High gain and high-efficiency compact resonator antennas based on spoof surface plasmon polaritons

Abstract

We proposed a high gain high-efficiency compact metallic resonator antenna operating at even-mode meander line spoof surface plasmon polaritons (MLSSPPs). The high radiation efficiency is caused by the bulk of fields crowded in lossless air near the antenna rather than in lossy dielectric as in conventional dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs). The proposed antenna also exhibits compact size because of its high effective refractive index. A reliable equivalent circuit model is proposed for the design of the resonator antenna with basic mode of half wavelength resonant mode. As an example, a meander-line SSPP antenna is designed, fabricated and measured. Both the simulated and measured results show the advantages of high efficiency and compact volume. In addition, the antenna achieves higher gain and wider relative bandwidth per wavelength cube volume compared with its counterparts. This method provides a good alternative for designing DRAs.