1288 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 63, NO.

4, APRIL 2015

Modulated Metasurface Antennas for Space:

Synthesis, Analysis and Realizations
Gabriele Minatti, Marco Faenzi, Enrica Martini, Senior Member, IEEE,
Francesco Caminita, Paolo De Vita, David González-Ovejero, Member, IEEE,
Marco Sabbadini, and Stefano Maci, Fellow, IEEE

Abstract—This paper presents design and analysis methods
for planar antennas based on modulated metasurfaces (MTSs).
These antennas operate on an interaction between a cylindrical
surface-wave (SW) excited by an isotropic TM radiator, and an
MTS having a spatially modulated equivalent impedance. The
MTS is realized by using sub-wavelength patches printed on a
grounded slab, thus resulting in a structure with light weight
and compact volume. Both features are appealing characteristics
for space applications. This paper introduces for the first time
an impedance-based amplitude synthesis of the aperture field
distribution and shows several new examples of antennas for space
applications obtained in recent research projects financed by the
European Space Agency.
Index Terms—Leaky-waves, metasurface antennas, modulated
surface impedance, space antennas, surface-waves.
I. INTRODUCTION
A NTENNAS are key components in all satellite systems.
Reflector antennas are the most common solution for high
and very-high gain antennas, whereas arrays are used to a minor
extent owing to their higher complexity. Several types of an-
tennas may be used for low-gain and medium-gain needs. De-
spite the high degree of flexibility and the technological ma-
turity reached, new solutions are actively sought to improve
upon existing ones in response to the continuous demand for
increased performances. In this framework modulated metasur-
face antennas (MoMetAs) appear to be a promising alternative.
Holloway et al. presented in [1] a review on metasurfaces
(MTSs), where they showed the wide range of their potential
applications in electromagnetics. However, the emphasis in [1]
Manuscript received May 30, 2014; accepted August 03, 2014. Date of pub-
lication December 05, 2014; date of current version April 03, 2015. This work
was supported by the European Space Agency under contracts 22808/09/NL/JD
and AO/1-7069/12/NL/MH.
G. Minatti and M. Sabbadini are with the European Space Agency,
2201 AZ Noordwijk, The Netherlands (e-mail: gabriele.minatti@esa.int;
marco.sabbadini@esa.int).
M. Faenzi, D. González-Ovejero, and S. Maci are with the Department of
Information Engineering and Mathematics, University of Siena, 53100 Siena,
Italy (e-mail: macis@dii.unisi.it).
E. Martini and F. Caminita are with the Department of Information Engi-
neering and Mathematics, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy and also with
Wave Up S.r.l., 50129 Firenze, Italy.
P. De Vita is with the Ingegneria dei Sistemi, Pisa, Italy (e-mail: p.devita@
idscorporation.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2014.2377718
and in the great part of the papers cited therein is on non-mod-
ulated MTSs. The applications of modulated MTSs are in fact
important and challenging, and can be divided in three classes:
a) MTSs for aperture antennas [2]–[4], b) MTSs for the con-
trol of surface-waves (SWs) wave-front [5]–[8], c) MTS screens
for the control of field transmission [9]–[11]. In this paper, we
focus the attention on the first class of applications. In [2] both
linearly and circularly polarized (CP) tilted-beams have been
obtained using an elliptically modulated MTS. There, the inter-
action between local SW and impedance is described by means
of a holographic principle. In [3] the antenna is constituted by a
spiral-shape modulated surface impedance, excited at the centre
by a TM source feed. CP broadside radiation is obtained by a
leaky-wave (LW) pseudo-mode induced by a cylindrical SW
excitation. In [4] anisotropic impedance is used to realize a CP
isoflux shaped beam for satellite applications.
The basic concept can be applied as well to MTS-covered
shaped reflectors illuminated by an external field. Therefore,
the class of MoMetAs is to be considered much broader than
the planar solutions presented here. In fact, a modulated MTS
boundary can be used to enhance several kinds of antennas, the
most notable exceptions being low-gain antennas, due to their
small size. Although MoMetAs are based on a LW mechanism,
their behaviour offers an enormous flexibility with respect to
(w.r.t.) those of conventional LW antennas.
The key features making MoMetAs very appealing for space
applications can be summarized as follows:
• Unique decoupling of electrical and thermo-mechanical
design.
• Unique capability of low-complexity (dynamic) beam con-
trol (shaping, pointing and scanning).
• Unique support for late electrical performance refinement
and design re-usability.
• Complete and simple on-surface control of medium-to-
large size apertures.
• Low power losses.
• Low mass and low envelope.
• Implementation amenable to very different technologies.
• Simple low-cost manufacturing.
Consequently, MoMetAs are in principle suitable for all space
applications and for a very wide range of ground applications.
The research projects funded by the European Space Agency
have been concentrated mainly on Earth Observation, Space Ex-
ploration and Telecommunications. The most mature solutions
so far are those developed for Instrument Data Transmission

0018-926X © 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
MINATTI et al.: MODULATED METASURFACE ANTENNAS FOR SPACE: SYNTHESIS, ANALYSIS AND REALIZATIONS 1289

Antennas for Earth Observation missions in Low Earth Orbit

(LEO) at X-band and Ka-band [12]. Next, the concept is being
applied to high gain antennas for telemetry and tele-command
of deep-space missions [13]. At the same time, the use of modu-
lated MTSs to enhance reflector antenna's performance is being
addressed, considering both reflectors [14] and feeders, mainly
for telecommunication applications in Ku and Ka band. Finally,
the use in (mobile) ground terminals and other ground-based an-
tennas within satellite systems is under study.
This paper is structured as follows. Section II summarizes
the basic phenomenology and the design guidelines. Section III
presents the details of the design process by introducing for the
first time the aperture amplitude synthesis. Section IV provides
a summary of the main results obtained for these antennas rele-
vant to space applications. Section V presents a preliminary me-
chanical and thermal design of an antenna suitable to achieve
widely different radiation patterns. Finally, Section VI draws Fig. 1. MTS at microwave frequencies consisting of small patches with vari-
some conclusions. able sizes printed on a grounded slab; (a) isotropic MTS formed by square or
circular patches with variable dimensions (b) anisotropic MTS formed by cir-
cular patches with slots or cuts inside.
II. BASIC OPERATION PRINCIPLE
At microwave and millimeter wave frequencies, MTS for
aperture antennas can be realized through a dense periodic tex- The concept of average electric and magnetic field is based
ture of small elements printed on a grounded slab. By averaging on the assumption that each constituent element of the MTS is
the tangential field, MTSs can be described macroscopically embedded in a locally uniform periodic structure. That is, one
through impedance boundary conditions. This leads to the def- identifies the local value of reactance with the one of a periodic
inition of a surface impedance tensor, which links the average texture which matches the local geometry. This allows one to
tangential electric field to the average tangential magnetic field. define the phased-weighted average values of electric and mag-
When the shape of the elements is regular enough (Fig. 1(a)), netic field as the coefficients of the dominant mode in the Flo-
the impedance tensor becomes a scalar quantity and the effect of quet-wave (FW) expansion at the interface.
the boundary condition is isotropic with respect to the direction
of the surface wave propagation. Shapes containing additional B. MTS Resonance Condition and Supported Surface Wave
features, like slots, grooves or cuts, allow for a good control of The local resonance expresses the balance between the space
the resulting anisotropy (Fig. 1(b)). density of electromagnetic energy associated with the dominant
Floquet-mode , and the one associated with the higher
A. Effective Boundary Conditions
order Floquet-modes stored in proximity of the cladding
A lossless metasurface placed at is characterized by and inside the slab; that is . Since the practical
space-dependent effective boundary conditions of the type realization implies printing the elements on a grounded slab,
in the low frequency regime is positive (inductive) and
therefore is negative. This implies a dominant TM nature
(1)
of the SW at low frequency.
where and are the average electric and magnetic field at By indicating with the direction
the upper limit of the interface, and is normal to the interface. normal to the SW wavefront, where is the surface wave
The tensor will be denoted here as MTS reactance and it is wavenumber, the MTS reactance can be conveniently repre-
assumed to be dependent on frequency and on the transverse sented in the “ray fixed” basis , where , i.e.,
Cartesian or cylindrical space coordinates. Notice
that is in general a function of the transverse wavenumber
(2)
. MoMetAs exploit the boundary condition in (1) at the
that satisfies the local resonant condition of the surface, based The elements of the tensor can be embedded into an equiva-
on local periodicity assumption. The fact that the surface is loss- lent circuit connecting two transmission lines with TE and TM
less and not penetrable implies that the tensor is anti-Her- characteristic impedances. This allows one to set up a transverse
mitian [15], i.e., (where denotes the trans- resonance condition which establishes the dispersion of the SW
pose-conjugate). Whenever the printed element possesses two [5]. In the special case of isotropic impedance of value we
orthogonal symmetry axes, reciprocity implies that the matrix have
is real and symmetric and therefore its eigenvalues are real
and its eigenvectors are orthogonal. In the following we will as-
sume the tensor to be real and symmetric. (3)
1290 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 63, NO. 4, APRIL 2015

where and are the free-space wavenumber and the free-space

impedance, respectively.

C. SW Excited by a Point Source on a Variable MTS

Let us consider a constant impenetrable scalar inductive re-
actance located at the plane of a reference
system. Hereinafter, we denote by the observation point in
an arbitrary point of the surface, characterized by cylindrical
coordinates with unit vectors . A TM point source
(vertical dipole or monopole) at the origin excites a cylindrical
SW whose transverse magnetic field is asymptotically given for
large by
Fig. 2. Block diagram of the overall design process.

(4)
where is the Hankel function of the second kind and first
order. If the dipole is placed on an anisotropic periodically
modulated MTS with a small variation of its eigenvalues
around an average value , one can approximate the tangen-
tial electric field through [4]
(5)
where the parameter is identified with the wavenumber
linked to as in (3), namely . tude and phase by properly acting on the modulation parame-
The average leakage constant , that is for now an unknown,
is a design parameter which tapers the amplitude of the aper-
ture illumination. The reactance is approximated by the
local values in (2) by assuming , i.e., assuming that
the local propagation direction is radial, as it would happen
on a bare grounded slab. In doing this, we neglect any possible
small deviations from the radial direction that might come from
the interaction between the surface wave and modulated surface
impedance. We identify therefore
, and we will use the latter notation
hereinafter. The tangential aperture field in (5) contains radi-
ating components which can be cast in a generalized LW form
with a controlled radiation. This leads to the design process de-
scribed in the next Section.
III. DESIGN PROCESS
The overall MoMetA design process [16] is sketched in
Fig. 2 and summarized hereinafter. An initial synthesis of the
impedance tensor is performed as will be shown in (11), Sec-
tion III.A. In this step, the modulation indices of the impedance
are constant along the radial direction (phase-only synthesis)
or weakly space dependent (amplitude-phase synthesis). The
initial entries of the impedance tensor are then refined by a
convex optimization process based on a continuous impedance
model. This process uses an extremely fast global-domain spec-
tral approach (Section III.B). Next, the continuous impedance
achieved upon convergence is mapped into an actual MTS
layout on the basis of the local periodicity assumption. This
process is described in Section III.C and is indicated as “pixel
modelling” in Fig. 2. Finally, full-wave analysis is applied
as described in Section III.D, which leads in most cases to a
successful completion of the process. A fine tuning is applied
otherwise. Span in frequency, not described in Fig. 2, may be
necessary in the design optimization. If needed, a sensitivity
analysis is also applied.
A. Initial Aperture Synthesis
As the radiation by MTSs is based on the interaction of the
modulated surface impedance with the SW launched on it, the
resulting aperture distribution can be controlled in both ampli-
ters. In a first approximation, the phasing of the aperture field
depends on the period of the impedance modulation, whereas
the amplitude is shaped by acting on the average impedance and
on the modulation indexes of the tensorial components. We do
not treat here the process to find the aperture distribution from
the radiation pattern, since this is a quite standard process [17].
Instead, we will provide guidelines on the synthesis of the reac-
tance able to reproduce the desired aperture distribution
for a given TM point source.
In the following, we distinguish between phase-only syn-
thesis and amplitude/phase synthesis. In both cases, it is
understood that the direct space-field provided by the feeder is
not accounted for, as it is assumed to be of minor relevance in
the pattern synthesis.
1) Phase-Only Synthesis: We are seeking here a real sym-
metric MTS reactance in (5) supporting an aperture field
of the form
(6)
where we have understood and suppressed the limit for van-
ishing positive . The factor outside the square parentheses in
(6) is the asymptotic value of the Hankel function amplitude
in (5), which is extracted from the remainder for convenience.
In (6) is a unit step function which is unity in the aperture
antenna region and zero elsewhere. The functions and
are the space-dependent “objective phases” and we as-
sume in (6) that is independent of .
MINATTI et al.: MODULATED METASURFACE ANTENNAS FOR SPACE: SYNTHESIS, ANALYSIS AND REALIZATIONS 1291

Let us denote the Fourier spectrum of ,

which is related to the far field pattern we would like to synthe-
size. Matching directly with in (5) does not give real en-
tries of the impedance tensor, as required by the physical feasi-
bility. To increase the degrees of freedom, one may accept to add
to the objective field a “weakly radiative” (WR) aperture
field . This contribution possesses a low-energy Fourier
spectrum inside the visible region, namely

(7)

Fig. 3. Local 2D periodic problem which matches the homogenized variable

This additional weakly radiative field is necessary to render the
field synthesizable through (5) with a real symmetric matrix .
To this end, we assume that
(8)
where is calculated as in (5). The weakly radiative aperture
field is defined as
(9)
where the argument of the Hankel function is
assumed and suppressed. Exploiting the asymptotic approxi-
mation of the Hankel function, one can see that the spectra
of the first and second terms in (9) are shifted in the spectral
plane of and w.r.t. the objective spectrum ,
respectively. Thus, the visibility of (9) in the far field is intu-
itively little, as requested. A rigorous demonstration of (7) for
the present choice is omitted here as it falls outside the scope of
this paper. Inserting (8) with (9) in (5) leads to
(10)
It is worth noting that is the com-
plex excitation coefficient of the SW. The RHS of (10) is real,
thus being consistent with the LHS and clarifying the main mo-
tivation of the choice in (9). The prescribed choice of
is also motivated by the fact that the resulting term has
a mean value equal to , thus legitimating the approximation
. Projecting (10) along the radial and
azimuthal components and using the asymptotic approximation
of the Hankel function, yields
impedance. The 2D problem is used for finding the link between the local mod-
ulation index and the local leakage constant.
where and
are the “modulation indexes” of the
impedance. We note that the modulation of has a minor
impact in the synthesis, due to the fact that the realizable
aperture fields are always quasi-TM.
We should observe that in (11) the modulation indexes are
still undetermined since the ratios are
unknown. The value of plays a fundamental role in finding
them. In fact, while gives a desired tapering efficiency,
its choice automatically imposes a determined value of
leading to . The latter functional de-
pendence is found through the response of a 2D “canonical” si-
nusoidal impedance problem that matches the actual impedance
in terms of average impedance and local period (see Fig. 3). To
this end, we have implemented a generalization to anisotropic
impedance of the Oliner's method described in [18]. This gen-
eralization has been outlined in [19] and its formulation will be
the subject of a future publication.
2) Phase-Amplitude Synthesis: The previous method allows
for the synthesis of an aperture field which is mandatorily of
the form (6), which exhibits an exponential attenuation. This
reduces the class of synthesizable aperture fields. In order to
shape the aperture amplitude (and eventually the radiated beam)
with more generality, one should control the modulation indexes
and as a function of inside (11). This can be
done by using an extension of the formula derived by Oliner in
[20] and based on power conservation. Let us assume that the
objective field possesses the general form
(12)
where is a positive constant and is a finite-
energy function of . The leakage distribution for a circular
aperture of radius can be found as
(13)

(11)
1292 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 63, NO. 4, APRIL 2015
where is the normal-
ized aperture field, and the percentage of power radiated by the
LW with respect to the input SW power (neither the space-wave
vs. SW efficiency nor the overall antenna radiation efficiency
are considered in this formula). Typical values for are above
60% and its value mainly affects the antenna size. From (13)
the required average value inside the Hankel function in (5) is
given by
(14)
Moreover one can find
(15)
Using (15) in (10), the required impedance is found as in (11)
replacing with
(16)
where
and the argument of the Hankel function
is as in (5) with (14) therein. According to this expression,
constant values of modulation indexes imply a space
independent value of (and vice versa), thus reducing to the
case of phase-only synthesis. We also note that is again
evaluated through the local canonical impedance problem, like
in the phase-only synthesis. The novel formulation (12)–(16)
dramatically broadens the class of synthesizable aperture fields.
B. Continuous Impedance Full-Wave Analysis
The first-level optimization of the design is still performed
using a homogenized impedance assumption. Actually, the
maximum dimension of the patches in the actual structure is
typically around . Hence, the use of a method of mo-
ments (MoM) in a direct optimization process is unpractical.
In fact, the presence of electrically small elements results in
fine mesh details, which worsen the condition number of the
MoM impedance matrix. On the other hand, it is observed that
creating the desired interaction between the MTS and the SW
implies patches sizes changing smoothly across the surface
on a -scale. Therefore, the variation of the surface reactance
associated with the average fields will be smooth as well.
More than using impenetrable boundary conditions described
by , it is convenient imposing the integral equation through
a continuous, slowly-varying, penetrable impedance boundary
condition defined by , where
. This reactance represents
the one associated with the MTS cladding. Since one only
needs to solve for the jump electric currents, the formulation
which resorts to is more convenient than those resorting
to , where both electric and magnetic currents have to be
used in the integral equation. This results in a more accurate
description of the spatial dispersion owing to the use of the
grounded slab Green's function. Provided that the change of
is smooth, it is reasonable to expect that the jump cur-
rents excited on such surface are also smooth. Thus, they can
be represented with a number of basis functions much lower
than the one needed for currents on the actual patches printed
on the substrate. The basis functions introduced in [21] allow
for a drastic reduction in the number of unknowns and enable
a direct (non-iterative) solution, thus avoiding any condition or
convergence problem and reducing the overall computational
cost. Besides, the closed-form spectrum of the basis function
leads to closed-form expressions for the MoM matrix entries
and for the far-fields. Using this formulation we can rapidly
verify the approximate synthesis detailed in previous sections,
and optimize the continuous impedance profile at a very low
computational cost, owing to the use of closed-form entries.
Antennas of ten wavelengths radius may be solved with few
hundreds unknowns in few seconds, and optimized within a
couple of hours starting from the initial guess described in
Section III.A.
C. Pixel Modelling
After obtaining the local impedance, one should choose the
elements to implement it. As a rule of thumb, the dimension of
the elements ranges from to . To emphasize that these
patches are small in terms of wavelength, we will sometimes
denote them and the cell that they occupy as “pixel” in the global
aperture picture. The periodicity is always taken as a constant
on the aperture and the variation of impedance is achieved by
changing the geometrical parameters.
To produce anisotropic impedances, the element geometry
should have additional features in order to change the electro-
magnetic properties for propagation along different axes. Dif-
ferent geometrical shapes can be used. The solutions of Fig. 4(b)
and (d) are the ones suggested in [2] and [4], respectively. The
elliptical shape in Fig. 4(c) can be analyzed with the quasi-an-
alytical method proposed in [22]. All the investigated solutions
exhibit two non-dimensional parameters and . Retrieval
of the reactance values from the geometrical parameters is per-
formed by resorting to a local periodicity concept, i.e., by pe-
riodic boundary conditions applied to a unit cell with parame-
ters and . This allows one to construct a database, which
is next interpolated defining two continuous functions of the
parameters and . The values required in (11) for
and are obtained pixel by pixel by a best fit process. This
process is typically very fast after the database construction,
whose details are explained in [4].
D. Fast Full-Wave Analysis (Final Fine Tuning)
The second-level analysis describes individually the basic el-
ements of the MTS and requires an accurate and challenging
full-wave analysis. Typical space antennas usually have rela-
tively high-gain and require many thousands pixels. The mesh
of sub-wavelength features, especially in anisotropic elements,
MINATTI et al.: MODULATED METASURFACE ANTENNAS FOR SPACE: SYNTHESIS, ANALYSIS AND REALIZATIONS
Fig. 4. Patch geometries for anisotropic impedance surface. Each geometry
possesses two specific non-dimensional parameters and that are consid-
ered for constructing the reactance database.
leads to several millions of unknowns, which cannot be afforded
with conventional techniques. To overcome the problem, we
have adapted the ADF-EMS MoM-based tool [23], resorting to
the combination of two acceleration methods: the sparse ma-
trix-adaptive integral method (SM-AIM) [24] and the synthetic
functions expansion method (SFX) [25].
In the standard SM-AIM approach the impedance matrix is
divided into the sum of a non-planar (external) matrix and
a planar matrix ( in which the weak interac-
tion term ( is obtained through the AIM
approach. In [24] the SM-AIM technique is used into the SFX
algorithm to speed-up the compression task of the impedance
matrix. In the present context the SM-AIM technique is applied
to the problem mapped in the SFX basis.
For the efficient evaluation of the SFX, weak interaction ma-
trix elements are expanded through a set of auxiliary point-
like current (multipoles) elements located at the nodes of a reg-
ular Cartesian 2D grid on the plane; that is
(17)
where are the coefficients of the multipoles relevant
to the SF's functions, are the scalar mixed potential
Green's functions sampled at the position vector of the -th
grid node, and is the number of multipoles for each planar
dimension. Since in (17) is a Toeplitz matrix, each matrix-
vector product required by the iterative solver can be computed
through a two dimensional fast Fourier transform (FFT-2D).
The use of the numerical code based on the hybrid
SM-AIM/SFX method allows for reducing the problem size by
modelling each pixel of the antenna MTS with a few synthetic
functions (e.g., 3–4 SF's instead of 100 Rao-Wilton-Glisson
(RWG) basis functions) and to speed-up the reaction integrals
computation through the FFT-2D. The resulting algorithm is
extremely efficient whenever the antenna elements change only
by means of a scale factor and by a rotation, as it is the case for
many pixels we use. In this case, the same synthetic function
expansion can be used for all the pixels.
As an example, we consider a circular MoMetA with a diam-
eter of 54 cm (12048 pixels), working at a frequency of 8.5 GHz
that makes use of a dielectric substrate of 1.575 mm thickness
and relative dielectric permittivity of 9.8. The first and second
columns of Table I show, respectively, the number of RWG basis
functions of a conventional meshing and the number of syn-
thetic functions, highlighting a compression rate of about 90%.
1293
TABLE I
PERFORMANCE OF THE SM-AIM/SFX PARALLEL CODE (8 THREADS ON AN
INTEL XEON X5667 @ 3.07 GHz, X64, 96 GB RAM)
Fig. 5. Broadside antenna realized with (a) isotropic elements [3], and
(b) anisotropic elements. The feed in Fig. 5(a) is realized by a single monopole
with a slotted circular patch on its base. The feed in Fig. 5(b) is given by four
monopoles excited in sequential rotation.
The fifth and sixth columns show the total elapsed time required
for the solution of the problem at each frequency point and the
dynamic memory occupation, respectively. Only seven minutes
are needed for the analysis of the entire antenna on a work-
station. The use of any type of commercial software requires
several hours, when possible. Despite this extreme reduction of
computer time, the analysis is still too slow to be implemented
in a multi-parametric optimization scheme. This is the reason
why it is used only for the final fine tuning. On the other hand,
the continuous impedance full-wave approach presented in Sec-
tion III.B requires few seconds for the same antenna.
IV. EXAMPLES OF ANTENNA DESIGN
The space antenna designs described in the following show
the effectiveness of our design process, as well as the excellent
features of MoMetAs for space applications. Results are pre-
sented for spot-beam antennas (Sections IV.A–IV.B) as well as
for shaped-beam antennas (Section IV.C–IV.D).
A. CP Broadside Isotropic and Anisotropic MTS Antennas
Circular polarization with broadside beam can be obtained
by both isotropic and anisotropic MTS. Practical examples are
given in Fig. 5.
1) CP Broadside Antennas With Isotropic MTS: Simple
broadside beam CP antennas can be designed by a phase-only
synthesis with , where is
the radial periodicity of the impedance modulation
, and . This leads to
the following scalar condition:
(18)
where . This case has been investi-
gated in [3], where numerical results were presented. A proto-
1294 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 63, NO. 4, APRIL 2015
Fig. 6. Measurement on a spiral broadside antenna prototype realized with
isotropic elements, (a) gain pattern on two orthogonal cuts (continuous and
dashed lines correspond to co- and cross-polar contributions, respectively);
(b) return loss: measured data (continuous line), data without anechoic
chamber's spurious reflection (dashed line), data without the early-time reflec-
tion (dotted line).
type 17 GHz antenna with isotropic elements has been manu-
factured and tested. The antenna radius is equal to 5.7 at the
central frequency, . The substrate
used has and mm. The measured
gain is presented in Fig. 6(a) and the return loss measurements
in Fig. 6(b). Gain around 25 dBi is achieved, as required by
medium gain antennas for, e.g., Deep Space Missions. Return
loss is around dB over the operational bandwidth, as typ-
ically required for space applications. Instead, the cross-polari-
sation level is quite high, approximately dB.
Fig. 6(b) shows measured data (solid line) and two additional
curves obtained by time gating. Dashed and dotted line results
are obtained using a time gating to suppress the spurious reflec-
tions from the anechoic chamber and the very early time reflec-
tion from the feed, respectively. The latter is given to show the
effect of the MTS itself. The large ripple is due to reflection at
the beginning of the MTS (the detail of the feeding is shown
in 5(a) and in the inset). Comparison with the directivity (not
shown here) has also confirmed overall losses of 0.5 dB. This
excellent losses behavior has been found for all the investigated
antennas.
Fig. 7. Typical layout for the two types of CP broadside antenna in Sec-
tion IV.A.2: (a) anisotropic MTS for a single vertical monopole feed (20), and
(b) anisotropic MTS for four vertical monopoles fed in sequential rotation (21).
2) CP Broadside Antennas With Anisotropic MTS: The
isotropic MTS design exhibits a quite high cross-polar level.
Better polarization purity can be obtained with anisotropic
surfaces. The objective aperture field is
(19)
Using the identity , leads in (6) to
, and . Therefore (11)
becomes, for
(20)
with .
An alternative way to achieve higher polarisation purity uses
a circularly polarized TM feed (namely . According to
(19) and (11) the dependence on in the impedance is cancelled
leading to
(21)
Two different MTS layouts obtained using (20) and (21) are
shown in Fig. 7(a) and (b), respectively. The two layouts are
based on “screw-head” patches (Fig. 5(b)) like those in the RHS
of Fig. 1(b). The essential difference is that in Fig. 7(a) the cuts
of the patches rotate along both and while in Fig. 7(b) they
rotate only along , since the phase rotation is provided by the
feeder. The latter is constituted by 4 pins fed in sequential phase
rotation under a circular patch.
3) Comparisons Between Isotropic and Anisotropic MTS:
Fig. 8 shows a comparison between the patterns obtained at
8.425 GHz by using the isotropic MTS implementation in (18)
and the anisotropic one in (20). The antenna radius (
at 8.425 GHz), the impedance , the sub-
strate ( and mm) and the mod-
ulation index are identical in both cases. The an-
tennas have been designed by implementing (18) with circular
elements and (20) with “screw-head” elements. Radiation pat-
terns have been obtained by full-wave analysis as described in
Section III.D. The advantages of the anisotropic surface design
are evident in terms of cross-polar component, gain and aperture
MINATTI et al.: MODULATED METASURFACE ANTENNAS FOR SPACE: SYNTHESIS, ANALYSIS AND REALIZATIONS
Fig. 8. Example of radiation pattern obtained with spiral pattern: (a) isotropic
impedance designed using (18) and circular patches, and (b) anisotropic
impedance designed using (20) and realized with circular patches with a
cut. (Circular antenna with diameter at 8.425 GHz, printed on a
substrate with and thickness mm). Solid lines are relevant
to the RHCP component, dashed line to the LHCP component.
efficiency. A gain around 32 dBi is obtained with anisotropic el-
ements, which corresponds to an illumination efficiency of 75%.
The efficiency is instead of about 30% for the isotropic antenna
(same value found for the prototype), mainly due to the much
higher cross-polar radiation. Although the isotropic antenna can
be improved using an amplitude synthesis, the cross-polar levels
are always quite high and the superiority of the anisotropic de-
sign is clear.
B. Tilted Beam CP Antennas (Isotropic and Anisotropic MTS)
In order to obtain a CP beam pointing in the direction
the required linearly phased aperture field can
be written as
(22)
1295
with , leading to
(23)
It is worth noting that , which
is constant over the aperture. Therefore, according to (16), also
the value of is constant and the sinusoidal modulation results
in an almost elliptical pattern (insets of Fig. 9). We point out
that the condition presented here is different from the one in [2]
which is based on a holographic process and that the isotropic
impedance version of (22) is given by
(24)
An example with 30 beam tilting is shown in Fig. 9. In
particular Fig. 9(a) shows a design with isotropic impedance
(24), while Fig. 9(b) shows an anisotropic impedance imple-
mentation (23). The dimension of the antenna, substrate, av-
erage impedance, modulation index and frequency of operation
are those given in Section IV.A.3) (caption of Fig. 8). Again
anisotropic design exhibits much better performance in terms
of both gain and cross-polarization level. The antenna, suitable
for Near-Earth missions high-gain antennas, offers a directivity
above 30 dBi at 30 with a cross-polar discrimination better than
25 dB. A simple azimuth rotation, achievable with a stationary
feeder, allows for conical scanning.
C. Isoflux Axially-Symmetric Antenna
An isoflux pattern provides a uniform power flux density over
a well-defined portion of the visible Earth surface by compen-
sating the rather large path loss differential between Nadir and
grazing incidence. This is a very common requirement for data
transmission antennas on satellite platform for Earth observa-
tion missions in low-earth orbit (LEO).
A 60 conical isoflux beam can be obtained with an az-
imuthally symmetric impedance modulation. The design is
based on (21), where has been replaced by .
A small patch at the centre is used to adjust the gain level
at broadside and to realize the impedance matching with the
feeding system. Further design details can be found in [4]. An
X-band prototype has been realized using a commercial equiv-
alent of a dielectric substrate accredited for space (
and mm). The prototype is an extremely flat
and light antenna with a diameter of about 54 cm, which has
been built using standard PCB printing process. The panel has
a mass of less than 1 Kg. The gain measurements are presented
in Fig. 10(a). The feeding circuitry of the antenna involves
two 90 hybrids and a 180 hybrid to generate the required
1296 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 63, NO. 4, APRIL 2015
Fig. 9. X-band tilted beam CP antennas designed with beam at 30 and imple-
mented with about 15000 patches: (a) circular patches and (b) circular patches
with rotating cut. The dimension of the antenna is the same as that in Fig. 8. Solid
lines are relevant to the RHCP component, dashed line to the LHCP component.
phasing of the four probes. Fig. 10(b) shows for the present
design return-loss results equivalent to the ones in Fig. 6(b).
Comparing the dashed line with the dotted line in Fig. 10(b)
highlights the significant impact of the feeding circuitry on the
return loss and a frequency offset in its tuning. On the other
hand the radiating panel exhibits a rather broadband behavior
as expected.
D. Sector Isoflux Pattern Antenna
To achieve higher gain as required to transmit higher data
rates, the same overall coverage of the axially-symmetric isoflux
antenna can be obtained by a sector isoflux beam. An azimuthal
rotation is needed to keep it pointing toward the ground station
while the LEO satellite moves along the orbit. The aperture dis-
tribution is chosen as
(25)
Fig. 10. (a) Measured gain (RHCP vs LHCP) of the isoflux metasurface an-
tenna prototype and (b) measured return loss: measured data (continuous line),
data without anechoic chamber’s spurious reflection (short dashed line), data
de-embedded at the input port of the feeding circuitry (long dashed line), and
data de-embedded at the MTS plane (dotted line).
where and
. After rewriting (25) in the form
(12), the value of the impedance is calculated as
(26)
with and defined as in (23), and and calculated
as in (16). The choice of the parameters depends on the
aperture size. Intuitively speaking, one may consider the aper-
ture distribution in (25) as composed of two zones: the forward
one, where the SW propagates in the same direction of the beam
(for instance the -axis), and the backward one, where the SW
propagates in the opposite sense w.r.t. the beam direction. The
forward zone is responsible for producing a peak of radiation to-
ward 65 degrees off-axis, while the backward zone provides the
necessary gain level at broadside and in the intermediate zone.
Fig. 11 shows the aperture distribution and sketches how the
pattern shaping is achieved by a suitable phasing of the aperture
in different zones.
The amplitude of the aperture distribution has been designed
to have a smooth decay along the beam azimuthal direction,
whereas in the orthogonal direction it has a lower tapering to
minimise the beam width. The relevant behavior on the sur-
face has been synthesized by using (13).
MINATTI et al.: MODULATED METASURFACE ANTENNAS FOR SPACE: SYNTHESIS, ANALYSIS AND REALIZATIONS
Fig. 11. Objective phase distribution and sketch of the radiation pattern for
the sectorial isoflux antenna. The colored map represents the 3D view of the
radiation pattern.
Fig. 12. Directive gain on the main cut of a preliminary design of a sectorial
Isoflux antenna. The inset shows the layout of the impedance.
Results of the preliminary design in Ka-band are shown in
Fig. 12. About 27 dBi directivity appears to be feasible and we
expect even better results given the significant room for im-
provement (e.g., lowering the cross-polar and improving the
pattern shape for negative ).
The higher frequency allows for higher gain while reducing
the physical size with respect to X-band: the aperture diameter
is about , i.e., around 33 cm at 26 GHz. The mass of the ra-
diating panel is expected to be below 0.5 kg. Also in this case
azimuth scanning can be achieved by a simple in plane rota-
tion, while the feeder remains stationary. The resulting antenna
offers a performance comparable with that of much more com-
plex, massive and failure-prone solutions, e.g., small reflector
antennas mounted on a dual-axis gimbal.
V. MECHANICAL AND THERMAL DESIGN
On-board antennas for space missions are exposed to a very
harsh environment so that their electrical, mechanical and
thermal design must progress in close correlation. A major
advantage of MoMetAs is that they are amenable to very simple
structural and thermal designs.
1297
Fig. 13. Mechanical design concept on which the final flight MoMetA will be
based.
Fig. 14. Von Mises stress map (MPa) due to a quasi-static load of 120 g applied
along the -direction.
Fig. 13 illustrates the mechanical design concept on which
the final flight hardware for the designs illustrated in Sec-
tions IV.A.3, IV.B, and IV.C will be based, highlighting its
extreme simplicity. The radiating panel is fixed to a supporting
sandwich disk, with a hole in the centre to allocate the feeding
circuitry.
The current design, at a preliminary stage, is based on
multilayer composed by two carbon fiber skins (Cytec
T152/x751/135, six layers for each skin), a quartz honeycomb
layer (Ultracor UQF-105-1/4-3.0) and the antenna substrate
(Roger TMM10i). A few isostatic-blade mounting brackets
below the sandwich (not shown) complete the structure. The
overall mass of the hardware is 2.26 kg.
Mechanical and thermal analyses have been performed to
verify the stability and survivability of the antenna during
launch and in space. Rather extreme worst cases have been used
to assess that it is indeed possible to conceive MoMetA designs
that can be used in several different missions satisfying quite
diverse requirements by only changing the MTS design and
thus avoiding a new qualification campaign. A three-brackets
mounting symmetrically placed on a radius of 239 mm has
been selected by modal analysis.
For space applications the dimensioning cases are within
quasi-static loads, sinusoidal vibration, random and acoustic
vibrations during launch. Fig. 14 shows a Von Mises stress map
for a quasi-static load (120 g) highlighting the areas of highest
stress. The worst case, occurring when the load is applied along
, is well within safety margins.
Concerning the thermal environment, typical heat sink and
source in space are given by the deep space ( K), the
1298
Fig. 15. Structural displacement (mm) along due to a temperature gradient
between the front ( C) and the back ( C) surface of the supporting
structure.
solar radiation (1428 [W/m ]) and the heating during the launch
(1135 W/m ). The most stringent boundary condition for this
kind of antennas is usually the upper limit on the conductive
heat exchange between the spacecraft and the antenna (2 W).
Fig. 15 shows a displacement map due to a worst case condition
in which the hardware is subjected to the maximum temperature
gradient between the front surface ( C) and the back sur-
face ( C) of the antenna. The maximum displacement oc-
curs along and reaches 1.96 mm, which although rather high
is not expected to significantly affect the electrical antenna per-
formance and can be considered acceptable for such an extreme
temperature range.
VI. CONCLUSION
Modulated metasurface antennas constitute a significant
improvement from traditional antenna solutions. Rather than
shaping a fixed boundary condition (mostly PEC) to achieve the
desired radiation characteristics, they offer the revolutionary
possibility to design the boundary condition itself to achieve
the desired behavior, with an antenna having a pre-determined
global shape. All the designs shown are in fact obtained using
antennas differing only in the metasurface layout and feeding
details.
The early results shown in the previous sections and obtained
for very different requirements are extremely promising. In fact,
after only two years from the availability of the first axially-
symmetric isoflux prototype at X-band, the sector-beam 26 GHz
variant is being considered for an operational mission due to fly
in a few years.
Yet MoMetAs are today in their infancy, other applications
and designs are under study and many improvements are ex-
pected to gradually emerge over the coming years. The main
ones are:
• Improved frequency stability of radiation pattern.
• More accurate aperture distribution control.
• More accurate pattern shape control.
• Reliable dynamic pattern control.
• Improved feeding design.
• Increase of maximum size with on-surface feeder.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 63, NO. 4, APRIL 2015
• Increased power handling.
• Multiple frequency operation.
Nevertheless, there are some drawbacks and limitations. The
most obvious is linked to the dispersive nature of metasurfaces.
However it is not expected to prevent the implementation of
effective solutions for many space applications. Second, un-
less an array, lens or reflector antenna-like structure is used, a
single modulated metasurface aperture can only radiate a few
beams. Third, when on-surface feeding is used, the maximum
aperture size is bound by the need to control accurately the
leaky-wave mechanism limiting the maximum achievable gain.
Space feeding removes the limitation but introduces other issues
in need of deeper understanding.
Two other issues are somewhat slowing down the evolution
of MoMetAs toward the mainstream at the moment. On the one
side, the lack of well-established general design tools for this
class of structures makes the design of new solutions an art more
than an industrial process. On the other side, the current inability
to verify experimentally the local behaviour of fields very close
to the metasurface makes design debugging very challenging.
Finally it is very important to observe that the possibility
to largely modify the radiation pattern of an antenna without
changing its overall structure and implementation makes
MoMetAs very attractive for space application. The qualifi-
cation and acceptance process required for each new design
constitutes a significant part of the development time and cost.
The possibility of achieving very different beam shapes only
changing the metalization layout on the antenna surface is
ground breaking in this respect.
REFERENCES
[1] C. L. Holloway, E. F. Kuester, J. A. Gordon, J. O'Hara, J. Booth, and D.
R. Smith, “An overview of the theory and applications of metasurfaces:
The two-dimensional equivalents of metamaterials,” IEEE Antennas
Propag. Mag., vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 10–35, Apr. 2012.
[2] B. H. Fong, J. S. Colburn, J. J. Ottusch, J. L. Visher, and D. F. Sieven-
piper, “Scalar and tensor holographic artificial impedance surfaces,”
IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 58, no. 10, pp. 3212–3221, Oct.
2010.
[3] G. Minatti, F. Caminita, M. Casaletti, and S. Maci, “Spiral leaky-wave
antennas based on modulated surface impedance,” IEEE Trans. An-
tennas Propag., vol. 59, no. 12, pp. 4436–4444, Dec. 2011.
[4] G. Minatti, S. Maci, P. De Vita, A. Freni, and M. Sabbadini, “A cir-
cularly-polarized isoflux antenna based on anisotropic metasurface,”
IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 60, no. 11, pp. 4998–5009, Nov.
2012.
[5] S. Maci, G. Minatti, M. Casaletti, and M. Bosiljevac, “Metasurfing: Ad-
dressing waves on impenetrable metasurfaces,” IEEE Antennas Wire-
less Propag. Lett., vol. 10, pp. 1499–1502, 2011.
[6] E. Martini and S. Maci, “Metasurface transformation theory,” in Trans-
formation Electromagnetics and Metamaterials: Fundamental Princi-
ples and Applications, D. H. Werner and D.-H. Kwon, Eds. Berlin:
Springer, 2013.
[7] C. Pfeiffer and A. Grbic, “A printed, broadband Luneburg lens an-
tenna,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 58, no. 9, pp. 3055–3059,
Sep. 2010.
[8] M. Bosiljevac, M. Casaletti, F. Caminita, Z. Sipus, and S. Maci, “Non-
uniform metasurface Luneburg lens antenna design,” IEEE Trans. An-
tennas Propag., vol. 60, no. 9, pp. 4065–4073, Sep. 2012.
[9] C. Pfeiffer and A. Grbic, “Metamaterial Huygens' surfaces: tailoring
wave fronts with reflectionless sheets,” Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 110, no.
19, p. 197401, May 2013.
MINATTI et al.: MODULATED METASURFACE ANTENNAS FOR SPACE: SYNTHESIS, ANALYSIS AND REALIZATIONS
[10] M. Selvanayagam and G. Eleftheriades, “Discontinuous electromag-
netic fields using orthogonal electric and magnetic currents for wave-
front manipulation,” Opt. Expr., vol. 21, no. 12, pp. 14409–14429, Jun.
2013.
[11] N. Yu, P. Genevet, F. Aieta, M. A. Kats, R. Blanchard, G. Aoust, J.-P.
Tetienne, Z. Gaburro, and F. Capasso, “Flat optics: Controlling wave-
fronts with optical antenna metasurfaces,” IEEE J. Sel. Topics Quantum
Electron., vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 4700423–4700423, May–Jun. 2013.
[12] “Innovative planar highly directive antenna based on artificial sur-
faces,” Technical Data Package of ESA Contract 22808/09/NL/JD,
Final documentation of the activities.
[13] Technical Reports of ESA contract AO/1-7069/12/NL/MH, “Scalable
low-mass low-envelope high to-very-high gain antenna,” .
[14] “Shared aperture reflector antenna,” Technical Report of ESA Contract
4000106924/NL/GLC/fe, (SARA).
[15] J. Hoppe and Y. Rahmat-Samii, Impedance Boundary Conditions in
Electromagnetics. Washington, DC, USA: Taylor and Francis, 1995,
pp. 135–137.
[16] M. Sabbadini, G. Minatti, S. Maci, and P. De Vita, “Method
for designing a modulated metasurface antenna structure,”
PCT/EP2013/076724, 16/12/2013.
[17] O. Bucci, G. Franceschetti, G. Mazzarella, and G. Panariello, “Inter-
section approach to array pattern synthesis,” Proc. IEEE, vol. 137, no.
6, pp. 349–357, 1990.
[18] A. Oliner and A. Hessel, “Guided waves on sinusoidally-modulated
reactance surfaces,” IRE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 7, no. 5, pp.
201–208, Dec. 1959.
[19] F. Caminita and S. Maci, “New wine in old barrels the generalization
of the Oliner method to metasurface antennas,” presented at the 44th
Eur. Microw. Conf., Rome, Italy, Oct. 5–10, 2014.
[20] A. A. Oliner, “Leaky-wave antennas,” in Antenna Engineering Hand-
book, R. C. Johnson, Ed., 3rd ed. New York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill,
1993, ch. 11.
[21] D. González-Ovejero, M. Violetti, M. Faenzi, M. Sabbadini, and S.
Maci, “Spectral/Spatial global domain basis functions for the descrip-
tion of metasurfaces,” in Proc. 8th Eur. Conf. Antennas Propag., The
Hague, The Netherlands, Apr. 6–11, 2014.
[22] M. Mencagli, E. Martini, and S. Maci, “Surface wave dispersion
for anisotropic metasurfaces constituted by elliptical patches,” IEEE
Trans. Antennas Propag., accepted for publication.
[23] [Online]. Available: https://www.idscorporation.com/images/Down-
loads/Space/SPACE_ADF-EMS.pdf
[24] P. De Vita, F. De Vita, A. De Maria, and A. Freni, “An efficient tech-
nique for the analysis of large multilayered printed arrays,” IEEE An-
tennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 8, pp. 104–107, 2009.
[25] L. Matekovits, V. A. Laza, and G. Vecchi, “Analysis of large com-
plex structures with the synthetic-functions approach,” IEEE Trans.
Antennas Propag., vol. 55, no. 9, pp. 2509–2521, Sep. 2007.
Gabriele Minatti was born in Florence, Italy in
1982. He received the M.Sc. degree (cum laude) in
electronic engineering from the University of Flo-
rence, in 2008 and the Ph.D. degree from University
of Siena, Siena, Italy, in 2012.
From October 2012 to September 2014, he was
with the European Space Agency, Antennas and Sub-
millimeter Waves Section, in the post of internal Re-
search Fellow. He is presently a Research Associate
at the University of Siena. His studies are mainly fo-
cused on the analysis and design of modulated meta-
surface antennas and artificial periodic structures.
Dr. Minatti was co-recipient of the Best Paper on Antenna Theory award
at the 5th European Conference on Antennas and propagation (EuCAP-2011,
Rome, Italy, 2011), the Antenna Innovation Award at the 33rd ESA Antenna
Workshop (ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, 2011), and the student paper
contest at 17th International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (ISAP
2012, Nagoya, Japan, 2012).
1299
Marco Faenzi was born in Siena, Italy, in 1981. He
received the Bachelor degree and the Master degree
in telecommunication engineering (with a score of
110/110) from the University of Siena, Siena, Italy,
in 2005 and 2011, respectively.
In 2011, he won a Ph.D. position at the Depart-
ment of Information Engineering and Mathematical
Sciences, University of Siena, where is he currently
working. His research activity has been focused on
high impedance plane realized by a periodically
loaded grounded slab (also known as a metasurface
structure) employed for increasing the directivity performances and impedance
stabilization of low-profile ultra wide-band sinuous antennas. Currently he
is working on metasurfaces holographic patterning for the optimization of
aperture efficiency of dipoles excited planar resonator. This is aimed to the
increasing of directivity and gain performances of holographic antennas, he
is also working towards simplification of feeding structures for resonators
working in circular polarization for satellite-to-ground links.
Enrica Martini (S’98–M’02–SM’13) was born in
Spilimbergo (PN), Italy, in 1973. She received the
Laurea degree (cum laude) in telecommunication
engineering from the University of Florence, Italy, in
1998 and the PhD degree in informatics and telecom-
munications from the University of Florence and the
Ph.D. degree in electronics from the University of
Nice-Sophia Antipolis, under joint supervision, in
2002.
From 1998 to 1999, she worked under a one-year
research grant from the Alenia Aerospazio Company,
Rome, Italy. In 2002, she was appointed Research Associate at the University
of Siena, Italy. In 2005, she received the Hans Christian Ørsted Postdoctoral
Fellowship from the Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark, and
she joined the Electromagnetic Systems Section of the Ørsted•DTU Depart-
ment until 2007. Since 2007, she has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Uni-
versity of Siena, Italy. Since 2012, she has also been with the start-up Wave
Up Srl, Florence, Italy. Her research interests include metamaterial characteri-
zation, metasurfaces, electromagnetic scattering, antenna measurements, finite
element methods and tropospheric propagation.
Francesco Caminita was born in Montevarchi,
Arezzo, Italy, in 1976. He received the Laurea degree
(cum laude) in telecommunications engineering and
the Ph.D. degree in information engineering from
the University of Siena, Italy, in 2005 and 2009,
respectively.
He is presently a Research Associate at the Uni-
versity of Siena. Since 2006, he has been involved
in projects funded by the European Space Agency
(ESA) and the European Union (EU) concerning soft-
ware antenna modeling. His research interests are in
the area of periodic structures, frequency selective surfaces, electromagnetic
band-gap structures, artificial surfaces and holographic antennas.
Dr. Caminita was a co-recipient of the Best Paper Award on Antenna Theory
at the 5th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation.
Paolo De Vita received the M.S. degree in electronic engineering and the Ph.D.
degree in information and telecommunication engineering from the University
of Florence, Florence, Italy, in 1999 and 2004, respectively.
From 1999 to 2007, he served as a Research Assistant at the Department of
Electronics and Telecommunication, University of Florence. Since 2008, he has
been with IDS Ingegneria dei Sistemi, Pisa, Italy. His main research interests are
on numerical techniques for electromagnetic radiation and scattering problems.
1300 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 63, NO. 4, APRIL 2015
David González-Ovejero (S’01–M’13) was born
in Spain, in 1982. He received the telecommuni-
cation engineering degree from the Universidad
Politecnica de Valencia (UPV), Valencia, Spain, in
2005, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering
from the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL),
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, in 2012.
From January 2006 to September 2007, he worked
as a Researcher at the UPV. In October 2007, he
joined the UCL’s Electrical Engineering Department,
where he was a Research Assistant until October
2012. He currently works as a Research Associate at the University of Siena,
Siena, Italy. His research interests are in the fields of computational electro-
magnetics, the analysis and design of antenna arrays and metasurfaces.
Marco Sabbadini was born in Roma, Italy, in 1958.
He received the Laurea degree in electronic engi-
neering from the University of Rome La Sapienza, in
1983. From 1983 to 1988, he was with the Antenna
Department, Alcatel Alenia Spazio Italy, Rome,
Italy. In August 1988, he joined the European Space
Agency as an Antenna Engineer in the Electrical
System Department, European Space Research and
Technology Center, Noordwijk, The Netherlands.
Over these 30+ years he has been actively con-
tributing to research and development in the area of
electromagnetic modelling techniques and tools for antenna design fostering
the introduction of new techniques and methodologies, not only on the electro-
magnetic side but also on the computational and software engineering ones. At
the same time he has been actively working at innovative antenna solutions for
space, promoting rethinking in some areas, like miniaturization and the appli-
cation of new concepts.
Stefano Maci (M’92–SM’99–F’04) received the
Laurea degree (cum laude) in electronics engineering
from the University of Florence, Florence, Italy, in
1987.
He is a Full Professor of Antennas at the Univer-
sity of Siena, Siena, Italy, and Director of the Ph.D.
School of Information Engineering and Science,
which presently includes about 60 Ph.D. students.
Since 2000, he was member the Technical Advisory
Board of 11 international conferences, a Member
of the Review Board of 6 International Journals.
He organized 23 special sessions in international conferences, and he held
10 short courses in the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S)
Symposia about metamaterials, antennas and computational electromagnetics.
He was responsible for five projects funded by the European Union (EU). In
2004–2007, he was WP leader of the Antenna Center of Excellence (ACE,
FP6-EU) and, in 2007–2010, he was the International Coordinator of a 24-in-
stitution consortium of a Marie Curie Action (FP6). He was the Founder of the
European School of Antennas (ESoA), a post graduate school that presently
comprises 30 courses on antennas, propagation, electromagnetic theory, and
computational electromagnetics, and 150 teachers coming from 15 countries.
He is presently Director of ESoA, a Member of the Board of Directors of the
European Association on Antennas and Propagation (EuRAAP), a Member
of the Technical Advisory Board of the URSI Commission B, a Member
of the Governing Board of the European Science Foundation (ESF) Project
“NewFocus,” a Member of the National Enabling Committee, a Distinguished
Lecturer of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S), a Member of
the Antennas and Propagation Executive Board of the Institution of Engineering
and Technology (IET, UK), and Chair of the Award Committee of IEEE AP-S.
His research activity is documented in 10 book chapters, 120 papers published
in international journals, (among which 78 on IEEE Journals), and about 300
papers in proceedings of international conferences. His h index is 28, with
more than 3000 citations (source Google Scholar). His research interests are
focused on high-frequency and beam representation methods, computational
electromagnetics, large phased arrays, planar antennas, reflector antennas and
feeds, metamaterials and metasurfaces.
Dr. Maci was the recipient of several awards, among which the EurAAP
Carrier Award 2014. He was a Member of the AdCom of IEEE Antennas
and Propagation Society (AP-S) and a former Associate Editor of The IEEE
TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION.