CMA-Based Metasurface-Based Circularly Polarized Patch Antenna for SATCOM Applications

This paper proposes the metasurface (MTS)based circularly polarized (CP) stacked-patch antenna for satellite wireless communications. The characteristic mode analysis (CMA) was utilized to characterize the antenna configuration. The proposed antenna consisted of three-layer FR-4 substrates. The upper-layer substrate contained cross-shaped structure of a periodic MTS unit cells. The middle- and lower-layer substrates consisted of cross-slot ground plane and sequentially-rotated microstrip feed line, respectively. The cross-shaped structure of MTS unit cells evolved from the 4 $\times$ 4 periodic square-shaped conventional MTS unit cells for impedance bandwidth improvement. Besides, the cross-slot ground plane with sequentially-rotated microstrip feed line generated the two orthogonal modes at 5 GHz and 5.3 GHz for CP radiation. The simulated IBW and ARBW at 5 GHz (center frequency) were 29.8% (4.8-6.29 GHz) and 12% (4.8-5.4 GHz). The maximum gain at 5.4 GHz was 5.8 dBic. The radiation characteristic was left-hand circular polarization.