abstract

This article presents a hybrid metasurface split beam antenna for fifth-generation (5G) mobile applications at 3.5 GHz. Multi-beam antennas with high directivity are required for a 5G mobile network. It can be achieved by having an array antenna. Using an antenna array at low frequency increases the complexity and size of the whole network. Therefore, a metasurface (MS) is proposed to direct surface current and to have high gain and multibeam properties. To achieve that, a square split ring resonator (SSRR) and U-shaped unit cell metasurface is implemented as a superstrate to a single square patch antenna. The manipulation of this hybrid metasurface configuration can create opposite current flow on the unit cell and thus split the beam. The hybrid metasurface superstrate and antenna are fabricated on FR-4 (εr = 4.4, tanδ = 0.02). Results show that the antenna resonates well at 3.5 GHz, with a less than −10 dB reflection coefficient. The arrangement of the unit cells on the superstrate metasurface is able to split the current, and thus the radiation pattern beam is split into two beams in the E-plane at ± 45 • . This antenna is a good candidate for future 5G Pico cell base stations in urban or suburban areas with high capacity and interferences.

Evaluating the Impact of Geometric Dimensions of a Multi-Split Ring Resonator

“…The medium's complex permittivity (ε) and permeability (μ) is extracted using Equations ( 5) through ( 8) from Sparameter amount [13].…”

A Low-Cost Multibeam Switching Antenna Using Reconfigurable Hybrid Metasurface for Beamforming Applications

“…To further illustrate the advantages of the proposed multibeam switching antenna, the comparisons with the multibeam antennas based on metasurfaces are listed in Table 2 . The antenna presented in [ 15 ] with a smaller size achieves two beams of radiation, but it cannot switch beams. Antennas using multiple ports to achieve multiple beams were proposed [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ], but they can only achieve one beam at the same time, and the real-time switching of different ports is relatively complex.…”

“…For compact and low-cost multibeam antennas based on metasurfaces, hybrid metasurfaces are a promising choice. As presented in [ 15 ], a hybrid metasurface with a split-ring resonator and U-shaped unit cell is adopted to split a beam. A hybrid digital coding metasurface consisting of a series of I-shaped structures was proposed in [ 16 ] to independently manipulate surface waves and spatially propagating waves.…”

Inverse design of two-function transmission-type reconfigurable polarization control metasurfaces based on deep learning

“…Electromagnetic waves can be converted from one polarization state to another by a polarization converter. It has good application prospects in fields such as communication [1][2][3], remote sensing, medicine [4], and surface plasmon resonance [5]. Compared to traditional ferrite polarization converters, polarization converters made of metamaterials/metasurfaces have advantages such as lightweight, low cost, and flexible design.…”