Description
Priority 2 activities will only be initiated on the explicit request of at least one delegation.
The objective of this activity is to design and develop a metasurface-enhanced reflector antenna solution for shaped beam and multiple beam applications at Ku and Ka band.
Targeted Improvements:
Performance improvement: envelope (up to 4-fold reduction of F/D) or equivalent improvement of sidelobe levels and crosspolar for the same F/D; improved beam shape control for multiple-feed (same or different frequency), increased gain by 0.5dB or more.
Description:
The improvement of shaped reflector antenna performance obtained by using a metasurface-enhanced reflector has been demonstrated in a recent TRP activity (up to 1dB on split frequency dual-coverage case). The advantage, also applicable to multiple beam antennas, comes from the degrees of freedom added by the metasurface which offers the possibility to control amplitude and phase of both field polarisations independently. The improvement also stems from the possibility of moving away from the purely reflective operation offered by normal microwave reflectors. The exploitation of surface waves excited on the metasurface by the incident field allows the controlled redistribution of incoming power into the radiated field, by combining reflection and refraction. The possibility to improve also the feed pattern by the same means adds to the overall flexibility of the antenna system and to the achievable improvements.
The activity consists of:
- Review of the state-of-the-art and of applicable scenarios deriving design requirements for a few reflector antenna configurations with the highest improvement potential.
- Design using accurate modelling tools for the prediction of their performances.
- Selection of two candidates for design refinement.
- Manufacturing and testing of an engineering model for the most challenging solution.
- Confirmation of the performance for both candidates by new analyses based on the measured results.