Asymmetric Sidelobe Suppression Array With Amplitude-Phase Controllable Metasurface

• Published in: IEEE antennas and wireless propagation letters 2024-10, Vol.23 (10), p.2830-2834
• Main Authors: Li, Jinkai, Yin, Jiao, Zhai, Huiqing, Cai, Yuanming, Guo, Chaozong, Chen, Teyan, Xu, Wenwei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Array signal processing; Base station array; Base stations; beam scanning; beamforming; controllable metasurface; low profile; Matlab; Metasurfaces; Microstrip antenna arrays; Phased arrays; Satellites; sidelobe level (SLL)
• ISSN: 1536-1225; 1548-5757
• DOI: 10.1109/LAWP.2024.3408802

In this letter, a new approach to beamforming of an array is proposed, which uses a single-layer metasurface with controllable amplitude and phase to adjust the transmitted wave of each array element to achieve unilateral suppression of the sidelobe levels (SLLs). To meet the demanding sidelobe suppression requirement, an optimized distribution solved by the genetic algorithm has been fixed on the metasurface. Importantly, the proposed array can maintain a robust sidelobe suppression in large-angle beam scanning while having an extremely low profile. A ±45° dual-polarized base station array with targeted sidelobe suppression is implemented to verify its practicality in wireless communication, the experimental results are in good agreement with the simulation ones. The simulated and measured peak SLLs are −30 dB and −27 dB, respectively. All these experimental results demonstrate the proposed method provides a reliable and concise alternative scheme for beamforming arrays.