Design of Metasurface-loaded Filtenna for Applications in Radio Astronomy

In this article, a metasurface-loaded horn antenna has been explored to bandlimit as filtenna without degradation of the radiation characteristics. The metasurface loaded horn antenna exhibits filtenna characteristics covering X-band (7.5 GHz-11.88 GHz). From the electromagnetic simulation of the design, it has been revealed that the filtenna module provides a passband response in X-band with a beam width enhancement of approximately 15°. This type of module produces drastically reduced out of band RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) signals. The proposed module can be used in the front-end receiver system of the radio astronomical observations and allied areas where the antenna is mounted in the reflector.