Broadband Huygens Resonance Transmitarray Based on Lightweight Polyimide Membrane

This letter presents a wideband Huygens resonant transmitarray (TA) based on lightweight polyimide (PI) membranes. A three-resonant Huygens structure unit is proposed by introducing additional resonance points for broadening the bandwidth. The unit, consisting of two pairs of metal rings and one pair of metal arcs, exhibits low transmission loss and covers almost the entire phase range over a wide band from 17.5 to 23 GHz. Moreover, the Huygens units are printed on the PI membranes using screen printing technology. The TA consists of only two layers of flexible PI membranes with a thickness of 0.125 mm. Within the PI membrane, there is an intermediate air layer. A 15 × 15 TA is designed and fabricated and experimentally demonstrated. The measured 3 dB gain bandwidth of 21.1% from 18.2 GHz to 22.5 GHz is achieved. The TA exhibits a peak gain of 24.63 dBi and a maximum aperture efficiency of 39.9% at 20.3 GHz. The weight of the TA is only 5.7 g due to the thin membrane configuration. Therefore, the proposed TA is suitable for the application of satellite antenna and communication systems because of its features of wide bandwidth, lightweight, and flexible deployable capability.