Mutual Coupling Reduction for High-Performance Densely Packed Patch Antenna Arrays on Finite Substrate

This paper reports on an effective mutual coupling suppression technique in which a metamaterial superstrate is placed in between the elements of densely packed microstrip phased array. Modified complementary split ring resonators are printed on the decoupling superstrate slab which caters for both surface and space wave effects. A detailed analysis of this proposed scheme is carried out on a low as well as on a high-permittivity substrate. Coupling suppression of 27 and 11 dB is achieved experimentally on the low- and high-permittivity substrates, respectively, with an element separation of λ_o/8. The design is compact and easy to realize and it removes drawback of poor front-to-back ratio previously reported in other decoupling techniques. In addition to high-coupling suppression, the decoupling slab can be added or removed in real time which makes this technique versatile for various applications having stringent performance requirements.