A coding metasurface antenna array with low radar cross section

Abstract

An aperiodic metasurface antenna array with low radar cross section (RCS) is designed. The upper patches of the two antenna elements have the same shape and are placed at an orthogonal position, which can effectively reduce the workload of simulating the reflection characteristics of the patch. As antenna elements, they have identical operational band and polarization mode, and as metasurfaces, they can form an effective phase difference of 180° ± 37°. The RCS of the array is reduced mainly by phase cancellation under the <i>x</i> polarization and by absorption under the <i>y</i> polarization. According to the coding metamaterial theory, the two elements can be coded aperiodically by using the programming software. Regarding element A and element B as “0” and “1”, respectively, the coding matrix can be solved by a genetic algorithm. Element A and element B are arranged according to positions “0” and “1” to obtain a proposed array. The scattering field of proposed array is diffusive, and the peak RCS is effectively reduced. In order to highlight the characteristics of the proposed array, the chessboard-type array is designed for comparison. The simulation results show that the radiation performance of proposed array is good. Comparing with the metal board of the same size, the 6 dB reduction bandwidth of the monostatic RCS is 4.8－7.4 GHz (relative bandwidth is 42.6%) under the <i>x</i> polarization and 4.6－7.8 GHz (relative bandwidth is 51.6%) under the <i>y</i> polarization. Comparing with the chessboard type array, the scattering energy distribution of the designed antenna array is very uniform and the peak RCS in space reduces obviously. When a 4.8 GHz electromagnetic wave is incident with different incident angles and polarization modes, the scattering field is diffusive. Compared with other similar arrays, the proposed array has advantages of simple design process and even scattering field. The experimental results are in good agreement with the simulation results. This work makes full use of the scattering characteristics of the antenna element itself to solve the problem that the array antenna possesses both good radiation characteristics and low scattering characteristics at the same time, and improves the design process of the antenna patch. This design method has certain universality and reference significance for designing the low RCS antenna array.