Metasurface Radome to Achieve a Wideband High Gain, Low RCS, and Low SLL Antenna

Abstract

A Phase- and amplitude-adjustable metasurface radome (PAMR) is proposed to achieve a wideband high gain and low radar cross-section (RCS) antenna with arbitrary sidelobe levels (AS-PGMA) at a 9.8 GHz operating frequency. The proposed PAMR is a special multilayer phase gradient metasurface lens whose amplitude distribution is modified based on the Dolph-Tschebyscheff technique. The AS-PGMA simulation results indicate that a high gain, low RCS, and low sidelobe level (SLL) antenna can be achieved over a broad impedance frequency bandwidth of 9.25–10.1 GHz with in-band average values of 17 dB, −7.5dBsm, −20 dB/−27 dB for gain, RCS, and E-/H-plane SLL, which are measured at 9.8 GHz as 17.4 dB, −9dBsm, and −23.02 dB/−27.91 dB, respectively. Additionally, a novel analytical method for calculating the RCS of the proposed PAMR and AS-PGMA is described and verified by measurement and simulation findings. Measurement results show that the E-/H-plane SLL of the AS-PGMA is improved by 12.2 dB/5.1 dB at the operating frequency, respectively, while its gain and RCS reduction are reduced by 1.6 and 2.1 dB, respectively. Moreover, RCS of the AS-PGMA is reduced over an ultrawide bandwidth of 1–20 GHz for orthogonal polarizations. The analysis, simulations, and measurements are all in good agreement.