Non-homogeneous Fabry-Pérot antenna design process to improve aperture efficiency

A novel technique to design Fabry-Pérot antennas with non-homogeneous partially reflective surfaces (PRSs) is described. It uses a transmission line circuit model to efficiently obtain all necessary unit cell designs that satisfy the cavity resonance condition. This method allows an increase in directivity without reducing the bandwidth for a given footprint. Some design examples in the Ku-band are presented, showing the evolution from a simple single-layer PRS to a non-homogeneous two-layer one. The latter achieves an increase of about 3 dB in directivity while maintaining the bandwidth in electromagnetic simulations. This way, the gain-bandwidth product is improved from a value of 5 to almost 9, effectively raising the antenna efficiency.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Universidades (Programa para la Formación del Profesorado Universitario) under grant FPU20/03240, by MCIU/AEI/FEDER (Programa Estatal de I+D+i Orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad) under grant RTI2018-097098-J-I00, and by the regional government (Junta de Andalucía) PAIDI 2020 under grant PY20 00452. Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech