Dual circularly polarized Fabry-Perot antenna with metamaterial-based corner reflector for high gain and high aperture efficiency

Abstract

Based on the ray-tracing model, a new method of achieving a high gain and high aperture efficiency Fabry-Perot antenna with metamaterial-based corner reflector is proposed. The proposed Fabry-Perot antenna is composed of a dual circularly polarized patch antenna feed and the metamaterial-based corner reflector. The metamaterial-based corner reflector consists of four phase correction metasurfaces and a partially reflective surface. First, theory and analysis of the Fabry-Perot antenna with metamaterial-based corner reflector are presented. Then, the performances of the dual circularly polarized antenna feed, the traditional Fabry-Perot antenna, and the Fabry-Perot antenna with metamaterial-based corner reflector are compared among each other and analyzed. Finally, the proposed Fabry-Perot antenna is fabricated and measured. The measured left-hand circular polarization (LHCP) gain and the measured right-hand circular polarization (RHCP) gain of the proposed Fabry-Perot antenna are 21.4 dBi and 21.3 dBi, respectively. Comparing with the antenna feed, the LHCP gain and RHCP gain of the proposed Fabry-Perot antenna are enhanced by 16.4 dB and 16.3 dB, respectively. Compared with the traditional Fabry-Perot antenna, the metamaterial-based corner reflector acts as both a reflection surface and a phase correction surface. It manipulates the propagation direction and phase of electromagnetic wave. The proposed Fabry-Perot antenna with high gain, high aperture efficiency and low sidelobe at 2.8 GHz paves the way for developing the solar radio telescope and conducting the observation.