Design of Ultrawide Bandwidth Electromagnetic Wave Absorbers with Square Patch Frequency Selective Surfaces with Different Geometries

Abstract

A reliable and efficient numerical method is presented for the design of broadband absorbers, fabricated by layering two square patch-frequency selective surfaces (SP-FSS) with different geometries on a grounded dielectric substrate. The circuit parameters of the inductance and capacitance of the SP-FSS were retrieved using the strip wire conductor model. Due to the high capacitance and low inductance of the SPFSS, a nearly constant resonance frequency (<i>f</i><sub>0</sub> = 37 GHz) is observed, irrespective of patch size at a given unit cell periodicity of 7.5 mm. For the SP-FSS, the circuit is capacitive below <i>f</i><sub>0</sub> and inductive above <i>f</i><sub>0</sub>. For a grounded substrate with a quarter wavelength thickness, however, the input impedance is inductive below <i>f</i><sub>0</sub>, resulting in impedance matching over a wide frequency range, with the controlled FSS resistance matched to the free-space impedance. The double-layer absorber was designed by optimizing the surface resistance and layer thickness of two SP-FSSs with different geometries, and demonstrated a 10 dB absorption bandwidth of 6.1−41.4 GHz with a total thickness of 5 mm, which is equal to the theoretical limit. A test sample was prepared by screen printing method, and the free space measurement demonstrated a wide-bandwidth absorption result (4.7−40.0 GHz for −10 dB reflection loss) with a small total thickness (5.4 mm). The simulation and experimental results strongly validated the SP-FSS for the design of wide bandwidth electromagnetic wave absorbers.