INDUCTIVE KU/KA BANDS DOUBLE-ELEMENTS

FREQUENCY SELECTIVE SURFACE

A. Colasante(1), G. Bellaveglia(1), R. Lo Forti(1), D. Ramaccia(2), A. Toscano(2)

(1)
Teleinformatica e Sistemi s.r.l., via Tor Tre Teste 229, 00155 Rome, Italy
alessia.colasante@space.it, giancarlo.bellaveglia@space.it, loforti@space.it
(2)
University of Rome RomaTre – Department of Applied Electronics, Via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Rome, Italy
davide.ramaccia@gmail.com, alessandro.toscano@gmail.com

ABSTRACT Especially if thinking of a mass market application, the

huge reduction of costs w.r.t. the capacitive FSS, would
In this contribution we propose the design of an
make this design an appealing alternative.
inductive Frequency Selective Surface (FSS) with
In this paper, three possible solutions have been shown
double resonant elements aimed to the achievement of a
before getting to the final design which employs the
simple well-performing, dielectric-free, space filter
proposed dual elements inductive FSS. The first design
screen able to separate the Ku band from the Ka band
(D1) involves a Double Ring FSS plate with no use of
frequencies. The FSS performance are compared to
dielectric substrate, the second design (D2) is a scaled
those of a typical double ring FSS which major
version of the first which also uses a dielectric substrate
drawback is the use of dielectric substrate that leads to
as support (just to make the first design feasible). The
unavoidable additional transmission losses and makes
third one (D3) is an FSS based on a simple metallic
the dichroic mirror more complex with respect to a
plate with circular holes on a square grid. The latter
simple single perforated screen. For all applications in
turned out to be simpler and cheaper but not performing
which the FSS is asked to be as simple as possible and
at one transmission band as well as in the other
the transmission losses specifications are severe, the
transmission and reflection bands
Inductive FSS Double Resonant Elements here
Lastly, we present our Dual Elements Inductive FSS
proposed comes out to be an interesting alternative to
Design solution which improves the performance of D3
typical Double Ring FSS.
(keeping all the advantages of single element perforated
screen).
1. INTRODUCTION
Frequency Selective Surfaces (FSS) are object of In all analyses it is always assumed that the incident
continuous research because of their spatial filtering field is a perfect uniform plane-wave impinging the
capability of electromagnetic waves. They have been plate by an angle of 0° w.r.t. the normal. All FSS plates
used in many applications, such as antenna radomes, are supposed to be flat and infinitely extended. The
electromagnetic filtering devices, antennas sub- optimized FSS was expected to be reflective at the Ku
reflectors, wireless security and satellites [1]-[4]. band and transparent at two Ka sub-bands (20 and 30
In general, once transmission and reflectivity losses GHz for RX and TX respectively). All analyses have
specifications are given for a dichroic mirror, according been carried out with CST.
to the FSS theory, more than a solution might be found
depending on the type of FSS (Inductive or Capacitive),
type of single-cell element (crossed-dipoles, dual-rings, 2. PROJECT SPECIFICATIONS
et-cetera) and FSS metal depth.
Let us imagine the FSS designer to face with a problem
All these solutions might offer strength points as well as
in which FSS is supposed to be reflective at Ku RX-
weak points and the FSS designer has to weight pros
band and transparent at the Ka-Bands (Both RX and
and cons of his solutions from all points of view
TX).
(Electrical Performance, Simplicity, etcetera). Though
In general, electrical design specifications for the
one or more layered Capacitive FSS with double or
dichroic mirrors are the result of a more complete high
multi-ring elements already exists as a solution for the
level loss-budget analysis which also takes into account
multiband FSS (see [5]), Inductive FSS (based on
for the other devices of the system (such as Ku band
metallic perforated screens) would be in general
receivers). For simplicity, let us make the assumption
preferable, because of its simplicity and because of the
that a transmission/reflection loss of about 0.5 dB is
absence of a lossy dielectric substrate.
acceptable in the three bands (see Tab. 1).
.
 Geometry Dimensions
R out 2.5 mm
Ku Band: R in 1.8 mm
S21 ≤ −9.5 dB
f = [10.7,12.75] GHz T 0.1 mm
Ka Band (RX):
S21 ≥ −0.5 dB Dx 6.1 mm
f = [19.7, 20.2] GHz
Ka Band (TX): Dy 6.1 mm
S21 ≥ −0.5 dB
f = [29.5, 30.0] GHz Table 2: Parameters of the arrays in Figure 1.
Table 1: Project specifications.
The calculated transmission coefficient S21 versus
3. TRADITIONAL FSS CONFIGURATION
frequency is shown in Fig. 2. Key values of S21 in the
3.1. Double Ring FSS (D1 and D2) frequency regions of interest and for both polarizations
are listed in Tab. 3. The performance results are good
Dichroic plates designed to multiplex the S, X, Ku and
for both Ku and Ka bands.
Ka frequency bands of reflector antennas for
telecommunication applications usually employ Double-
Ring FSS [6]-[7] or two concentric square loops [8]-[9].
The choice of the concentric ring elements is based on
the fact that the ring's geometry is particularly
conformable to the circular polarization requirement.
Following the work of Munk [1,2], there exists one
resonant frequency for the free-standing single ring and
this frequency, , is approximately given by Eq. 1:
c
2π R = λ0 = (1)
fR
where R = R in , R out , λ0 the wavelength at the
frequency with maximum transmission, fR the
resonance frequency of the element and c the speed of
light in vacuum.
When the number is increased to two-concentric rings,
similar to the geometry of Fig. 1, there will be two
resonant frequencies at two different points, as seen in
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2: Computed transmission coefficient
S21 for TE and TM components.

The response for TE and TM excitations are identical,

as expected for a symmetrical element.

TE TM
Ku Band:
-9.1 dB -9.1 dB
f = [10.7,12.75] GHz
Ka Band (RX):
f = [19.7, 20.2] GHz -0.3 dB - 0.3 dB
Ka Band (TX):
-0.1 dB - 0.1 dB
f = [29.5, 30.0] GHz
Table 3: Worst computed transmission coefficient S21
Fig. 1: Periodic cell of the concentric ring structure. in band for both polarizations.
As shown, such a dichroic solution (D1) performs well
but it does not exist in reality as the two inner metallic
rings cannot be self-standing without the presence of a
thin dielectric plate. Therefore, the second design (D2),
more realistically, foresaw the same Double Ring FSS
this time placed on a dielectric support (0.2 cm thick
dielectric substrate made of Teflon [11] with relative
permittivity ε r = 2.08 ).

Geometry Dimensions
(a)
R out 2.1 mm
R in 1.5 mm
T 0.1 mm
Dx 5.3 mm
Dy 5.3 mm
εr 2.08
Thickness of dielectric slab 2.0 mm
Table 4: Parameters of the arrays in Figure 2 in presence
of a dielectric substrate.

It is well known from the open technical literature that (b)

increasing the electric permittivity shifts lower the Fig. 3: (a) Real and (b) imaginary part of the electric
resonant wavelength (Eq. 2): permittivity of Teflon used in simulations.

λ0
2 πR = λ d = (2)
ε eff

where ε eff (Eq. 3) is the effective permittivity defined

as [1],[10]:

ε1 + ε 2 εr + 1
ε eff = = (3)
2 2

The presence of a real and an imaginary part of the

electric permittivity of Teflon (as given in Fig. 3)
modifies the behaviour in frequency one would have
without the use of a dielectric substrate. This shift
towards lower frequencies can be compensated by using
smaller dimension of the elements with respect to the
first design (see Tab. 4). Simulation results relative to
the re-sized elements are reported in Fig. 4 and Tab. 5.
This solution, due to the dielectric losses, does not
Fig. 4: Computed transmission coefficient S21 . The
satisfy the specs in terms of insertion loss. As a
consequence we can say that the use of FSS employing dielectric material is Teflon with thickness 2.0 mm and
a periodic array of metallic patches printed on dielectric ε r = 2.08 .
substrates should be avoided.
 TE TM being x ′0 the first zero of the Bessel function J1 ( x ) , c
Ku Band:
-9.4 dB -9.4 dB the speed of light in vacuum and f 0 = 20 GHz close to
f = [10.7,12.75] GHz
the lowest frequency at which we want the FSS to be
Ka Band (RX):
-0.9 dB -0.9 dB transparent.
f = [19.7, 20.2] GHz Eq. (4) derives directly from the expression of the cut-
Ka Band (TX): off frequency of the fundamental mode of a circular
-0.6 dB -0.6 dB
f = [29.5, 30.0] GHz waveguide. The thickness of the metallic plate affects
the roll-off of the frequency response in the region
Table 5: Worst computed transmission coefficient S21 between the pass and the stop band.
in band for both polarizations in presence of a dielectric
substrate made by Teflon. Geometry Dimensions
R 5.4 mm
3.2. FSS with Circular Holes (D3)
Dx 12.3 mm
As already mentioned above, for both simplicity and
affordability reasons, inductive FSS normally are Dy 12.3 mm
preferable to the capacitive counterpart which involve Table 6: Parameters of the arrays in Figure 5.
the use of dielectric substrate. Moreover, as seen in the
previous paragraph, the use of dielectric substrates leads
In Fig. 6 S21 of the FSS consisting of circular holes on
to poor performance due to the high insertion loss.
Therefore a simple thin metal plate perforated with a metal plate versus frequency is shown. From Tab. 7 it
circular-shaped elements (Fig. 5) has been investigated is clear that this geometry performs well in the
as third design reflection band (Ku) and in the lower transmission band
This structure is really self-sustaining as it does not (Ka RX band) but has very poor performance in the Ka
need any dielectric support, as a consequence of that, TX band for both polarizations. In such a structure, the
the insertion loss is lower. only degrees of freedom the designer might play with to
get a better behaviour of the FSS also around 30 GHz
are the radius of the circular holes and the thickness of
the metallic plate.

Fig. 5: Geometry of the dichroic plate

with circular holes.

The radius of the circular hole has been determined at

the end of an optimization process. The starting value
we used for determining R is given by Eq. 4:

c x ′0 Fig. 6: Computed transmission coefficient

R= (4)
2π f0 S21 for TE and TM component.
 TE TM
Ku Band:
-10.1 dB -10.1 dB
f = [10.7,12.75] GHz
Ka Band (RX):
f = [19.7, 20.2] GHz -0.1 dB - 0.1 dB
Ka Band (TX):
-41.5 dB - 41.5 dB
f = [29.5, 30.0] GHz
Table 7: Worst computed transmission coefficient
(a) (b)
S21 for both polarizations. Fig. 7: (a): typical inductive FSS with arbitrary shaped
holes. (b): enhanced inductive FSS with higher degrees
Unfortunately, each change in one of these two of freedom.
parameters will necessarily affect not only the
transmission performance around 30 GHz but also the
transmission and reflection performance around 20 and
11 GHz respectively. The performance in one band
might be increased at the expenses of performance
degradation in one or both the other bands. It would be
interesting finding a structure able to perform well at 30
GHz without changing the already good results
achieved at 11 and 20 GHz. This is achieved in the final
design described in next paragraph.
Figure 8: (a): typical inductive FSS with circular shaped
3.3. Dual-Elements Inductive FSS with enhanced holes. (b) enhanced inductive FSS with additional
performance smaller circular holes.

The Double Elements FSS design here proposed can be

The FSS under analysis has the same geometry
seen as an enhanced version of D3 in which we keep the
dimensions of the circular holes, periodicity and
main advantages of the original design (simplicity and
thickness. In Tab. 8 the 2D dimensions of the circular
absence of dielectric losses) as well as its good
shaped hole is specified.
electrical performance at Ku-band and Ka RX-bands but
we also improve the performance at the Ka TX band by
adding/superimposing a second series of holes,
generally smaller in size and with arbitrary shape (Fig.7 Geometry Dimensions of
b). the smaller Circular Hole.
Doing so, the designer is allowed to play with more R2 3.0 mm
degrees of freedom finding the best solution able to Table 8: Geometry dimensions of
fulfil the requirements of the project. the smaller circular hole
In the specific application, we employed this novel
technique to enhance D3 (Fig. 8a) by adding to the
original circular holes, smaller holes of the same shape
as shown in Fig. 8b. This way, it has been possible to
adjust the transmission curve locally, i.e. only in a sub-
band of interest (in this case the Ka upper band),
keeping the rest of the curve essentially unchanged
(Tab. 9 and Fig. 9).
In 2008 Guo et al. proposed a similar approach using
double-four-legged loaded slots with resonant
frequencies at 183 GHz and 220 GHz [12].
Nevertheless, in their case a dielectric substrate is used
and the main limitation is the small band separation.
Our solution instead allows to achieve a good
transmission behavior in a larger bands separation and
the structure does not use any dielectric substrate that
introduces the problems seen in D2.
 4. CONCLUSIONS
In this contribution we presented a Dual Elements
Inductive FSS Design for Ku/Ka Tri-Band applications.
Compared to typical dual ring FSS this solutions offer a
still well-performing but simpler and cheaper FSS
structure. The smaller elements of the two that compose
the FSS pattern is chosen so as to refine locally the
transmission curve at around 30 GHz where typical
single hole FSS fail to fulfil the specifications. The
strength points of such a solution are the simplicity, the
low-cost, the lightweight and the possibility to improve
locally the transmission curve of the FSS without
affecting the rest of the curve which already has a
satisfactory behavior.

5. REFERENCES
1. B.A. Munk (2000). Frequency Selective Surfaces:
Theory and Design. (Ed. Wiley- Interscience),
New York.
Figure 9: Computed transmission coefficient 2. B.A. Munk (2003). Finite Antenna Arrays and FSS.
S21 for TE and TM component. (Ed. Wiley- Interscience), New York.
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as expected for a symmetrical element. for multiple frequency antennas. Microwave
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TE TM 4. K. Ueno et. al (1991), Characteristics of FSS for a
multi–band communication satellite, Int. IEEE AP-
Ku Band:
-10.1 dB -10.1 dB S Symposium Dig., Canada.
f = [10.7,12.75] GHz 5. Te-Kao Wu et al (1994). Multiband Frequency
Ka Band (RX): Selective Surface with Multi-ring Patch Elements.
0 dB 0 dB
f = [19.7, 20.2] GHz IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagation, 42(11).
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166-175.
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GHz. The huge advantage of the former FSS with 9. X. F. Luol et al. (2005), Design of double square loop
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dielectric sheet. That makes the proposed design simpler evolution strategy coupled with equivalent circuit
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11. Technical Info about DuPont Teflon fluoropolymer
resins:
http://www2.dupont.com/Teflon_Industrial/en_US
/tech_info/techinfo_compare.html.
12. C. Guo et al. (2008), A Novel Dualband Frequency
Selective Surfaces with Periodic Cell Perturbation,
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