Broadband metamaterial absorber for stealth applications at K-band

Abstract

This paper focuses on the design and analysis of a polarization-insensitive wide-angle broadband metamaterial absorber for stealth applications at the K band. The unit cell of the metamaterial absorber is comprised of a symmetrically arranged ladder shape geometry made of copper metal, which is imprinted on a metal-backed FR-4 substrate. The structure shows more than 91% absorptivity ranging from 21.2 to 28.2 GHz for both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarized waves under normal incidence. The topology is four-fold symmetric and yields polarization-insensitive responses for different angles of polarization under both TE and TM polarized waves. The structure is also investigated under oblique incidence where the 80% absorptivity holds up to 45° incident angles for both TE and TM waves. The absorption mechanism is explained with the help of top and bottom surface current distribution, induced electric field, and parametric analysis. To verify the resonances in the structure, characteristic mode, and equivalent circuit analysis have been carried out and presented. A prototype of the absorber has been fabricated and simulated results are validated with measured results. The novelty of the proposed absorber lies in its unique metallic pattern on a λ0/8 thin FR-4 substrate while showing the wide absorption bandwidth to normal and oblique incidence. All the above-mentioned attributes in a simple design make it commercially suitable for radar cross-section (RCS) reduction applications at the K band.