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The design of an efficient, metamaterial-based reflector antenna capable of operation at high power is presented. Metamaterial unit cells are comprised of end-loaded dipoles (ELDs) with capacitive lumped elements at their center. Enhanced power handling is realized by mitigating field enhancement through rounded edges and using appropriate high voltage capacitors as loads. The metamaterial is designed to have discrete, configurable reflection phase through choice of capacitor on the ELDs. Unit cells are fabricated and patterned to a square, flat reflector surface and configured for broadside reflection with an offset-fed horn antenna. Simulated and measured radiation patterns of the complete antenna system are presented with excellent agreement. High-power testing verifies the ability of the metasurface to withstand extreme incident electric field strengths. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Metasurfaces and metamaterials have been explored extensively in recent years for their ability to enable a variety of innovative microwave devices. However, because their exotic properties often arise from resonant structures, the large field enhancements under high-power microwave illumination can lead to dielectric breakdown and damage to the device. In order to develop metasurfaces and metamaterials capable of being utilized in high-power microwave applications, this paper investigates techniques for reducing the maximum field enhancement factor (MFEF) in several types of structures from the literature. Starting with a simple Sievenpiper metasurface, this paper evaluates the dependence of MFEF on the structure design parameters. For more complex metasurface geometries, a genetic algorithm is demonstrated that can evolve structures that have minimal MFEF. In addition, negative-index and low-index metamaterials are evaluated for field enhancement. By optimizing for low loss and by operating in the resonance tails, metamaterials with low MFEF can be realized for high-power applications. To illustrate this, a quad-beam focusing metamaterial lens is presented with an MFEF less than 5 over the entire operating band. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on the detailed design and experimental demonstration of a metamaterial-enabled low-sidelobe horn antenna (metahorn) based on principles similar to those of earlier soft horn antennas. The target application is a linearly polarized feed horn in the super-extended C-band (3.4–6.725 GHz) for communication satellite reflector antennas. The paper describes the detailed design and manufacturing of the E-plane metamaterial liner (metaliner) based on a freestanding wire grid without the need for a dielectric substrate material. The measured copolarized and cross-polarized antenna patterns from the feed horn demonstrate over an octave pattern bandwidth with negligible loss. The results show similar bandwidth with lower sidelobes and backlobes than those of the trifurcated horn that is currently used as the standard C-band feed for single linear polarization. This demonstration shows promise for lightweight metamaterial horns to replace heavy and expensive C-band corrugated horns. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Metamaterial surfaces (metasurfaces) with a low effective index of refraction have been recently proposed for application in the design of hybrid-mode horn antennas, such as soft and hard horns. Here we explore designs of several metasurfaces and their use as liners for coating the interior walls of horn antennas. The design process combines the genetic algorithm optimization technique with a full-wave electromagnetic solver to create dispersion-engineered metamaterials that possess customized surface impedance properties. A metamaterial parameter extraction technique is developed and employed in the optimization process, which is based on the surface impedance expressions for a homogeneous slab backed by a perfectly conducting ground plane illuminated at near grazing incidence. The optimized metasurface is found to be equivalent to a low index metamaterial with a dispersion that can improve the performance of conventional horn antennas over the entire K_u-band while introducing negligible losses. We conclude with a numerical study of a conical horn antenna whose interior is lined with a low index metasurface. The far-field radiation patterns and aperture field distributions confirm hybrid-mode operation over a wide bandwidth, validating the proposed metasurface design methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Metamaterials provide an unprecedented ability to manipulate electromagnetic waves and are an enabling technology for new devices ranging from flat lenses that focus light beyond the diffraction limit to coatings capable of cloaking an object. Nevertheless, narrow bandwidths and high intrinsic losses arising from the resonant properties of metamaterials have raised doubts about their usefulness. New design approaches seek to turn the perceived disadvantages of dispersion into assets that enhance a device's performance. Here we employ dispersion engineering of metamaterial properties to enable specific device performance over usable bandwidths. In particular, we design metamaterials that considerably improve conventional horn antennas over greater than an octave bandwidth with negligible loss and advance the state of the art in the process. Fabrication and measurement of a metahorn confirm its broadband, low-loss performance. This example illustrates the power of clever implementation combined with dispersion engineering to bring metamaterials into their full potential for revolutionizing practical devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]