Modulated Metasurface Antennas for Space: Synthesis, Analysis and Realizations

This paper presents design and analysis methods for planar antennas based on modulated metasurfaces (MTSs). These antennas operate on an interaction between a cylindrical surface-wave (SW) excited by an isotropic TM radiator, and an MTS having a spatially modulated equivalent impedance. The MTS is realized by using sub-wavelength patches printed on a grounded slab, thus resulting in a structure with light weight and compact volume. Both features are appealing characteristics for space applications. This paper introduces for the first time an impedance-based amplitude synthesis of the aperture field distribution and shows several new examples of antennas for space applications obtained in recent research projects financed by the European Space Agency.