Electronically Steered Nyquist Metasurface Antenna

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel Nyquist metasurface antenna that enables electronic beam steering using a passive, lightweight circuit with varactor elements, avoiding costly phase shifters and enabling efficient, compact antenna systems.

Contribution

The paper presents a new Nyquist metasurface design for electronically steerable antennas that simplifies construction and reduces power consumption compared to traditional phased array antennas.

Findings

Successfully demonstrated electronic beam steering in two directions

Achieved high performance without costly phase shifters

Validated design through experimental measurements

Abstract

Mobile devices, climate science, and autonomous vehicles all require advanced microwave antennas for imaging, radar, and wireless communications. The cost, size, and power consumption of existing technology, however, has hindered the ubiquity of electronically steered systems. Here, we propose a metasurface antenna design paradigm that enables electronic beamsteering from a passive lightweight circuit board with varactor-tuned elements. Distinct from previous metasurfaces (which require dense element spacing), the proposed design uses Nyquist spatial sampling of half a wavelength. We detail the design of this Nyquist metasurface antenna and experimentally validate its ability to electronically steer 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.