Circularly Polarized Double-Folded Transmitarray Antenna Based on Receiver-Transmitter Metasurface

In this communication, a circularly polarized (CP) double-folded transmitarray antenna (DFTA) is proposed and experimentally verified for the first time in the open literature. It is designed based on a receiver-transmitter metasurface (RTMS) and a polarization rotating (PR) metasurface (MS). A linearly polarized (LP) patch antenna is integrated on the RTMS instead of a horn antenna to feed the DFTA. Through double-folded reflecting, twice PR, LP wave receiving, CP wave transmitting, and transmission phase manipulating, the LP spherical wave from the feed is transformed into the high-gain pencil-shaped CP beam. The strategies innovatively break the restriction that the previous folded reflectarray (FRA) and folded transmitarray (FTA) antennas are only LP. Moreover, the double-folded design further reduces the antenna profile to about 1/4 of the focal length. The simulation and experiment results are in good agreement, which exhibits a peak gain of 21.8 dBic at 9.8 GHz and a maximum aperture efficiency of 40%. Meanwhile, the DFTA obtains a -1 dB gain bandwidth of 6% (9.6-10.2 GHz), in which the axial ratio is lower than 1.5 dB.

Automated summary

This paper proposes and experimentally verifies a circularly polarized double-folded transmitarray antenna for the first time, achieving the transformation of linearly polarized spherical waves into high-gain pencil-shaped circularly polarized beams. The innovative design strategies break the limitation of previous antennas and significantly reduce the antenna profile.