S-Shaped Metasurface-Based Wideband Circularly Polarized Patch Antenna for C-Band Applications

This research proposed an S-shaped metasurface (MTS)-based wideband circularly polarized (CP) patch antenna for C-band uplink frequency spectrum. The proposed MTS-based CP patch antenna was of low profile and fabricated on three substrate layers: upper, middle, and lower. The upper substrate contained 4 × 4 periodic S-shaped MTS elements, the middle substrate functioned as ground plane with a rectangular-shaped slot at the center, and the lower substrate contained a coplanar waveguide with microstrip and ground. The S-shaped MTS elements converted linearly polarized (LP) into CP wave. Simulations were performed, and an antenna prototype was fabricated and experiments carried out. The measured impedance bandwidth and axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW) at the center frequency of 5.9 GHz were 43.22% (4.05 - 6.6 GHz) and 22% (5.3 - 6.6 GHz), respectively, rendering the proposed antenna suitable for satellite communication applications. The proposed antenna achieved the maximum gain of 6.16 dBic at 5.6 GHz. The novelty of this research lies in the use of S-shaped MTS elements to efficiently convert LP into CP wave and achieve wider ARBW for the C-band uplink spectrum.