Wideband single-feed dual circularly polarized multi-beam transmitarray antenna based on receiver–transmitter metasurface

Abstract

In this paper, a novel metasurface (MS) as well as a generalized dual-circular-polarized (CP) decoupled modulating method are proposed. The proposed MS can realize high-efficiency dual-spin transmissions with equal-magnitude upon left handed circular polarization (LCP) incidence across 9–12.5 GHz. This MS is constructed based on the receiver–transmitter configuration, and the receiver layer composed of an LCP patch resonator while the transmitter layer is a linearly polarized patch resonator. Rotating the receiver and transmitter patches separately can impose identical and conjugated geometric phase modulations for the dual-CP transmission waves, respectively. Hence, through an elaborate combination of the dual geometric phases, totally decoupled and dispersion-less phase modulations for transmitted dual-spin waves can be obtained. As the proof of its uses in practical applications, we have designed a single-feed dual-CP dual-beam transmitarray antenna (TA) and a dual-CP quad-beam TA. The second TA is also fabricated and tested. The measured results are consistent with the simulated results, showing that the TA achieves peak aperture efficiency of 49% at 9.5 GHz, with 1 dB gain bandwidths (BWs) of the dual-CP quad-beams all larger than 24.5% while 3 dB axial ratio BWs all larger than 54.5%. The proposed wideband and high-gain dual-CP multi-beam TAs may have promising prospects for many applications such as vehicle-satellite communication systems, satellite broadcasting and coverage systems.