Wideband Wide-Angle Scanning Phased Array Based on Miniaturized Metasurface Antenna

Wideband wide-angle scanning metasurface phased arrays are studied in this paper. To ensure grating lobe free across the entire operation frequency band and within a wide beam scanning range, a novel metasurface antenna miniaturization method based on metasurface dispersion characteristic analysis is firstly proposed. Unique metasurface dispersion curves with width independent and high slop characteristics are utilized to miniaturize metasurface antenna. Compact radiating aperture of 0.38λh×0.42λh and impedance bandwidth of 30.1% with broadside radiation are achieved, where λh is the free space wavelength of the highest operation frequency. Subsequently, the proposed miniaturized metasurface elements are applied to construct linear and two-dimensional phased arrays to study their wide-angle beam scanning performance across the entire operation frequency band. Scanning blindness elimination and backward radiation suppression issues are discussed and addressed in arrays. Finally, proof of concept prototypes of two eight-element H-plane, E-plane linear phased arrays and an 8×8 two-dimensional phased array achieve ±60° beam scanning range across the entire operation frequency band of more than 22% bandwidth.