Circularly Polarized FP Resonator Antenna With 360° Beam-Steering

Abstract

A high gain circularly polarized Fabry–Perot (FP) resonator antenna with 360° beam steering property is presented in this communication. A linear to circular polarization conversion metasurface (PCM) based on a receiver–transmitter unit cell is designed to act as the partially reflecting surface (PRS) of the FP resonator antenna. The transmission phase of the unit cell can be tuned by rotating the radiator and transmission phase shift of the unit cell equal to the rotation angle of the radiator, indicating that the transmission phase varies over a range of 360°. Then, by manipulating the transmission phase of unit cells on the metasurface (MS), the antenna can realize 360° beam steering with an angle tilted range of 0°–75°. To further enhance the antenna performance, the compensatory transmission phase is added to each unit cell on the MS, which can make the antenna obtain higher gain while realizing tilted beam. The measured results of the fabricated antennas imply the feasibility of this design. The proposed MS provides a novel method to realize beam steering of the circularly polarized FP resonator antenna.