Received March 27, 2021, accepted April 8, 2021, date of publication April 12, 2021, date of current version

April 21, 2021.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3072592

Close Band Spacing Pentaband Frequency

Selective Surfaces Based on Concentric Ring Slots
LOURDES MARTINEZ-LOPEZ 1 , ROSALBA MARTINEZ-LOPEZ 1 ,
ALEXANDER E. MARTYNYUK 1 , JORGE RODRIGUEZ-CUEVAS 1 ,
HENRY FABIAN-GONGORA 2 , AND JOSE I. MARTINEZ-LOPEZ 1 , (Member, IEEE)
1 Division de Ingenieria Electrica, Facultad de Ingenieria, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City 04510, Mexico
2 Facultad de Ingenieria, Universidad Autonoma de Campeche, Campeche 24085, Mexico
Corresponding author: Jose I. Martinez-Lopez (ismartz@unam.mx)
This work was supported in part by the Programa de Apoyos a Proyectos de Investigacion e Innovacion Tecnologica de la Direccion
General de Asuntos del Personal Academico (DGAPA PAPIIT) under Grant IA104921, Grant IN118719, Grant IN118620, and Grant
IN119420.

ABSTRACT This paper presents a polarization insensitive frequency selective surface (FSS) based on
concentric ring slots with five closely spaced passbands. The proposed FSS unit cell contains five ring slots
coupled with a supplementary innermost ring slot. The close band response within the first five transmission
bands is achieved by the influence of the modified geometry obtained with the inclusion of the sixth ring
slot. This added ring slot causes the appearance of a stopband, due to the conductive ring between the fifth
and the sixth ring apertures, and a passband produced inherently by the sixth ring aperture. The effect of
the additional stopband and passband in the FSS response has been investigated in the paper. Full-wave
simulations reveal that a modified geometry with proper sizes effectively enables the close band response
of the pentaband FSS. To validate the proposed approach, a 729-element penta-bandpass FSS prototype
operating at millimeter-wave frequencies has been designed, fabricated, and tested. Experimental results in
a free-space measurement setup indicate resonances at f1 = 26.7, f2 = 29.8, f3 = 33.6, f4 = 38.1, and f5 =
44.2 GHz, with resonant frequency ratios of f2 /f1 = 1.12, f3 /f2 = 1.13, f4 /f3 = 1.13, and f5 /f4 = 1.16. This
FSS demonstrates an extremely low ratio of the highest and the lowest resonant frequencies (f5 /f1 = 1.66) for
a penta-band operation. This polarization insensitive FSS demonstrates good performance at oblique angular
incidence for elevation angles up to 45◦ .

INDEX TERMS Frequency selective surfaces, multiband operation, closely spaced bands, ring slot
resonators.

I. INTRODUCTION that operate at various nearby operating bands as well as

Frequency selective surfaces (FSS) are periodic arrays, com-
monly in two dimensions, that are composed of geometric
elements such as patches or slots that are typically printed on
a dielectric substrate. FSSs can exhibit band stop or band pass
characteristics, or a combination of both. FSS are regularly
utilized in different applications such as filters, polarizers,
radomes, absorbers, and antennas interfaces [1], [2]. With the
fast expansion of modern communication systems, multiband
communications offer the required flexibility to operate mul-
tifrequency and multistandard applications simultaneously.
The recent research in multiband FSS has been motivated by
the coexistence of different wireless communication systems
The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript and
approving it for publication was Chinmoy Saha . transmission of the desired signals.
systems that use more than one band in concurrent mode.
Due to the requirement for the efficient use of the radioelec-
tric spectrum, frequency band allocations of these wireless
communication systems are closely spaced, therefore, the
problem of electromagnetic compatibility arises when these
multifrequency and multistandard systems operate in con-
tiguous locations producing elevated levels of electromag-
netic interference (EMI). These systems can benefit from
multiband FSSs with closely spaced transmission bands that
provide adequate band isolation to prevent EMI between
the systems or subsystems that operate in nearby located
frequency bands. Therefore, multi-bandpass FSS can be
effectively used to shield places, systems or circuits from
unwanted radio frequency (RF) signals while enabling the

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57886 VOLUME 9, 2021
L. Martinez-Lopez et al.: Close Band Spacing Pentaband FSSs Based on Concentric Ring Slots
It is worth mentioning some applications of the multi-
bandpass FSS such as preventing EMI between radar and
satellite communication antennas [3], electromagnetic archi-
tecture of buildings [4], [5], band isolation in systems
operating in concurrent mode [6], and coupling reduction
between multiband Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO)
antennas [7], [8].
Traditionally, the combination of different resonators
within the unit cell has been widely used to obtain a multi-
band FSS. However, for bands that required to be closely
spaced, this approach inherently suffers from a strong mutual
coupling between adjacent resonators due to the proximity
of the strong electromagnetic fields occurring at resonances.
Therefore, it is necessary to introduce a mutual coupling
reduction mechanism to achieve the required close band
response. Different combinations of ring loop geometries
(metal patches and apertures) can be used to obtain a small
separation between adjacent bands. However, as the distance
of the contiguous loops becomes closer, the main effect of
this proximity is the increase of the mutual coupling causing
a large separation in frequency between their resonances. This
outcome makes the close band design challenging to achieve.
Consequently, it is required that the geometry of the ring
loops be modified to ensure a significant reduction of the
mutual coupling.
By applying several techniques in the closely spaced multi-
band FSS design, the performance of the multiband FSS has
been successfully improved. Initially, these techniques were
used for dual band systems [9]–[16] and later were applied to
designs with more than two bands.
Different multiband closely spaced FSS have been
reported in the literature with three [17]–[23] and four
bands [24]–[26]. Recently, some penta-band designs with
closely located bands have been investigated. In [27], five
stopbands are achieved using an adjacent loop interconnec-
tion technique plus an arrow-shaped ring in the outermost
loop. Next, a penta-bandstop FSS is obtained using different
shapes of modified squared rings [28]. Later, a two-layer
penta-bandstop FSS using five metallic structures, —two
at one side of the dielectric and three on its other side—,
was reported in [29]. More recently, a five stopband FSS,
described in [30], is obtained by means of combining differ-
ent loop geometries such as circles and squares in the unit
cell.
In this paper, a penta-bandpass FSS based on concentric
ring slot resonators is presented. Further to the previous
efforts reported in the literature, this work proposes a novel
mechanism to enable the close band response by adding a
supplementary innermost ring slot that resonates beyond the
operating frequencies of the FSS. However, the appearance of
a transmission zero produced by the conductive ring between
the fifth and the sixth ring apertures forces the first five
resonances to be closely located. The improvement in the
multiband FSS response with closely located resonances is
verified in simulation and in measurements with a fabri-
cated FSS prototype. This approach demonstrates the lowest
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FIGURE 1. FSS based on multi concentric ring slots.
minimum adjacent band ratio of 1.12, and an extremely low
ratio of the highest and the lowest resonant frequency (f5 /f1 =
1.66) for a penta-bandpass FSS operation.
This paper is organized as follows. In Section II, the oper-
ation principle of the proposed FSS is presented, including
a study of the impact of the supplementary ring slot on the
performance of the FSS. A design procedure of the proposed
penta-bandpass FSS, and simulated results based on a full-
wave method and an equivalent circuit model are presented
in Section III. Section IV presents the fabrication process of
a finite size FSS prototype demonstrator, as well as the exper-
imental setup for the free space characterization to obtain the
measured results. Finally, the conclusions are presented in
Section V.
II. FSS BASED ON MULTI CONCENTRIC RING
SLOT RESONATORS
FSSs act as spatial filters for incident electromagnetic waves.
The geometry and dimensions of the constitutive elements,
as well as the array’s lattice and period, allow the transmission
(aperture type) or reflection (patch type) of the incoming
electromagnetic wave (Fig. 1).
A. MULTIBAND FSS BASED ON CONCENTRIC
RING SLOT RESONATORS
Ring slots (or complementary rings) have been used as consti-
tutive elements in FSS design due to their intrinsic advantages
such as the ability of handling different types of polarizations
and the good stability for oblique angular incidence. Due to
the symmetry with respect of the x- and y- axes of the unit cell
geometry, this FSS element is polarization insensitive and can
be used for linear or circularly polarized waves. The transmis-
sion resonance of a single ring slot occurs when its medium
circumference is approximately equal to the wavelength λ.
The electric field is stored at the ring’s aperture, while the
magnetic field is due to the electric currents that flow in the
metal part of the unit cell.
Next, one can consider the case of concentric ring slots
to obtain a multifrequency resonant unit cell. First, one can
consider the case of a FSS unit cell of period equal to 3.5 mm
with two concentric ring slots printed on a dielectric substrate
with dielectric permittivity of 2.2 and thickness of 0.127 mm.
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 L. Martinez-Lopez et al.: Close Band Spacing Pentaband FSSs Based on Concentric Ring Slots
FIGURE 2. Simulated transmission coefficient magnitude for FSS unit
cells with two concentric ring slots. The outermost ring slot is fixed and
the innermost is varied.
The medium radius of the external ring slot is fixed at 1.5 mm
and the medium radius ri of the internal ring is varied to
1.36 mm, 1.22 mm, 1.08 mm, and 0.94 mm with the aim
of evaluating the effect of the separation between these two
ring slots. The slot width is 0.06 mm for all ring slots.
The scattering of the linearly polarized normally-incident
plane wave on an infinite FSS was calculated. The solver in
frequency-domain within CST Studio Suite was utilized to
calculate the scattering parameters of the FSS. Fig. 2 shows
the transmission coefficient magnitude |S21 | of the analyzed
unit cells. One can observe for the case of the unit cell with
two ring slots that the resonances for the inner ring slot occur
approximately at the frequencies fi predicted for the case of a
single ring slot:
c respectively, except for the resonance of the ring slot with r5
fi = √ , (1)
2πri εeff
where c is the speed of light in vacuum, and εeff is the
substrate’s dielectric effective electric permittivity that can be
approximated by [31]:
 
−1
εeff = εr + (εr − 1) , (2)
(ex )N
where x =10 h/b, being h the substrate dielectric thickness,
b is the period of the unit cell, and N = 1.3 is a curve fitting
factor. The resonances of the innermost ring slot resonators
are 31.98, 36.26, 41.16 and 47.16 GHz for the ring slots with
widths of 0.06 mm, and medium radii of 1.36, 1.22, 1.08, and
0.94 mm, respectively. The appearance of stopbands can be
observed due to the metal ring in between of the two ring
apertures. The central frequencies of the stopbands depend
on the medium radii and the widths of the conductive rings
formed between the two ring slots. It is also acceptable to use
the approximation given by (1) and (2) to obtain initial values
of the stopband frequencies. However, the full wave method
will provide more accurate values. As the medium radius of
the outer ring slot is fixed, the resonant frequency of the first
passband slightly changes when the inner ring slot is varied.
57888
FIGURE 3. Simulated transmission coefficient magnitude for different FSS
unit cells with concentric ring slots.
However, one can noticed a reduction of its bandwidth when
the distance with the inner ring slot is smaller. Therefore,
the frequency null obtained with the narrow metal ring in
between the two rings ensures the reduction of the bandwidth
of the first resonator. On the other hand, the -3 dB fractional
bandwidths of the second bandpass corresponding to the
inner ring slots are 29.8 %, 23.9 %, 18.9 %, and 14.3 % for ri
equal to 1.36, 1.22, 1.08, and 0.94 mm, respectively.
For comparison purposes, the scattering of FSS unit cells
with five ring slots are plotted to observe the effect in
frequency shifting and selectivity. Note that when the five
concentric rings are analyzed, the resonant frequencies cor-
responding to ring slots with medium radii of r1 , r2 , r3 , and
r4 , shifted downward to 26.05, 29.22, 32.81, and 37.5 GHz,
that shifts upward to 48.83 GHz. Also, the -3 dB fractional
bandwidths of the first four resonances reduces to 13.4 %,
5.41 %, 5.69 %, and 5.89 %. Therefore, the close separa-
tion between the first four resonances is achieved. However,
the highest band does not meet the characteristics to be con-
sidered part of the closely spaced band response as both the
ratio f5 /f4 and the -3 dB fractional bandwidth of the highest
resonance increases to 1.30 and 35.4%, respectively.
Next, one can analyze the mutual coupling of concentric
ring slots in FSS unit cells with two, three, four and five
closely packed ring slots. In this case, ring slots with constant
widths of 0.06 mm and medium radii of 1.5, 1.36, 1.22,
1.08, and 0.94 mm are analyzed. The outermost ring slot is
fixed (r1 = 1.5 mm), and the inner ring slots are added to
obtain four different FSS unit cells. The magnitudes of the
transmission coefficients for these multi-ring unit cells are
shown in Fig. 3, and a summary of the results are presented
in Table 1.
Note that the upper frequency band (obtained by the inner-
most ring slot) for the four analyzed unit cells show the same
pattern. The adjacent band ratio with respect to its contiguous
lower band increases, and its -3 dB fractional bandwidth
also increases. It can be inferred from these results that the
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L. Martinez-Lopez et al.: Close Band Spacing Pentaband FSSs Based on Concentric Ring Slots
TABLE 1. Summary of the simulated multiband FSS results.
FIGURE 4. Geometry of the proposed pentaband FSS unit cell.
addition of a supplementary ring slot that resonates beyond
the operating multiband frequencies can produce the desired
effect of shifting downward the resonant frequency as well
as reducing the bandwidth of the preceding resonators. This
assumption is analyzed in the next subsection for the case of
a pentaband FSS.
B. FSS BASED ON CONCENTRIC RING SLOT RESONATORS
WITH SUPPLEMENTARY RING SLOT
The proposed pentaband FSS consists of six concentric cir-
cular ring slots with medium radius ri and slot width of wi
whose centers coincide with the nodes of a squared lattice
with period b. The geometry of the multiband FSS unit cell
is shown in Fig. 4. However, due to the mutual coupling
between the neighboring rings, the resulting resonances and
bandwidths of each band of the entire system of six res-
onators change with respect to the case of single uncoupled
resonators.
Initially, to reveal the coupling in the closely packed res-
onators, one can consider that the FSS unit cell contains only
the five outermost ring slots. Therefore, a unit cell with a
period of 3.5 mm containing five ring slots with medium
radii of 1.50, 1.36, 1.22, 1.08, and 0.94 mm, with slot width
of 0.06 mm on a dielectric substrate (dielectric permittivity of
2.2 and thickness of 0.127 mm) is analyzed. The magnitude
of the transmission coefficient |S21 | is shown in Fig. 5 (black
solid line). The ring slots in the unit cell enable the appearance
of five resonances. However, due to the proximity of the ring
slots, the mutual coupling between adjacent slots is strong,
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FIGURE 5. Simulated transmission coefficient magnitude of the
pentaband FSS. Effect of the supplementary ring slot in the penta-band
FSS response.
causing a shift in the self-resonant frequencies. Next, we can
analyze the effect of adding a sixth ring slot in the innermost
part of the unit cell. Then, seven FSS unit cells with a sixth
ring slot with different sizes R6a-R6g are evaluated to observe
the influence of the parametric variation of the innermost
ring slot (medium radius and slot width). Fig. 5 shows the
transmission coefficient magnitudes of the above-mentioned
unit cells. The transmission coefficient magnitude of the FSS
without the sixth ring is also plotted for comparison.
From the computed results summarized in Table 2, one
can observe that for the FSS unit cell with five ring slots
the separation between the fifth and the fourth resonance
(f5 /f4 = 1.30) is larger than the separation for other con-
tiguous bands. It can be observed that the addition of a sixth
ring slot allows the fifth resonant frequency to shift backward
to reduce the separation with respect of the fourth resonant
frequency as well as the reduction of the fifth fractional
bandwidth (f5 /f4 = 1.16 for R6g). It is also observed that
the additional resonance appears far beyond with respect to
the highest operating frequency of the penta-band FSS (>
60 GHz for R6g). The frequency and bandwidth of the sixth
passband can be tuned by adjusting the medium radius r6 and
width w6 of the sixth ring slot.
The electric field and surface currents of the fifth ring
slot at resonance are analyzed to reveal the effect of the
supplementary sixth ring slot in the FSS response. Fig. 6(a)
shows the electric field intensity for the case of the FSS unit
cell with five ring slots at the resonant frequency of 48.8 GHz,
while Fig. 6(b) shows the field for the FSS unit cell with
six ring slots (ring slot R6e from Table 2 ) at the resonant
frequency of 43.6 GHz. On the other hand, Fig. 7(a) shows the
surface current streamlines for the FSS unit cell with five ring
slots at 48.8 GHz, while Fig. 7(b) shows the surface currents
for the FSS unit cell with six ring slots (ring slot R6e from
Table 2 ) at 43.6 GHz. It is observed that the electric field and
surface current intensities are higher at the fifth resonance for
the case of the unit cell with the supplementary ring slot. This
effect allows a slight increase in the capacitance, but mainly a
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 L. Martinez-Lopez et al.: Close Band Spacing Pentaband FSSs Based on Concentric Ring Slots
TABLE 2. Effect of the supplementary ring slot in the penta-bandpass FSS
performance.
FIGURE 6. Electric field intensity of the pentaband FSS at the fifth
resonance. (a) Unit cell with five rings (48.8 GHz), and (b) modified unit
cell with a supplementary ring slot (43.6 GHz).
large increase in the fifth resonator’s inductance. Therefore,
a reduction of the fifth resonance is achieved, enabling the
close band spacing with respect to the fourth resonance.
As observed in the surface currents plots, this increase in
the inductance can be explained by the change of the unit
cell FSS’s inner geometry. For the five ring slots the inner
section is a large circular metal patch, representing a low
inductance value, meawhile the proposed unit cell comprises
the combination of a metal ring, a ring slot, and a small
circular metal patch in the center. Thus, the narrow metal ring
contributes to the high value of the inductance. On the other
hand, Fig. 7(c) shows the surface currents at transmission zero
produced by the metal ring. This additional transmission zero
allows the reduction of the fifth resonant frequency.
C. EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT MODEL FOR FSS BASED ON
CONCENTRIC RING SLOTS
Equivalent circuit models (ECMs) for FSS based on a single
ring slot as well as two concentric ring slots have been
57890
FIGURE 7. Surface currents of the pentaband FSS. (a) Unit cell with five
rings at the fifth resonance (48.8 GHz), and (b) modified unit cell with a
supplementary ring slot at the fifth resonance (43.6 GHz), and
(c) modified unit cell with a supplementary ring slot at the transmission
zero (57.9 GHz).
investigated and closed-form expressions to calculate the cir-
cuit parameters are provided in [32]. However, these expres-
sions are difficult to extend for a unit cell with six concentric
ring slots due to the complexity of the geometry, and most
important, because of the strong mutual coupling due to the
close spacing between rings. Therefore, one can consider the
simplified circuit model for the six concentric ring slot FSS
for the case of the incident wave with y- polarization taking
into account the mutual coupling between contiguous ring
slots. The capacitances Ci are due to the electric field stored
at the annular windows, and the inductances Lli and Lri are
due to the electric currents that flow at the left and right part
of the metal rings, respectively. Inductances Ll7 and Lr7 are
used to model the inner metal left and right parts of the inner
circular patch, respectively. Mutual inductances Mli,i+1 and
Mri,i+1 consider the mutual coupling between adjacent metal
rings, where i is the index to identify the i-th resonator. Due to
the symmetry of the unit cell with respect to the x- axis, one
can simplify the circuit model by analyzing only one half of
the unit cell as shown in Fig. 8(a), and because of the zero
value of the electric field Ex at y = 0, one can introduce
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L. Martinez-Lopez et al.: Close Band Spacing Pentaband FSSs Based on Concentric Ring Slots
FIGURE 8. Equivalent circuit model of the multi-bandpass FSS.
a ground along this axis. Due to the symmetry with respect
to the y- axis, both left and right inductances of the circuit
model can be consolidated as shown in Fig. 8(b), where Li
is the equivalent of the parallel connection of inductances Lli
and Lri , and Mi,i+1 is the equivalent mutual inductance of the
parallel connection of Mli,i+1 and Mri,i+1 . The value Mi,i+1
is given by the well-known equation:
Mi,i+1 = ki,i+1 Li Li+1 ,
p
(3)
where ki,i+1 is the coupling coefficient between inductances
Li and Li+1 . The characteristic impedance of the circuit is
Z0 /2, where Z0 = 377  is the free-space impedance, TLsus
is the transmission line used to model the substrate, with
characteristic impedance of ZL and electric length of EL , and
Ri are used to model the losses in the FSS unit cell. The ECM
of the FSS unit cell containing six nested RLC resonators
connected in series is presented in Fig. 8(b).
As analyzed in Section II.A, the effect of the frequency
shifting due to the mutual coupling between closely packed
concentric ring slots is not negligible, therefore, a scaling
factor γi is used to determine the reduction of the resonant
frequency fi of each FSS unit cell containing a single ring
slot, with respect to the resonant frequencies f0i of the FSS
unit cell with the six concentric ring slot resonators.
f0i = γi fi
The values of Li and Ci can be obtained by fitting the curves
of each FSS unit cell containing one ring slot resonator. Next,
these values can be initially used in the ECM for the six
concentric ring slot ECM. Then, the circuit optimizer within
VOLUME 9, 2021
TABLE 3. Resonant frequencies and scaling factor.
ADS Keysight can be used to obtain the values of Mi,i+1 and
Ri that enable the ECM to fit the resonant frequencies and the
insertion loss at resonances, respectively.
III. DESIGN OF MULTIBAND FSS
A FSS with five resonant frequencies closely spaced based
on concentric ring slots operating at Ka and V bands was
designed. The FSS ring slots are printed on a dielectric sub-
strate with a thickness of 0.127 mm (εr = 2.2, tan δ =
0.0009).
The sizes of the ring slots within the unit cell (medium
radii and slot widths) were optimized with the help of the
frequency-domain solver within CST Studio Suite to decrease
reflections inside the passbands. The sizes of the sixth ring
slot were adjusted to reduce the band ratio f5 /f4 and to set f6
far away from the pentaband operating frequency. Therefore,
after the optimization, insertion loss in the five passbands are
minimized and isolation in the rejection bands maximized.
The sizes of the optimized unit cell are given by b = 3.5 mm;
medium radii of r1 = 1.49 mm, r2 = 1.325 mm, r3 =
1.19 mm, r4 = 1.055 mm, r5 = 0.93 mm, and r6 = 0.465 mm.
The widths of the ring slots are given by w1 = 0.12 mm, w2 =
0.05 mm, w3 = 0.06 mm, w4 = 0.05 mm, w5 = 0.06 mm,
and w6 = 0.73 mm. The resonant frequencies as well as the
scaling factors are given in Table 3 .
The parameters Li and Ci of the ECM are given by L1 =
0.490 nH, C1 = 61.8 fF, L2 = 0.249 nH, C2 = 94.5 fF,
L3 = 0.188 nH, C3 = 116 fF, L4 = 0.124 nH, C4 = 122 fF,
L5 = 0.091 nH, C5 = 154 fF, and L6 = 0.046 nH, and
C6 = 84.8 fF. For this analyzed case, these values can be
fairly approximated by the empirical equations that consider
the medium radii (in mm) and the slot widths (in mm) of the
ring slots:
q
Li = 80ri3 1 + 18wi ri

[nH], and (5)
 . q
Ci = 88 ri2 + 80

1 + 20wi ri [pF]. (6)
Finally, the remaining parameters of the ECM were
extracted using the circuit optimizer within ADS: L7 =
(4) 0.121 nH, R1 = 6.0 k, R2 = 5.5 k, R3 = 4.2 k,
R4 = 2.2 k, R5 = 1.8 k, R6 = 1.2 k, k1,2 = 0.28,
k2,3 = 0.42, k3,4 = 0.32, k4,5 = 0.30, k5,6 = 0.22, and k6,7 =
0.02. The characteristic impedance of the transmission line
is 127.1  with an electrical length of 6.8◦ at 30 GHz. The
simulated magnitudes of the transmission coefficient |S21 | of
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 L. Martinez-Lopez et al.: Close Band Spacing Pentaband FSSs Based on Concentric Ring Slots
FIGURE 9. Simulated transmission coefficient magnitude of the
optimized FSS. Comparison the full-wave method and the ECM.
FIGURE 10. Simulated transmission coefficient magnitude of the
optimized FSS for different incident elevation angles.
the optimized FSS obtained with the full-wave solver and the
ECM are plotted in Fig. 9.
The scattering of the linearly polarized wave with oblique
angular incidence is also analyzed. Fig. 10 shows the mag-
nitudes of the transmission coefficients for elevation angles
up to 50◦ . A good stability is observed for the intermediate
passbands for angles up to 50◦ , while for the lowest and
highest passbands a moderate deviation is observed for angles
up to 40◦ .
IV. FSS FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION
A. FSS FABRICATION
To validate the computed results, a FSS protype with 27 × 27
elements and dimensions of 11 cm × 11 cm was fabricated
and experimentally verified. The 729 -element prototype
was fabricated on a microwave friendly substrate Rogers
5880 substrate with εr = 2.2, thickness of 127 µm, and
57892
FIGURE 11. Photograph of the fabricated FSS.
loss tangent of 0.0009. The fabrication process is based on a
standard photolithography process by wet chemical etching.
The sizes of the ring slots, the array lattice, and the period
of the unit cell of the fabricated FSS are the same as the
ones of the optimized unit cell FSS described in Section III.
Due to the high resolution required in the fabrication pro-
cess, the copper cladding of the microwave-friendly sub-
strate, originally of 17 µm, was reduced to 12 µm to prevent
undercutting in the metal rings. With this microfabrication
step, fabrication errors lower that 10 µm in the geometry
features were achieved. The fabricated penta-bandpass FSS
prototype is shown in Fig. 11. As the FSS was fabricated on
a thin dielectric substrate, two acrylic frames were utilized to
provide mechanical stability.
B. FSS CHARACTERIZATION
The fabricated penta-bandpass FSS was tested to validate the
proposed approach. A free space quasi-optic measurement
setup shown in Fig. 12(a), containing two scalar corrugated
conical horn antennas connected to a vector network analyzer
(VNA), two Teflon hyperbolic lenses and the FSS prototype
mounted on a rotating stage, was used to characterize the
fabricated FSS. The scheme of the measurement setup is
shown on Fig. 12(b).
The transmitting antenna is a scalar horn of 20 mm aper-
ture diameter and 16.7 dBi gain at 36.5 GHz. The effective
aperture diameter of the transmitting horn is 18 mm due to
the tapering of the electric intensity field distribution at the
horn aperture. The lower limit of the far field zone for this
horn is 91 mm at the frequency of 42 GHz. A spherical wave
radiated by the transmitting horn has been transformed to a
quasi-plane wave by a hyperbolic Teflon lens A (Fig. 12(b))
of 90 mm diameter and 90 mm-focal length. This quasi-plane
wave propagates toward lens B. The distance between plane
surfaces of the lenses A and B is 750 mm. A second hyperbolic
Teflon lens B of 90 mm diameter and 270 mm focal length
has been used to focus the electromagnetic radiation at the
surface of the rotating FSS situated at the distance of 160 mm
from lens B. This lens has been installed at the aperture of
the Styrofoam screen lined with aluminum foil. As a result,
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L. Martinez-Lopez et al.: Close Band Spacing Pentaband FSSs Based on Concentric Ring Slots
FIGURE 12. Free space measurement setup. a) Photograph, and
b) schematic diagram indicating distances between components.
an illuminated spot is obtained at the center of the FSS. The
FSS rotation permits to ensure different incident elevation
angles θ as it is shown on Fig. 12(b).
The time domain solver within CST Studio Suite has been
used to estimate the focusing of the electromagnetic power
density at the center of the FSS. Plane wave propagating in the
negative z-direction has been assumed as the excitation source
for the dielectric lens B. Simulated distribution of the elec-
tromagnetic power density at 36.5 GHz is shown in Fig. 13.
This distribution corresponds to the well-known Gaussian
beam. According to the simulated results, the diameter of the
electromagnetic power density spot defined at -10 dB level,
changes from 40.4 mm at 27 GHz to 26.9 mm at 40 GHz.
Simulated results also have confirmed that the front of the
incident wave is nearly parallel to the FSS surface for the
case of θ equal to 0◦ . Therefore, the illumination of the FSS
borders is negligible considering that the spot diameter is
substantially smaller than the transversal size of the fabri-
cated FSS in the entire frequency band. The Gaussian beam
approach has been used to avoid the diffraction effects at the
FSS borders [33, 34]. Then, the transmitted wave through
the FSS is received by a scalar horn of 55 mm aperture
diameter and 23.1 dBi gain at 36.5 GHz. This horn is situated
at 1080 mm from the FSS. The lower limit of the far-field
zone for the receiving horn is 700 mm at 42 GHz considering
electric field tapering at the horn aperture. The relatively
high gain of the receiving horn permits to suppress weak
reflections from the laboratory walls and windows.
VOLUME 9, 2021
FIGURE 13. Simulated distribution of the electromagnetic power density
at 36.5 GHz for the illumination of the FSS prototype by the focusing
lens B.
The phase centers of the transmitting and receiving horns
have been aligned at the height of 570 mm over the laboratory
bench to avoid reflections. Then transmitting and receiving
horns have been connected to the calibrated VNA using
circular-to-rectangular waveguide adapters and coaxial-to-
rectangular waveguide adapters.
Special measures have been taken to eliminate the effect
of the multiple reflections between lenses A and B. These
multiple reflections cause ±0.35 dB ripple on the measured
|S21 | curves. The distance between the ripple minimums on
the frequency axis is about 0.2 GHz, clearly indicating that
this ripple resulted from the interference between the directly
transmitted wave and the wave that has arrived after travel-
ing an additional distance of approximately 1500 mm. This
distance is equal to the doubled distance between lenses A
and B. Thus, the time gating within VNA time domain option
has been used to suppress the effect of the interfering wave
that arrives to the receiving horn after consecutive reflections
between lens B and lens A. This measure also ensures addi-
tional suppression of the weak interfering waves caused by
reflections from the laboratory windows and walls.
a coefficient is measured with-
In the first instance, the S21
p
out the FSS prototype. Then, the FSS is installed and S21
measured for the different FSS rotation angles. The FSS
transmission coefficient S21 is then calculated dividing the
p a for each rotation
magnitude of S21 by the magnitude of S21
angle.
The measured results for incident elevation angles up to
45◦ are shown in Fig. 14. The comparison of the simulated
results obtained with the full-wave solver and the measured
results for normal and oblique incidence of the incoming
wave is shown in Fig. 15.
The measured penta-bandpass FSS shows five transmis-
sion bands located at 26.7, 29.8, 33.6, 38.1 and 44.2 GHz
with -3 dB fractional bandwidths of 9.1 %, 3.9 %, 4.8 %,
4.9 %, and 7.8 %, respectively. Four isolation bands within
the operating penta-bandpass operation of the FSS with
isolation levels better than 15 dB are observed. The fre-
quency range of these rejection bands are 27.91-28.24 GHz,
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 L. Martinez-Lopez et al.: Close Band Spacing Pentaband FSSs Based on Concentric Ring Slots
FIGURE 14. Measured transmission coefficient magnitude of the
fabricated pentaband FSS for different incident elevation angles in the
free space measurement setup.
FIGURE 15. Measured and simulated transmission coefficient magnitude
of the penta-bandpass FSS for different incident elevation angles.
31.15-31.66 GHz, 35.40-36.01 GHz, and 40.36-41.11 GHz
for normal incidence. The stability for oblique angular inci-
dence of the measured FSS is good for angles up to 45◦ .
The relatively higher loss in the lower frequency bands
is believed to originate from the early increment of dissipa-
tive loss observed in PCB printed resonators at microwave
57894
TABLE 4. Summary of the measured pentaband FSS results at normal
incidence.
TABLE 5. Summary and comparison of the recent pentaband FSS.
frequencies [35]. An acceptable agreement between simu-
lated and measured results is observed. A summary of the
proposed penta-bandpass FSS results is given in Table 4 .
Finally, a comparison of the results obtained in this work
with published ones in the literature for similar pentaband
FSSs is given in Table 5 .
V. CONCLUSION
A multiband FSS with five closely spaced resonances based
on concentric ring slots with reduced mutual coupling was
designed, fabricated, and experimentally verified.
The supplementary innermost ring slot in the FSS unit cell
geometry was useful to reduce the band separation between
the ring slot resonances while increasing the band selectivity
to achieve the close band spacing. It can also be seen as the
sixth ring slot produces a sixth passband, which pushes the
fifth passband to a lower frequency. A full-wave solver was
used to obtain the transmission characteristics of the unit cell,
while an equivalent circuit model, with a parameter extraction
method was proposed. To validate the numerical simulations,
a FSS prototype was fabricated and characterized in a free
space measurement setup. Five transmission bands with cen-
ter frequencies of 26.7, 29.8, 33.6, 38.1 and 44.2 GHz were
obtained, with band ratios of 1.12, 1.13, 1.13, and 1.16.
An extremely low ratio of the highest to the lowest resonant
frequency of the penta-bandpass FSS of 1.66 was achieved
with the proposed approach. Satisfactory FSS response for
oblique angular incidence was observed for elevation angles
VOLUME 9, 2021
L. Martinez-Lopez et al.: Close Band Spacing Pentaband FSSs Based on Concentric Ring Slots
up to 45◦ . This approach can be used to obtain closely located
multiband FSS with 2, 3, 4 and 5 bands.
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LOURDES MARTINEZ-LOPEZ was born in
Mexico City, Mexico. She received the B.S.,
M.Eng., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineer-
ing from the National Autonomous University of
Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City, in 2006, 2008, and
2015, respectively. She is currently a Professor
of electrical engineering with UNAM. Her cur-
rent research interests include circular polarizers,
frequency selective surfaces, metasurfaces, and
antenna arrays.
57895
 L. Martinez-Lopez et al.: Close Band Spacing Pentaband FSSs Based on Concentric Ring Slots
ROSALBA MARTINEZ-LOPEZ was born in
Mexico City, Mexico. She received the B.S.
degree in computer engineering and the M.Eng.
and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from
the National Autonomous University of Mexico
(UNAM), Mexico City, in 2004, 2007, and 2013,
respectively. Since 2013, she has been a Pro-
fessor with the School of Engineering, UNAM.
Her current research interests include frequency
selective surfaces, micro-electromechanical sys-
tems (MEMS), antenna arrays, and microwave circuits.
ALEXANDER E. MARTYNYUK was born in Kiev,
Ukraine. He received the M.Sc. degree in radio
engineering and the Ph.D. degree from the Kiev
Polytechnic Institute, Kiev, in 1988 and 1993,
respectively. From 1988 to 1995, he was with
the Faculty of Radio Engineering, Kiev Poly-
technic Institute. Since 1995, he has been with
the National Autonomous University of Mexico
(UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico, where he is cur-
rently a Professor with the School of Engineer-
ing. His research interests include microwave and millimeter-wave devices,
antenna arrays, and millimeter-wave communications.
JORGE RODRIGUEZ-CUEVAS was born in
Mexico City, Mexico. He received the B.S.,
M.Eng., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineer-
ing from the National Autonomous University of
Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City, in 1987, 1995, and
2003, respectively. In 2003, he completed special-
ized studies in microelectromechanical systems
(MEMS) at UNAM and the United States-Mexico
Foundation for Science (FUMEC), Mexico City.
Since 1987, he has been with the Electronics Engi-
neering Department, UNAM, where he is currently a Professor engaged
in research and teaching on telecommunication circuits and systems. His
current research interests include phased arrays, RF MEMS, and microwave
and millimeter-wave circuits.
57896
HENRY FABIAN-GONGORA was born in
Veracruz, Mexico. He received the B.S. degree
in electronics engineering from the Technological
Institute of Veracruz, in 2009, and the M.Eng.
and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from
the National Autonomous University of Mexico
(UNAM), Mexico City, in 2014 and 2018, respec-
tively. Since 2019, he has been a Professor with the
School of Engineering, Autonomous University of
Campeche (UAC). His current research interests
include frequency selective surfaces, metasurfaces, antenna arrays, and
microwave circuits.
JOSE I. MARTINEZ-LOPEZ (Member, IEEE)
was born in Mexico City, Mexico. He received
the B.S., M.Eng., and Ph.D. degrees in electri-
cal engineering from the National Autonomous
University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City,
in 1994, 1998, and 2005, respectively. In 2006, he
was with Schlumberger Technology Corporation,
Sugar Land, TX, USA, where he was developing
antennas for deep induction array tools for the oil
industry. In 2009, he was a Visiting Scholar with
the Electroscience Laboratory, The Ohio State University (OSU), Columbus,
OH, USA. He is currently a Professor of electrical engineering with UNAM.
He is also on a sabbatical leave as a Visiting Scholar with the Nonlinear RF
Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, ECE-OSU.
His current research interests include antenna arrays, frequency selective
surfaces, and microwave and millimeter-wave circuits.
VOLUME 9, 2021