Electronically steered metasurface antenna
Michael Boyarsky, Timothy Sleasman, Mohammadreza F. Imani, Jonah N. Gollub, David R. Smith
Abstract
Mobile devices, climate science, and autonomous vehicles all require advanced microwave antennas for imaging, radar, and wireless communications. We propose a waveguide-fed metasurface antenna architecture that enables electronic beamsteering from a lightweight circuit board with varactor-tuned elements. Our approach uses a unique feed structure and layout that enables spatial sampling at the Nyquist limit of half a wavelength. We detail the design of this Nyquist metasurface antenna and experimentally demonstrate electronic beamsteering in two directions. Nyquist metasurface antennas can realize high performance without costly and power hungry phase shifters, making them a compelling technology for future antenna hardware.