Low-Profile Metasurface-Based Antenna With Tripolarization for 5G Applications

This article develops a novel low-profile meta-surface-based tripolarized antenna with complementary patterns for fifth-generation (5G) application. A shared aperture metasurface-based structure is first proposed, which is carefully studied by equivalent circuit models and field distribution. Then, to realize multiple polarization operation, the TM
₁₀
, antiphase TM
₂₀
, and TM
₀₀
modes are used and excited by suitable feeding networks. For horizontal polarization, wideband response is realized by coupling and combining the TM
₁₀
/TM
₂₀
dual modes. An inductance-loaded TM
₀₀
mode is displayed by loading the shorting vias on the metasurface, which is used to implement vertical polarization. Finally, a metasurface-based tripolarized antenna with a low profile of 0.04λ
₀
( λ
₀
is the free space wavelength at 3.30 GHz) is fabricated. The overlapped 10-dB bandwidths for all excitations are from 3.26 to 3.84 GHz (16.3%) with isolation greater than 22 dB, which well covers the 5G-N78 band. The measured peak gain and radiation efficiency are larger than 10.3 dBi and -0.42 dB (90.8%), respectively. The results indicate that the proposed antenna with a low profile, a simple and low-cost configuration, multipolarization, good bandwidth, high radiation efficiency, and gain performance could be widely used in sub-6 GHz 5G communication systems.