Phase-Gradient Huygens Metasurface Coatings for Dynamic Beamforming in Linear Antennas

Abstract: The beamforming capabilities of conformal cylindrical Huygens metasurface (HMS) coatings for linear antennas are assessed. It is shown that by engineering the phase-gradient profile of the HMS, the original omnidirectional radiation pattern of the linear antenna can be shaped to form multi- or single-beam configurations. A closed-form expression for the phase-insertion profile of the cylindrical coating required to achieve the desired radiation pattern profile is derived, and several full-wave numerical examples supporting our claims are reported. A configuration exploiting a realistic HMS layout is also discussed and it is shown that, by making the metasurface reconfigurable through the use of tunable lumped elements, the radiated beams can be dynamically steered in space. This new design methodology could find application in smart electromagnetic environment scenarios for dynamically rerouting the signal towards multiple users.