Active frequency-selective surfaces Chang - Langley Parker mea SER Indesing ser: demas, Aetive sare, Dice ses, Rader Abstract: Two different varieties of active frequency-selective surfaces (PSS) are described. In one type, active FSS elements incorporating, switched PIN diodes are discussed. Waveguide simulation studies show that the frequeney response of the surface canbe electronically switched from that of a reflecting structure to a transmitting structure. In the other type, FSS are printed on ferrite substrates which are biased with a DC magnetic field. The application of this bias ficld to the ferrite allows tuning of the resonant frequency by several gigahertz, In addition, the frequency characteristics can be switched from transmitting to reflecting, as for the active element FSS, 1 Introduction Frequency-selective surfaces have found many applica- tions in antenna systems. These include muftibanding reflector antennas [1, 2] and providing frequency win- dows in radomes [3, 4], Many element geometries have been studied ranging from dipoles and Jerusalem crosses to square and circular loops. For the most part these clement geometries have consisted of passive printed conductors on a dielectric substrate, Recently studies of active surfaces have been made in which the frequency properties ean be varied with time under the control of either semiconductor devices incorporated into the elements or by printing them on substrates whose properties may be adjusted. For example, at a particular time the surface could be switched from a reflecting to a totally transparent structure of alter: tively the reflectivity could be varied with time. In [5, 6] studies of diode-loaded dipole elements are presented. while in [7] multifunctional (smart) skins are described some of which incorporate active FSS elements, These changes in frequency response find applications in radar cross-section reduction, reconfigurable reflector systems and active waveguide horns [8] This paper describes the properties of two different classifications of active FSS, In the first type, active devices are included within the conducting elements, In a previously published letier [9] we demonstrated that SEE, 1996 EE Proving one n0, 19S Paper firs sccv! ed March 1995 and in ovis form 20th Sepember 1985 “The authors ate with the Etonic Enginoering Laboratori, University of Kent Cantebary, Keat CT2 INT PIN diodes placed in a square loop element could be used to switch the basic gcometry of the elements and fundamentally change the frequency characteristics. In the second type, the substrate on which the FSS ele- ments are printed is made active, and in this case ferrite substrates were used whose permeability changed with a DC magnetic bias, as demonstrated in [10]. In an alternative approach reported in [11] the eflective per mittivity of the substrate was changed by exchanging dielectric liquids within it. The studies made here were largely experimental and concentrated on dipole/inductive strip combinations ‘and square loop elements as these FSS types are widely used and their Frequency characteristics are well under- stood. In all cases the measurements were made using @ waveguide simulator. Waveguide simulators have been widely used in the measurement of large array antennas ‘and. frequeney-selective surfaces. The principle of the simulator is that a few elements placed across the waveguide are reflected in the metallic walls forming an infinite periodic array and hence the frequency response can be determined from a small sample of the array. Given the cost and complexity of manufacturing active FSS for research projects this provides an effi cient, cost-effective solution. Here a simulator based on WGI6 waveguide was built operating from 7.5 10 16GHz successfully without significant overmoding. The angle of incidence of the two plane waves consti tuting the TE, mode incident on the FSS varies with frequency, in this case from about 60° to 24° over the ‘operating range. Consequently alll the elements tested were designed to operate in this frequency range. As the internal dimensions of the waveguide were fixed the periodivity of the FSS in both the vertical and horizon tal directions were chosen 10 be multiples of the height and width of the guide. Since the internal guide dimen- sions were rectangular this resulted in rectangular array periodicities wt 19.1 Acree FSS cpwleidctive sp A simple method of modelling based on an equiva- lent circuit approach has been used for the active FSS clements. The equivalent circuit analysis of the active square loop element incorporating PIN diodes his beenpublished in [9] and is not repeated here. The funda- mental design principle was to create FSS elements, whose geometry changed significantly on switching the diodes on and off, hence there would be a significant difference in the frequency response. For example, in Fig. | the dipoles were connected using PIN diodes so that in the off-state the geometry was a dipole but in the on-state the geometry became an inductive strip. ow diode tes ae . T ef a \Y w 4 he Fig.2. Active FSS aque bop srissioncoeficent, 48 frequency. GH Fig.3 Frequency reponse of PIN-oiched actin pire Top element Int shows element emery 2 Active FSS elements 2.1, Rectangular loops Geometries such as square loops and rings are com- monly employed as FSS elements. They have a simple frequency response consisting of @ transmission band followed by a reflection band at which the elements resonate, This allows the transmission characteristics to easily be identified without complex resonances obscur- ing the results. Fig. 2 shows the basic geometry of the oop element. The diodes were connected into the y- directed arms of the loop which were parallel to the incident electric field vector. Thin diode bias lines are introduced which are perpendicular to the electric field Inserting the diodes as shown has the property of reducing the overall equivalent capacitance of the structure as discussed in [9]. When the diodes are for- ward biased they form a low resistanee path and the sides are connected together. The surface looks like an infinite array of squares which resonate at a frequency J. With the diodes reverse biased they act essentially as ‘an open circuit between the halfsquares and the array now resonates at a much higher frequency, leaving transmission band at f,. Hence it is possible to switch the response between reflecting and transmitting. in time, depending on. the applied bias. Several basic designs were tested, The arrays were printed on an RT Duroid substrate 0.25mm thick with a relative diele tric constant of e, = 2.33. A typical transmission fre- quency response is shown in Fig. 3, plotted for both the on and off states of the diode. When the diodes were forward biased with 1V, the active surface pro- duced @ -200B transmission null at 12.6GHz, corre- sponding to a reflection of the signal. When reverse biased, the resonance moved to a higher frequency near 36GHz and as a consequence the surface now became transmitting at 126GHz. The measured transmission loss in this state was 0.5dB. The switching from trans mission to reflection is clearly demonstrated. The small resonance at 10.5GHz was due to the diode bias lines. 2.2 Rectangular loops with sparse active devices Several segmented square loop geometries were investi- gated where the numbers of active devices needed for switching the response from transmission to reflection could potentially be reduced. Those which proved to be Useful are shown inset in Figs. 4-6 with their respective transmission responses. In Fig. 4 every second pair of loops only is segmented reducing the number of active deviees by a factor of two and still allowing device biasing. When the diodes were switched on (see Fig. 4), the FSS behaved as a loop array resonating as before near 12.4GHz. When biased olf, the active surface hhecame nearly transparent at 124GH2 with a transmis- sion loss of < 0.54B, the resonance now shifting to a lower (10.3GHz) instead of a higher frequency. The depth of resonance was > 25dB in all cases. However the switching is again clearly demonstrated. 3 0 Wn em frequencyHz Fig. Froguncy rayne of PINswitcled aetve ae lop element "i only eet sven sgt 7 8 8 01 2 Bue 6 frequency. Ste Fig.5 _Fieqnney reyamse of Pvt act squire kp lat tnd on of eh ct samen aa ao OW lee eo 0 fo ee requency,SH2 Fig.6 Freguncy response of PIV-svtced active squire top laren, til loops cba aes ‘mee Another possible geometry suitable for linear polari- sation is shown in Fig. 5 where only one side of each element is segmented. In this clement the active devicecould not be biased owing to the short circuit on the opposite arm, An alternative method of switching must bee incorporated such as light-sensitive conductors. For experimental purposes an active connection was not tested since from the previous measurements it was found that an almost identical result was obtained by leaving the element open circuit to simulate the switch in off-mode. The frequency response for the simulated onioff cases is shown in Fig. 5. Switching from trans- mission to reflection is evident, the transmission loss being < 0.54B. Interlacing full square loops with these elements, as in Fig. 4, produced a transmission loss of 2.54B, necessitating a far higher inductance to make the design feasible Finally in Fig. 6 the square loops are connected together with diodes as shown. When the diodes are biased off the loops resonate as before at 13.7GHz, while in the ON state the loops are connected together forming an effectively inductive string of elements. The transmission loss was about 2.5dB at the resonant fre- quency of the loops. This would be reduced to < 0.54B if the inductance were to be increased by creating arrays with a larger periodicity. It was not possible to generate such a design within the constraints of the simulator. lworsmissioncoecient, cB a a a trequeney Gh Fig.7 Frequency response of PIN-sitchedactiedipollerp elements Tn hows sess poy ba ages ABC est fn wave ast lronsmissoncoeticient,¢8 25] 0! 35 “ol 78 8 0 Wa Se trequerey, Gz Fig.8 Frenne of Pid ete dls lene Meena re eceare 2.3. Dipole/inductive strips Ai similar set of experiments were conducted for dipole arrays. Fig. 1 shows an array of dipoles connected together by PIN diodes. For the experiments reported here the dipole dimensions were d = 9.7mm, w = Imm and P, = 6.6mm. With the diodes unbiased the dipoles resonated at 14.7GHz (Fig. 7). When biasing the diodes on so that the dipoles were shorted together forming an array of inductive strips, the structure became transmitting with a loss of 2dB at 14.7GHz. The loss can be reduced in practice by increasing the inductance of the strips, For comparison the response of an array of strips with a period P, = 6.6mm and w = 0.2mm is also shown in Fig. 7, the loss in this case being < 0.54B at 14.7GHz. Following these measure- ments the number of active elements was reduced by interspersing the array with continuous inductive strips. For Fig. 8, where one in three rows of elements were made from strips (see inset) and particularly Fig. 9, where two in three were strips, the dipoles still provide a strong resonance with a significant saving in the sans ot ee Sever ed ea) | xl |, +b | f $2 § 30 Boss a _ a eqn) Ste Fig.9 | Frequency response of PiN-etched active dpoestrip elements wee nS omcas beats trace 3 FSS on biased ferrites substrates 3.1 Ferrite based FSS Here a ferrite, Trans-Tech G-113 YIG material, with a substrate thickness of 1.27mm and a saturation mag- netisation of 4M, = 1730 gauss was used as the active substrate, The FSS arrays were designed using an exist- ing transmission-line model with the permittivity of the ferrite set as 14.78 and the permeability as 1.0, the sub- strate values for zero magnetic bias. The square loops of Fig. 2 were printed on the ferrite substrate, with the yedirected sides now continuous instead of containing. diodes. Magnetic field bias was applied in the y-direc- tion across the narrow dimension of the waveguide simulator, perpendicular to the magnetic field of the incident propagating electromagnetic wave. The high permittivity of the ferrite leads to a significant reflec- tion loss of about SdB from the surface. This loss is dependent on the magnetic bias and hence changes for cach bias field. Consequently, as it was not possible to calibrate the network analyser for each measurement made as the magnetic bias was varied, calibration errors are observed in the experimental results. Never- theless the principles are clearly demonstrated. 3.2. Theory of ferrite materials In this Section two phenomena associated with ferrite ‘materials and relevant to this study are described. Their relevance is demonstrated in the following Section. It is well known that when biased with a normal DC mag- netic field ferrites exhibit a permeability tensor of the form [12] nO 5s =| 09 1 0 “in 0 where = (1+ a, v= ( 3% ue = Hy and IEE Proe-Microm Atemas Prope. Val. 165, o,f Fobra 1991M, is the saturation magnetisation of the ferrite mate- Tial, the gyromagnetic ratio y = 2.8GHZ/kG and Hy is the applied magnetic bias field. Changing the polari of the bias field is accounted for by changing the pola ity of Ho, which changes the sign of « with being unchanged. The effective permeability of the tran: versely magnetised ferrite, with a superimposed RF magnetic field perpendicular to the static magnetic bias field, is defined by z In the absence of a bias field poy has the value py and as the applies field increases flyr starts to decrease. ‘Where the effective permeability is positive the medium will propagate a wave but when it becomes negative the ferrite cannot propagate a wave and becomes reflect- ing. This is known as the cutoff region [12] ‘Another phenomenon, gyromagnetic resonance, gives rise to absorption of ‘the electromagnetic wave. It ‘occurs when the electrons in the ferrite are spinning in the same direction and frequency as the superimposed RF magnetic field. The frequency at which this occurs in a biased fecrite is fo = 1Ho CHa Note that in the gaussian system of units commonly employed in discussing magnetic materials, Uy = 1 Weft 3.3 Measurements For convenience permanent magnets were used to bias the ferrites but in practice electromagnets would be preferred. For the work reported here the bias field was ‘applied through the substrate in the (transverse) y- direction only, that is perpendicular to the incident wave magnetic field and the direction of propagation. ‘A bias field in the x-direction had no significant effect ‘on the response of the FSS. it was not possible to direct a bias field in the z-direction perpendicular to the substrate since this would obstruct the incident wave, The high permittivity of the ferrite gave rise to a trans- mission loss of about 5dB in the simulator. This could ‘be matched in a practical situation using dielectric la fers but for the measurements here the ferrite loss was calibrated out for zero magnetic bias field so that the properties of the FSS could be studied. 6 rll Si} dpe resonance ie 50 i / , / 0666 380 ‘DC magnetic fed inert Ho. gauss Fig. 10, gic ig of pl ray on fore = cio recone The behaviour of the resonant frequency (null transmission response) of dipole and square loop FS: have been studied as the applied magnetic bias field Ho was varied from 0 to 5000 gauss. The corresponding change in the resonant frequencies is plotted in Fig. 10 The frequency of the fundamental resonances of the 18 Proe-Mierom, Antemas Popa. Vol. 143 No.1, February 19% FSS increased steadily as the bias field increased, from 1.8GHz at zero bias to 13.6GHz at 3000 Gauss bias for the dipotes, following the deeline in py of the sub- strate, The behaviour of the FSS resonarice is consist- ent with results obtained for patch antennas printed on ferrite substrates [12, 13]. However, the depth of the null decreased steadily with field strength until at about 3000 Gauss it was too weak to detect, corresponding with the cut-off resonance. Ata slightly lower flux den= sity a second shallow FSS resonance appeared at 8.3GHz which again steadily increased in depth and frequency with the applied bias. The square loops behaved in a similar way to the dipoles as the bias was varied. In addition to the FSS related resonance, the ferrite itself reflects as shown by the broken curve in Fig. 10. The nature of this effect has been investigated ebserption 150025003500 «4500 «8500 ‘OCmagnete tik He, gauss 11_Atsoption, mamamision ard rection oxi for fre ea injne bs foe rad as BOC omens oS ae econ Fig. 1 shows the reflection, transmission and absorption coefficients for a plane ferrite slab in the simulator as a function of external magnetic bias Hp at 9.5GHz. A similar set of coefficients are measured at other frequencies. The reflection coefficient peaks at an applied field of 2500G, that is 9.5GHz in Fig. 10. At this point the absorption and transmission coefficients are very small. This reflection is frequency and field dependent and corresponds to the cutoff resonance when Hey becomes negative [13] and as a consequence the FSS clement radiates weakly. The solid curve in Fig. II shows that just after the cutoff point is reached a sharp absorption peak occurs followed by a broader band peaking at 3400G. This corresponds to the gyro- magnetic resonance given by f,, not casy to see on the transmission plots since it is not a sharp effect. The high level of the reflection coefficient seen in Fig. 11 from 0 to 2000 gauss applied field corresponds to the mismatch of the ferrite substrate as itis biased 8 of arm na = Fol ee Tama I 0 * fn ae toms g “al. aa . tegen Joe, sug ope hep Panes ve alg DC mee fl. 1, omre ep epee DC ma oe how le TE se wtUsing the bias field the FSS can also be switched from transmission to reflection, In Fig. 12 the transmission response of a square loop FSS is plotted with and with- ‘out a magnetic bias field of 4000 gauss applied along the y-direction of the substrate. In this case dy = 6.2mm, w = 0.8mm and g = 5.1mm, The FSS reso- nated at 8.1GHz for zero magnetic field bias, corre sponding to reflection of the incident wave. The null was about 30dB deep, When the magnetic bias of 4000 gauss was applied the null vanished, with an overall insertion loss of about SdB remaining. This residual loss was due to reflections from the ferrite substrate. Here the loss at 8.7GHz is about 74B. The application ‘of the bias therefore switched the filter response from reflection to transmission 4 Conclusion The principles of operation of active FSS whose reflec- tivity can be tuned and switched electronically as a function of time has been demonstrated. It has been shown that active devices placed in and between FSS elements fundamentally change the geometry and fre- queney response of the attays. Electrical biasing is pos- sible using either 2 conducting path formed by the elements themselves or thin bias lines laid perpendicu- lar to the incident electric field. Several geometries with a reduced number of active elements demonstrate the same result, An alternative method using FSS printed ‘on biased ferrite substrates allows the resonant charac- teristics to be tuned over a wide range of frequencies. Using a high bias field the reflection characteristics of the FSS can be varied considerably and with matching sections a high degree of transmission and hence switching may be obtained. Dipoles’strips and ring FSS ‘geometries gave similar results, 5 Acknowledgments This work was funded by a grant from the UK EPSRC. TK, Chang is supported by a studentship from the Elec” tronic Engineering Laboratories atthe University of Kent 6 References 1 COMTESSE.LC, LANGLEY. RI. PARKER. EA. and VARDAXOGLOU, 1: “Frequency selective surfaces in, dual and ple band ofset refector anennas. Proceedings of th Etropeny Mnowne conference, Rome, 1987 pp 8 213 WOT Kuan LEE, SoW Mulund regency sects ue Thse with altring patch elements. 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