Metallic photonic band-gap materials (MPBG) as angular selective reflectoror radome: application to antenna grating lobe reduction

This paper presents numerical and experimental results on metallic photonic band-gap materials (MPBG), composed of metallic wires and used as antenna reflector or radome. Attention is focused on MPBG angular response. In fact , with specified angular characteristics, MPBG materials can be interesting in order to reduce antenna grating lobes. One possible grating lobe reduct ion solution is based on the use of MPBG as angular filter. The radiation c haracteristics obtained with this solution are then improved by using a MPB G reflector, 20 dB and 12 dB gain improvement in the theoretical and in the experimental cases are respectively obtained, whin the reflector is compos ed of more than two layers. The scanning performances are also presented. W e show that angular filtering characteristics can be improved either by cha nging the array interface or by changing the MPBG lattice. In order to sele ct the structure with the best angular behavior, an experimental and numeri cal characterization method is also presented.