3-D Printable Synthetic Metasurface to Realize 2-D Beam-Steering Antenna

This article presents highly radio-frequency (RF) transparent phase gradient synthetic metasurfaces made of sub-wavelength-sized 3D printable meta-atoms with tailored permittivity that cannot be achieved with off-the-shelf, commercially available materials. The synthesized meta-atoms design uses one dielectric block of PREPERM (R) ABS 1000 material with air and metallic inclusions to make low- and high-permittivity materials. The inclusions' size and height are varied to achieve a complete phase range from 0 to 360 degrees, while maintaining transmission magnitudes greater than -3.0 dB. A two-dimensional array of meta-atoms forms a metasurface, which can be used for phase-shifting structures. Such metasurfaces can manipulate RF waves by introducing progressive phase delay into array elements. The proposed meta-atoms are employed to create highly RF transparent phase-gradient metal-dielectric composite metasurfaces (MDCMs) operating at 11 GHz. These MDCMs can be implemented through 3D printed technology using low-cost thermoplastics or polymers with composite filaments and minimal human intervention. A pair of MDCMs are combined with an array of microstrip patches to demonstrate 2D beam steering functionality numerically. The antenna system provides a peak directivity of 19.9 dBi with a maximum conical scanning angle of 114 degrees and a directivity variation of less than 3 dB.