Implementation of smart metasurfaces for the Sub-6 GHz 5G wireless systems: design, optimization, and its synthesis for enhancing antenna’s performance

A broadened polarization bandwidth with a high-gain SADEA-driven metasurface antenna at 5 GHz is investigated for the sub-6 GHz 5G wireless applications. At first, a λo/4 linearly polarized printed monopole antenna is considered. In the next step, a metallic strip that serves as a dynamic switching mechanism is used to short one of the parasitic conducting strips with a partial ground plane to get circular polarization (CP). To make it suitable for the RF energy harvesting application, a crucial part of sub-6 GHz 5G communication, the motive is to achieve broadened performance for antenna gain, impedance (10-dB BW), and axial bandwidths (3-dB BW). It is attained by placing the SADEA-tuned metasurface layer as a parasitic patch at the height of 0.02λo, below the radiator. With the usage of the SADEA optimization method, the process of the metasurface layer is depicted as more effective in performance and less complex towards its execution. It is printed on FR-4 of 1.33λo × 0.9λo × 0.02λo, which offers a measured 58.23% 10-dB BW, 26.39% 3-dB BW, CP gain peak > 5.9 dBic, antenna efficiency > 75%, with a front-to-back ratio > -20 dBic in the sub-6 GHz 5G bands, a potential candidate for the next-generation wireless communication, especially for the RF energy harvesting systems.