Controlling surface waves by introducing anisotropy into the conductive backing of planar dielectric slabs

In this article, a simple and practical design technique is proposed to control surface-waves (SWs) on dielectric substrates. In particular, by introducing a sub-wavelength square array of slots or patches within a conventional ground plane, SW fields can be controlled. An analysis of this new guide configuration is provided and results defining SW propagation along such an air-dielectric interface, grounded with an anisotropic high impedance surface, are studied. Our new approach for field control has applications to new routing circuits, leaky-wave antennas, and other planar structures which operate at microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies.