Compact polarisation insensitive wide angular stable triple band absorber for RF energy harvesting, RCS reduction, and sensor applications

Abstract

This paper presents a new compact ultra-thin triple-band absorber which shows near-unity absorption in C, X and Ku-bands. It consists of an inductive stub loaded circular ring resonator and a flower-shaped resonating patch on top of 0.8 mm thin FR-4 grounded dielectric substrate. A transmission line equivalent is proposed, and circuit simulation response is in good agreement with the full-wave analysis. The unit-cell architect's 4fold symmetry makes it polarisation-insensitive for different polarisation angles in the azimuthal plane (𝜃 = 0°) under normal incidence. Its good shows angular stability up to 45° under TE (75° under TM) incidences for all three frequencies. Surface current patterns are analysed at resonant frequencies to illustrate the mechanism behind the electromagnetic absorption. This design's novelty lies in the centre patch's dual-resonating behaviour, making this design compacted one. The absorber has low-profile nature with cell periodicity of 0.163λL and thickness 0.013λL, where λL is the lowest resonating peak wavelength. An X-band conventional MSA is fabricated on a thin FR-4 substrate. In-band RCS reduction (nearly 18 dBsm) of the antenna is verified after loading with the proposed absorber. The absorptivity peaks are optimised such that the same structure would be used in different applications like RF energy harvesting, RCS reduction and sensor applications.