Quasi-Optical Excitation of a Circularly-Polarized Metasurface Antenna at K-band

This paper presents a new concept of modulated metasurface (MTS) antenna for satellite communications. As opposed to using cylindrical surface waves (SW) to excite circular apertures, we employ a quasi-optical beamformer to launch a plane SW. This architecture enables an efficient illumination of rectangular apertures. In addition, the use of anisotropic MTS elements allows us to obtain circularly-polarized beams with excellent characteristics in terms of cross-polarization discrimination. We present the design process of a prototype at K-band and the obtained simulation results, which prove the suitability of this antenna for satellite data links.