Thin high-impedance metamaterial substrate and its use in low profile antennas suitable for system integration

We present a metamaterial substrate designed to act as a high impedance thin slab that can be used to integrated low-profile (subwavelength thickness) antennas in components or packages. A transverse equivalent network (TEN) model accurately describing the reflection properties of the impedance substrate is also provided to facilitate its design. Then, we develop a low profile planar antenna consisting of a printed dipole located on top of the parallel metamaterial substrate. The high impedance of the substrate permits to locate the metallic dipole very close to the substrate itself without inhibition of the dipole radiation. The substrate prevents radiation from traveling across the substrate, resulting in a low profile antenna with high efficiency, even though the antenna system is integrated on top of a lossy structure. Two possible feed structures for the dipole over the impedance surface are considered, and simulation data are presented to illustrate their respective performance.