Design and Synthesis of Multilayer Frequency Selective Surface Based on Antenna-Filter-Antenna Using Minkowski Fractal Structures

A multilayer frequency selective surface (FSS) with subwavelength fractal elements based on the antenna-filter-antenna (AFA) concept is proposed in this paper. The upper fractal patches are inductive and non-resonant, and the fractal slots on the ground provide a capacitance. The thin substrate is equivalent to a transformer and some resonant modes are produced. Multiple transmission poles are obtained by cascading multilayer two-dimensional periodic structure array of the fractal patches and slots on the ground. The cell periods along x and y directions are the same and the total height is 8 mm, and the fractional bandwidth reaches 30% at normal incidence. To analyze and understand the operating mechanism of the FSS, the equivalent circuit model (ECM) is proposed to analyze the transmission and reflection characteristics. The results of the synthesis from ECM agree well with the results of full-wave simulation. The multilayer AFA-FSS has been manufactured and measured to verify the effectiveness and correctness of the design and synthesis. The simulated results are in good agreement with the tested ones.