Compact near zero index metasurface lens with high aperture efficiency for antenna radiation characteristic enhancement

In this paper, a high gain, aperture efficient, low profile compact, near zero index (NZI) metasurface (MS) lens antenna with enhanced radiation characteristic is proposed. A high‐performance transmissive MS is designed by using modified double circular ring resonator as unit cell with measured 3 dB transmission band from 8.80 to 11.90 GHz. It is observed that a triple layer stacked MS lens has the maximum ability to converge the electromagnetic radiation. The focusing mechanism of multiple stacked MS is studied by using measured E‐ and H‐plane radiation pattern plot and H‐Field distribution. A high gain low profile antenna is designed by placing the proposed small single surface NZI MS lens over a microstrip patch antenna acting as a microwave source. The proposed NZI MS lens is found to increase the measured gain of E‐ and H‐plane by 10.70 dB in boresight direction at operating frequency 10.15 GHz. The front to back ratio is improved by 8 and 3 dB in E‐ and H‐plane, respectively. The proposed MS lens antenna is able to achieve a broadside gain of 97.50% of the maximum gain achieved due to ideal effective radiation surface.