Metasurface-Driven Beam Steering Antenna for Satellite Communications

A metasurface-driven 3D beam-scanning (elevation, azimuth or both) antenna solution is presented in this paper. A pair of novel phase gradient metallic metasurfaces (PGMMs) is designed using the near-electric field phase transformation method operating in the Ku-band. Rotating PGMMs independently atop a static, fixed beam base antenna will enable wide-angle beam-steering in both azimuth and elevation planes. A prototype is made and tested to validate the predicted results. The measured results exhibit excellent beam scanning performance with the highest elevation angle of ±38° and a full 360° in the azimuth. This beam-steering approach does not rely on active radio-frequency components. Moreover, the proposed metasurface obviates costly dielectrics, reducing additional cost and weight, and is suitable for stressed environmental conditions such as high-power systems and inter-satellite or deep-space communication systems.