Phase-Gradient Meta-Dome for Increasing Grating-Lobe-Free Scan Range in Phased Arrays

Abstract

This paper presents a simple and effective way to increase the scan range of phased array antennas by using a metasurface (MTS) curved dome. The technique is based on a phase-gradient passive MTS that deflects the incident rays coming from the array aperture, and on a predistortion of amplitude and phase applied to the original phased array. We assume, therefore, to have at disposal an array capable of electronic beam scanning over a limited angular range with control of amplitude and phase. Geometrical optics ray tracing is used for the design of the metadome and physical optics for the analysis. For the sake of simplicity, the idea is illustrated here for a 2-D scan case; however, the extension to full 3-D scanning appears to be straightforward.