Beam Steering Lens Antenna Using Novel Dual-layer Phase-shifting Surfaces

In this paper, a novel phase-shifting surface (PSS) is designed to develop a passive beam steering lens antenna. The lens antenna is composed of two cascaded PSSs, and continuous beam steering is achieved by mechanically adjusting the rotation angle of the two PSSs. Each PSS is a transmissive metasurface composed of multiple phase-shifting elements. The element has a simple dual-layer metal structure printed on a single-layer dielectric substrate. It has achieved a high transmission efficiency and full 360° phase coverage. Based on the element, a lens antenna is designed and simulated. The lens antenna can reach a peak gain of 28.32 dBi, and the aperture efficiency of 30.6%. The simulated beam steering range in the zenith is ±60°, with a complete 360° steering radius in the azimuth. Furthermore, the simulated 1 dB gain bandwidth reaches 6% (19.6–20.8 GHz) across the entire steering range, which is of great significance in achieving efficient beam steering antennas.