High-gain antenna using an intelligent artificial magnetic conductor ground plane

We propose a high-gain antenna using an intelligent ground plane composed of artificial magnetic conductors (AMCs). The main role of the ground plane is removing difference in phase delays caused by different path lengths from a signal-feeding dipole onto each AMC cell. Hence, the ground plane consists of AMC cells with different lengths corresponding to the phase delays to be compensated. As a consequence, we can obtain a planar wave front of a reflected wave, which is perpendicular to a boresight direction. By maximizing constructive interference between the reflected waves and direct waves from the dipole, we can significantly increase our antenna gain without deteriorating impedance matching bandwidth behavior. Experimental data has shown good agreement with the prediction, which validates the accuracy and effectiveness of our proposal.