Quasi-Optical Excitation of a Circularly-Polarized Metasurface Antenna at K-band

Jorge Ruiz-Garcia (1) , M. Faenzi (1) , A. Mahmoud (1) , Mauro Ettorre (1) , Patrick Potier (2) , Philippe Pouliguen (3) , Ronan Sauleau (1) , D. Gonzalez-Ovejero (1)

1 IETR - Institut d'Électronique et des Technologies du numéRique
2 DGA - Délégation générale de l'armement
3 Direction générale de l'Armement (DGA)

This paper presents a new concept of modulated metasurface (MTS) antenna for satellite communications. As opposed to using cylindrical surface waves (SW) to excite circular apertures, we employ a quasi-optical beamformer to launch a plane SW. This architecture enables an efficient illumination of rectangular apertures. In addition, the use of anisotropic MTS elements allows us to obtain circularly-polarized beams with excellent characteristics in terms of cross-polarization discrimination. We present the design process of a prototype at K-band and the obtained simulation results, which prove the suitability of this antenna for satellite data links. © 2020 EurAAP.

Mots clés: circular polarization; CubeSats; leaky waves; Metasurface antennas; satellite communications

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

Jorge Ruiz-Garcia, M. Faenzi, A. Mahmoud, Mauro Ettorre, Patrick Potier, et al.. Quasi-Optical Excitation of a Circularly-Polarized Metasurface Antenna at K-band. 14th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, EuCAP 2020, Mar 2020, Copenhagen, Denmark. pp.9135303, ⟨10.23919/EuCAP48036.2020.9135303⟩. ⟨hal-02931846⟩