Design and Analysis of 20–60 GHz Broadband Left-Handed Metamaterial

Abstract

We present the design and characterization of a broadband left-handed metamaterial operating over 20–60 GHz. The proposed metamaterial unit cell comprises of a complementary split ring resonator along with an inverted-T shaped slot structure. The metamaterial cell demonstrates a reflection coefficient (S11) less than -20 dB and a transmission coefficient (S21) approximately 0 dB over the entire broadband frequency range of 20 GHz to 60 GHz. Parameter extraction procedures are used to validate the left-handed nature of the proposed metamaterial unit cell by uniquely determining refractive index, wave impedance, effective permeability, and effective permittivity from the complex S-parameters. The extracted permittivity, permeability and refractive index of the proposed metamaterial are found to be negative over the entire operating frequency range.