Ka-Band Cross-Shaped Reconfigurable Metasurface Antenna for Agile Beam Modulation

Reconfigurable metasurfaces are among the key technologies for agile beam modulation. However, conventional reflective or transmissive reconfigurable metasurfaces require external feed sources and have an increased overall system profile. In this communication, a Ka-band cross-shaped metasurface antenna is designed by integrating the 1-bit phase shifter concept with the reconfigurable unit to conduct agile electromagnetic (EM) wave manipulation. A hybrid series-parallel integrated feed network is introduced to directly transfer energy to the top reconfigurable unit, thus significantly reducing the system profile to below 0.1λ₀. The proposed reconfigurable antenna adopts a cross-shaped architecture, to facilitate weight reduction and enhance practical deployment in the satellite or airborne front-end systems. By dynamically modulating the coding distribution, the antenna could achieve 0° – 60° beam scanning in the Ka-band with a peak gain of 22.54 dBi and support dual-beam or four-beam radiations. This design holds great potential for agile EM beam control in conformal multitarget communication and radar sensing applications.