CoMetAs: Design of Conformal Omnidirectional Metamaterial Antennas

Conformal antennas are particularly needed in cellular, wireless and satellite applications, where the radiation patterns should uniformly cover the azimuthal angle, while being usually directive in the elevation plane towards a preferred direction. These properties are generally achieved using bulky conformal arrays of directive radiators. However, here we show how a single sub-wavelength radiator matching these requirements may be synthesized by exploiting the resonant properties of cylindrical metamaterial shells supporting leaky-waves. We show analytically how a circularly symmetric resonant material polariton may be supported by a suitably designed sub-wavelength homogeneous cylindrical shell of low negative permittivity. Some designs, physical insights and the sensitivity of these components to the design parameters are considered here