A metamaterial with applications in broad band antennas used in radio astronomy and satellite communications

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel meta-ring based metamaterial for broad band antennas, demonstrating its potential to enhance performance in radio astronomy and satellite communications through laboratory fabrication and testing.

Contribution

It presents an innovative meta-ring design with high manufacturability, leading to a meta-horn antenna that improves key performance metrics over an octave bandwidth.

Findings

Excellent cross-polarization performance

Reduced side-lobe level and return-loss

Enhanced gain across octave bandwidth

Abstract

Electromagnetic metamaterials at microwave frequencies are well established in industry and research. Recent work has shown how a specific kind of metallic metamaterial can contribute towards improving the performance of the feedhorn antennas used in radio astronomy and satellite telecommunications. In this article, we justify this argument, finding an innovative type of meta-ring of remarkable manufacturability with a potential to improve the state of the art in these fields. A pioneering meta-horn antenna formed of meta-rings is then fabricated and characterized in the laboratory, showing an excellent feature on an octave bandwidth, especially in terms of cross-polarization, a key figure of merit in both radio astronomy and telecommunications; and also side-lobe level, return-loss and gain.