Pattern Reconfigurable Antenna Applying Spoof Surface Plasmon Polaritons for Wide Angle Beam Steering

Abstract

A pattern reconfigurable antenna based on switchable spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPPs) transmission line is experimentally presented. There are two fundamental modes on traditional SSPPs transmission line, the odd mode and the even mode. In this paper, we propose the switching of fundamental modes transmitted on the SSPPs transmission line by controlling the status of three PIN diodes. As a consequence, the proposed antenna can provide a broadside radiation beam (in the even mode) and an endfire radiation beam (in the odd mode). The measured results show that for broadside radiation, the main lobe direction ranges from 56 • to 84 • within the operating band (|S 11 | < −10 dB) of 4.85-5.25 GHz, while for the endfire radiation, the main lobe points almost constantly to x-direction within 4.85-5.25 GHz. By switching the antenna working state, the proposed antenna can realize almost 84 • beam switching at 4.85 GHz. The pattern reconfigurability of this antenna with favorable performance characteristics, such as high gain, frequency scanning, low profile, and wide-angle beam switching, makes it an ideal candidate for many WLAN and satellite communication applications. INDEX TERMS Pattern reconfigurable, switchable spoof surface plasmon polaritons, wide-angle beam steering.

Plasmonics for Telecommunications Applications

“…It is worth mentioning that these electromagnetic surface modes are named spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPP) as they mimic the optical SPR properties [173,174]. Although SSPPs are used in telecommunications for several applications like antennas [175][176][177] and transmission lines [178,179], they have shown an exceptional ability for highly efficient wavelength filtering [180,181]. Other filters' approaches include hexagonal [182,183] and ring resonators [184], as the one illustrated in Figure 4c, enabling easy tuning of rejection-band at mid-infrared frequencies by simply varying the ring's radius.…”

Single-Layer High Gain Endfire Antenna Based on Spoof Surface Plasmon Polaritons

“…With periodic metal structures, such as grooves [2], holes [3], [4], slits [5], or blocks [6], the transversal magnetic surface waves can be sustained and guided. For the groundless structure and small power loss, SSPP have been used to design microwave components, such as transmission line [7], [8], power dividers [9], filters [10], [11], amplifiers [12], and antennas [13]- [24]. Since the phase mismatch with the free space, SSPP wave is highly confined to the transmission line.…”

“…As SSPP TLs are slow wave structures in which phase velocity is smaller than the speed of light, traveling wave antennas are well suited to its advantages. Several works have been demonstrated such as leaky-wave antennas [13]- [16] and endfire antennas [17]- [24].There are several types of endfire antenna, such as leaky-wave [25], Yagi-Uda [26],…”

“…Thus, it may simplify the fabrication and improve the radiation efficiency due to its groundless single-layer configuration. Previous works of SSPP endfire radiation is reported by tapering the fish-bone SSPP TLs [21]- [24]. Microstrip transition and CPW transitions are utilized to excite SSPP wave in [21] and [22]- [24] respectively.…”

High‐efficiency leaky‐wave antenna with continuous wide‐angle scanning using hybrid composite right/left handed structure

“…Some research about LWAs based on SSPP transmission line has been carried out in recent years. In Reference , a reconfigurable beam steering antenna based on SSPPs is presented. In Reference , a wide‐scanning angle LWA based on a microstrip SSPPs transmission line is presented.…”