DRA-Fed Broadband Metasurface Antennas Using

Characteristic Mode Analysis

Yonghui Qiu, Zibin Weng, Jianfeng Liu and Bo He
National Key Laboratory of Antennas and Microwave Technology, Xidian University, Xi’an 710071, China
[email protected]

Abstract-A metasurface antenna fed by rectangular dielectric With aid of characteristic mode analysis of MTS [10], this
resonator antenna is proposed for broadband application with paper presents a novel feeding method by using the TExδ11
reduced backward radiation. The feasibility of proposed feeding
structure is verified by using characteristic mode analysis. A mode of rectangular DRA. The proposed antenna has the
dominate mode of metasurface and the TExδ11 mode of DRA both advantages of reduced back radiation and simple feeding
with a broadside radiation pattern are simultaneously excited to structure.
widen impedance bandwidth. The simulation achieves a 29.7%
impedance bandwidth of 4.67-6.30 GHz for |S11|< -10 dB and a
boresight gain of 6-9 dBi over the operating bandwidth. II. DESIGN AND SIMULATION RESULTS
Index Terms-metasurface (MTS), broadband, dielectric A. Geometry and configuration of proposed antenna
resonator antenna (DRA), characteristic mode analysis (CMA).
W
I. INTRODUCTION
Patches
Metasurface (MTS) has exhibited predominant performance a
DRA
in broadening bandwidth and reducing profile for antenna d W Y
Probe
design. Taking advantages of low profile and multimode Flat metal strip

radiation of MTS, the bandwidth of patch antenna has been g

p
enhanced while maintaining low profile [1], [2]. The Substrate
Ground plane
metasurface antenna has also been used to achieve Z X
polarization and frequency reconfiguration [3], [4]. In (a)3-D view (b)Top view
W0
summary, the metasurface antenna has been found
increasingly wide application in planar antenna design. b
L0
There are various feeding schemes for MTS to choose. L1 T
Current feeding solutions can mainly be classified into two X
categories. One is to introduce a magnetic current at the (c)Side view
maximum H-field by etching a narrow slot on MTS to excite
the orthogonal oriented modal currents on MTS. To further Figure 1. Configuration of the proposed antenna
excite the narrow slot, a longer slot oriented in the same TABLE I
direction on ground [5] or a coaxial probe located at the null SUMMARY OF ANTENNA GEOMETRY
of E-field [6] is needed. Etching slot on ground is simple in Symbol Quantity Value(mm)
L0 Length of flat metal strip 7.4
feeding but has strong back radiation. And using coaxial probe L1 Probe length 4.5
as feeding has a simple structure and reduced back radiation, W0 width of flat metal strip 2
whereas coaxial probe needs to penetrate substrate and patch. a Length of rectangular DRA 14
The other one is to employ an electric current as the excitation b Height of rectangular DRA 8.235
d Width of rectangular DRA 8.235
for the same orientated modal currents on MTS in the way of W Width of ground plane and substrate 45.1
suspending a paralleled dipole above MTS [7] or printing p Periodicity of unit cell 8.7
coplanar dipoles onto MTS [8],which has a lower back g Width of gap on metasurface 0.8
radiation. And it is indispensable for dipole to design a T Thickness of substrate 3.048
differential feeding network.
As illustrated in Fig. 1, the proposed antenna is composed
For employing a magnetic current to excite metasurface
of a rectangular DRA (εr=9.8) mounted on ground plane and
antenna, an alternative is to use the TExδ11 mode of DRA [9],
the rounding metasurface. The metasurface comprises an array
which does not need to etch slot on ground. Consequently,
of 4×3 patch cells with a periodicity of p=8.7 mm and a gap
lower back radiation can be realized. In addition, to excite the
width of g=0.8 mm. For the placement of rectangular DRA,
TExδ11 mode of DRA, all the excitation need is just a coaxial
the center two patches of metasurface and its corresponding
probe, which is easy and effective.

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substrate in this region are removed, coming into being a 6.7 GHz; (c) 8.2 GHz
cuboid shaped groove. Metasurface is implemented on a 3.048
mm thick RO4003C substrate (εr=3.55, tanδ=0.0027). The flat Y
metal strip depicted in Fig. 1 can be used to improve matching. X
All the variables and each corresponding value are listed in
Table I. (a) (b) (c)
Figure 5. Currents distribution over the metasurface (a) 6.0 GHz; (b) 6.7 GHz;
B. Characteristic mode analysis of metasurface (c) 8.2 GHz
The results of CMA are obtained by using multilayer solver
of CST MWS. Without feeding, the modal significance of first
ten modes of the metasurface are depicted in Fig. 2. And Fig 3
plots modal currents of the first 6 modes at 7.3 GHz and each
corresponding radiation pattern. As shown in Fig 3, J1 and J5
mode are fundamental orthogonal mode pairs with the
in-phase currents over the metasurface, both with broadside Figure 6. Radiation patterns of proposed antenna: (a) 6.0 GHz; (b) 6.7 GHz; (c)
radiation patterns. Accordingly, the rest modes can be 8.2 GHz
attributed to unwanted modes because of their out-of-phase The E-fields of single rectangular DRA without metasurface
currents and radiation nulls at boresight. at 6.0 GHz (TExδ11 mode), 6.7 GHz (TExδ,1+δ,1 mode), 8.2 GHz
Here we choose J1 mode to excite. For broadside (TE xδ21 mode) are shown in Figure 4(a), (b) and (c),
y-polarized radiation, it is desired that only J1 can be respectively. As can be seen from Figure 4, with frequency
selectively excited. And it needs currents in the y direction or rising, E-fields of DRA changes. As illustrated in Figure 5 (c),
x oriented magnetic current as excitation. As shown in Figure the anti-phase E-fields of undesired TE xδ21 mode leads to
1 (c), upon locating the probe and flat metal strip at origin out-of-phase current across metasurface. In this case, both
along x axis, we can obtain the TExδ11 mode of DRA. This DRA and metasurface generate a null at boresight. Thus, a
mode can be equivalent to a magnetic current along the x axis null at broadside (Figure 6 (c)) is observed.
on ground [9]. As a consequence, a rectangular DRA (TExδ11 Besides, as displayed in Figure 4 (b), the transitional mode
mode) can provide pure y-polarization. So it can serve as the of DRA (TE xδ,1+δ,1 mode) can be equivalent to a magnetic
excitation for y-oriented J1 mode while suppressing other current deviating from the origin. As a result, this mode will
undesired modes. destroy the symmetry of currents distribution on metasurface
(Figure 5 (b)), thus destroying the symmetry of radiation
pattern in the y direction (Figure 6 (b)).
Therefore, only in pure TE xδ11 mode of DRA can we
successfully excite in-phase and symmetrically distributed
currents across the metasurface. In other words, the operating
frequency range for TExδ11 mode should cover the resonant
frequency of J1 mode by properly adjusting the width and
Figure 2. Modal significance of the metasurface without feeding height of the flat metal strip, the height of probe and the size
of DRA. Due to the presence of DRA located in center groove
and the effect of adjusting matching, the resonant point of J1
mode is shifted to 6 GHz (Figure 7), within the operating
frequency range of the TExδ11 mode of 4.8 GHz-6.5 GHz. So
the J1 mode can be excited by DRA operating at the TExδ11
mode. And what is shown in Figure 5 (a) and Figure 6 (a)
confirms y-oriented in-phase J1 mode is indeed excited at 6
J1 J2 J3 J4 J5 J6 GHz. So the availability of this feeding scheme is verified.

Figure 3. Modal currents and radiation patterns of the metasurface without

D. Simulation results
feeding at 7.3 GHz Comparing the simulated |S11| of proposed antenna loading
metasurface and the same DRA without metasurface, it is
C. Analysis of the metasurface with feeding structure
apparent that the new resonant point around 6 GHz is
introduced by metasurface. Moreover, the resonant point of
Z metasurface can be verified as the J1 mode of metasurface
Y through comparing currents distributions in Figure 5 (a) with
the modal currents in Figure 3. As confirmed in Figure 7, the
M M M M
(a) (b) (c) J1 mode of metasurface and the TE xδ11 mode of DRA are
Figure 4. E-fields of the single rectangular DRA at Y-Z plane: (a) 6.0 GHz; (b) excited simultaneously, leading to broadband operation. The

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simulated 10-dB impedance bandwidth is 4.67-6.30 GHz with slightly grow because neither TExδ11 mode of DRA nor J1
(29.7%). And 6-9 dBi simulated boresight gain over operating mode of metasurface is excited. Beginning from 5 GHz, the
band (Figure 7) is realized. And indicated by Figure 8, the TExδ11 mode starts taking charge of the increasement of gain
broadside radiation patterns with a back lobe level below -15 with a moderately ascent observed from Figure 7. From 6
dBi over operating band is achieved. Thanks to highly pure GHz to 6.3 GHz, both the in-phase J1 mode and the TExδ11
polarization from TE xδ11 mode and J1 mode, the simulated mode are simultaneously working, which contributes
cross-polarization at boresight is below -30 dB over operating significantly to the gain enhancement indicated by a steep
band. rising in this curve. However, there is a dramatically drop after
0 6.5 GHz because of the transition from the TExδ11 mode to the
8
-10 TExδ21 mode. And the TExδ21 mode has an out-of-phase E-fields
TEδ11
6 distribution and cause anti-phase currents over metasurface,
|S11|(dB)

Gain（ dBi）

-20
4 which leads to a null in broadside radiation patterns.
-30
TE δ11
-40
2
proposed antenna
DRA without metasurface J1 mode III. CONCLUSION
-50 0
4 5
Freq [GHz]
6 7 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0
Freq [GHz]
6.5 7.0 A broadband metasurface antenna fed by DRA utilizing two
Figure 7. Simulated | | and boresight gain modes has been proposed. The bandwidth enhancement is
obtained by simultaneously exciting the TExδ11 mode of DRA
and the J1 mode of metasurface. Instructed explicitly by
characteristic mode theory, the mechanism of this feeding
method employing DRA as excitation for meatasurface has
been validated. The simulation results from HFSS agree well
with the prediction of characteristic mode analysis from CST.
In summary, the proposed DRA-fed antenna achieves broad
bandwidth, simple feeding structure and low backward
radiation.
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