Using a metasurface to enhance the radiation efficiency of subterahertz antennas printed on thick substrates

This study investigates the possibility of increasing the radiation efficiency of printed antennas and arrays by suppressing their inherent surface waves using a metasurface made of quad-split rings (QSR). A symmetrical resonant microstrip dipole and a four-element series-fed dipole array printed on an infinite grounded dielectric layer (layer thickness: 0.2 mm; relative permittivity: 9.4; tanδ: 0.0005) were simulated with FEKO 2022 software. Conducted at 100-116 GHz, the numerical results revealed extremely low radiation efficiencies of approximately 31% and 40% for the studied dipole and dipole array, respectively, which resulted from the presence of surface waves in the dielectric. However, placing only one QSR near each dipole arm triggered an increase in radiation efficiency by 2.5 times (up to 75%). The use of a metasurface in the form of two small QSR arrays triggered a pronounced improvement in radiation efficiency, reaching 93.6% and 95.8% for the studied dipole and dipole array, respectively. Analysis of the electric field distribution images showed that this enhancement resulted from surface wave suppression.