Artificial Magnetic Conductor

Abstract The artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) is a textured ground plane that presents a high impedance to incident waves and nearby horizontal antennas over a prescribed frequency range. In addition, it suppresses the propagation of both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) surface waves, thus concentrating the radiation from a horizontal antenna into the upper half‐space. The resulting reduced backlobe and reduced mutual coupling to any other antennas on the same surface, combined with the high input impedance, make the AMC an ideal gain‐enhancing ground plane for ultrathin antennas. It is shown that these desirable features of are derived from the AMC's effective anisotropic magnetodielectric constitutive properties. Analysis and design approaches are given that enable the control of these properties according to the desired frequency and bandwidth of operation and the amount of surface‐wave suppression needed. Examples of the latest applications of AMC are given, as well as a brief history of its inception.