Synthesis of modulated-metasurface antennas with amplitude, phase, and polarization control

An effective synthesis procedure for planar antennas realized with nonuniform metasurfaces (MTSs) excited by a point source is presented. This synthesis potentiates previous formulations by introducing a control of the amplitude of the aperture field while improving the polarization and phase performances. The class of MTS antennas we are dealing with is realized by using subwavelength patches of different dimensions printed on a grounded slab, illuminated by a transverse magnetic point source. These antennas are based on the interaction between a cylindrical surface-wave and the periodic modulation of the MTS, which leads to radiation through a leaky-wave (LW) effect. This new design method permits a systematic and simple synthesis of amplitude, phase, and polarization of the aperture field by designing the boundary conditions imposed by the MTS. The polarization control is based on the local value of the MTS anisotropy, the phase is controlled by the shape and periodicity of the modulation, and the amplitude is controlled by the local leakage attenuation parameter of the LW. The synthesis is based on analytical formulas derived by an adiabatic Floquet-wave expansion of currents and fields over the surface, which are simultaneously published in this journal issue. The effectiveness of the procedure is tested through several numerical examples involving realistic structures.