Low-profile Circularly Polarized Antenna Exploiting Fabry-Perot Resonator Principle

Abstract

We designed a patch antenna surrounded by a mushroom-like electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) structure and completed it by a partially reflective surface (PRS). EBG suppresses surface waves and creates the bottom wall of the Fabry-Perot (FP) resonator. PRS plays the role of a planar lens and forms the top wall of the FP resonator. The novel PRS consists of a two-layer grid exhibiting inductive and capacitive (LC) behavior which allows us to obtain a reflection phase between –108 and +180 degrees. Thanks to this PRS, we can control the height of the cavity in the range from λ/2 to λ/300. Obtained results show that the FP resonator antenna enables us to achieve a low profile and a high-gain. The patch is excited by a microstrip transmission line via the cross-slot aperture generating the circular polarization. Functionality of the described concept of the FP antenna was verified at 10 GHz. The antenna gain was 15 dBi, the impedance bandwidth 2.3% for |S11| < –10 dB, and the axial ratio bandwidth 0.6% for AR < 3.0 dB. Hence, the antenna is suitable for narrowband applications. Computer simulations show that the microwave FP antenna can be simply redesigned to serve as a source of circularly polarized terahertz waves.