Abstract
Near-Field Meta-Steering (NFMS) is a constantly evolving and progressively emerging novel antenna beam-steering technology that involves an elegant assembly of a base antenna and a pair of Phase-Gradient Metasurfaces (PGMs) placed in the near-field region of the antenna aperture. The upper PGM in an NFMS system receives an oblique incidence from the lower PGM at all times, a fact that is ignored in the traditional design process of upper metasurfaces. This work proposes an accurate optimization method for metasurfaces in NFMS systems to reduce signal leakage by suppressing the grating lobes and side lobes that are innate artifacts of beam-steering. We detail the design and optimization approach for both upper and lower metasurface. Compared to the conventionally optimized compact 2D steering system, the proposed system exhibits higher directivity and lower side-lobe and grating lobe levels within the entire scanning range. The broadside directivity is 1.4 dB higher, and the side-lobe level is 4 dB lower in comparison. The beam-steering patterns for the proposed 2D compact design are experimentally validated, and the measured and predicted results are in excellent concurrence. The versatile compatibility of truncated PGMs with a low gain antenna makes it a compelling technology for wireless backhaul mesh networks and future antenna hardware.
Highlights
Near-Field Meta-Steering (NFMS) is a constantly evolving and progressively emerging novel antenna beam-steering technology that involves an elegant assembly of a base antenna and a pair of PhaseGradient Metasurfaces (PGMs) placed in the near-field region of the antenna aperture
System-II comprises of compact resonant cavity antennas (RCAs) and a pair of optimized PGMs where upper PGM is optimized for oblique incidence and lower PGM is optimized for normal incidence
For System-II, the directivity changes from 17.8 dBi, to 14.3 dBi, 14.9 dBi, and 15 dBi, and the side-lobe level changes from −14.2 dB to −9.1 dB, −8.9 dB, and −12.3 dB, when the beam is steered to elevation angles 13◦, 30◦ and 35◦, respectively
Summary
Near-Field Meta-Steering (NFMS) is a constantly evolving and progressively emerging novel antenna beam-steering technology that involves an elegant assembly of a base antenna and a pair of PhaseGradient Metasurfaces (PGMs) placed in the near-field region of the antenna aperture. The mobile backhaul technology, primarily used to feed massive data to the end-users, connects the network hub to the base stations wirelessly It is the most cost-effective and versatile solution to connect 5G base stations to the core network to enable flexible and easy installation of base stations in ad-hoc networks, supporting large crowd gatherings such as concerts and sports events. A medium/high-gain 2D beam-steering-enabled antenna system with a planar profile is desirable to ease the deployment and cope with the wind-induced movements in the lampposts and other 5G small cell installation sites. These antennas must have the ability to transmit and/or receive in any arbitrary direction within a large conical region.
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