AMCs comprised of interdigital capacitor FSS layers enable lower cost applications

The focus of this work was to reduce manufacturing costs of printed artificial magnetic conductors (AMCs) by employing interdigital capacitors to enhance the effective sheet capacitance of the FSS without resorting to a second layer of overlapping patches. A 2.8 GHz AMC was fabricated and tested to demonstrate the concept. This AMC was then used to demonstrate a 2.9 GHz low profile antenna. Cost savings for this alternative manufacturing technique are estimated to be at least 50%.