Effect of inter-element spacings variation on the performance of linear grounded frequency selective surface arrays in W-band

This article examines the issue of extending the inter-element spacing between slots of equally-spaced linear grounded frequency selective surface (FSS) arrays with spacing beyond half a wavelength in W-band (75–110 GHz). We present the design, processing, and testing of W-band grounded FSS arrays with different inter-element spacings along transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) field directions separately. The comparison of periodicity changing effects along TE and TM field directions has been reported. The inter-element spacing versus phase curves demonstrate that in some extent the inter-element spacing can be a phase optimization parameter for complex array design. We fabricated the corresponding FSS arrays on quartz substrate with photolithographic etching technique, and characterized the vector S-parameters with a free space MVNA. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 52: 155–160, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24848