A Tri-Band Low-Profile High-Gain Planar Antenna Using Fabry-Perot Cavity

A tri-band high-gain antenna with a planar structure and low profile is proposed. The principle of operation is explained. It is based on Fary-Perot cavity antenna (FPCA) with two frequency selective surface (FSS) layers. Two different resonant frequencies are generated by the two resonant cavities formed by the ground plane and each of the two FSS layers, respectively. A third resonant frequency is produced by combining the two FSS layers together. Advantages of this tri-band antenna includes low profile, high gain, easy fabrication and low cost. Low

profile is achieved by designing the combined FSS layers as an artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) with a reflection coefficient having 0o phase shift and high magnitude. In addition, a large frequency ratio, which is often a problem for multiband array antennas, can be achieved here. To verify this concept, a C/X/Ku band FPCA is designed and one prototype is fabricated and tested. Experimental results agree well with the simulated results. High gain performance with good impedance matching in three bands is obtained, which reaches a peak gain of 14.2 dBi at 5.2 GHz, 18.9 dBi at 9.6 GHz and 19.8 dBi at 14.7 GHz, respectively. The overall height of antenna is only 20.2 mm, which is about 1/3 wavelength at its lowest operating frequency, which means a reduction of 30% compared to the height of traditional FPCA antenna.