Narrow sheet design with shielding metal walls of two-dimensional communication

In a sheet design of the two-dimensional communication (2DC) system, it is desirable to add shielding metal walls to the edges of the sheet in order to suppress electromagnetic (EM) radiation. Then, the sheet medium has the cutoff frequency similar to a rectangular waveguide, which can be determined from the width of the sheet. If the carrier frequency is less than the cutoff frequency, the power cannot be transmitted through the sheet. This paper proposes a new narrow 2DC sheet with the cutoff frequency lower than a conventional 2DC sheet with metal walls. Actually, the lower cutoff frequency can be obtained by forming a special metal pattern near the shielded walls. This can make the sheet width wider equivalently (electrical length longer). Then EM wave can propagate through a narrower sheet. Measurements using fabricated prototypes clearly show the advantage of the proposed structure.