Near-Field Angular Scan Enhancement of Antenna Arrays Using Metasurfaces

Abstract

In this publication, we continue our previous work on extending the angular scan range of phased arrays using metasurfaces. We consider in detail scan enhancement using a single metasurface lens in the near-field of a source and provide analytical expressions for source excitation to obtain a desired beam. We show that such a device suffers from the same directivity degradation as in the case of far-field lens placement. Moreover, we discuss in detail that this approach has limitations, and one cannot place the lens arbitrarily close to the source array. We then propose a two-lens near-field scan enhancer which is not subject to the same limitations, although still subject to the same directivity degradation. Finally, we propose a binary metasurface concept which theoretically achieves desired scan enhancement without directivity degradation. Some theoretical claims are then verified via full-field simulations.