Investigation of Using High Impedance Surfaces for Wide-Angle Scanning Arrays

Abstract

In this paper, an eight-element linear array is proposed and experimentally studied to illustrate the potential of using high impedance surfaces (HISs) for wide-angle scanning applications. An HIS-based horizontal wire antenna with a broad-beam radiation pattern is implemented as the individual radiating elements of the proposed array. The working mechanism of the HIS-based array is investigated as well. The rectangular-mushroom HIS, operating in surface-wave band, contributes to the broad-beam radiation of the individual antenna element as well as the wide scan performance of the array. Measured results show that with uniform magnitude and progressive phase excitation, the array performs a wide scan angle up to 85° in the elevation plane and a realized gain varying from 13.1 to 10.1 dBi. Meanwhile, the side lobe levels (SLLs) are generally less than $-10\;\mathbf{dB}$ over the entire scan region. Good agreement is obtained between the measurements and the simulations.