Ultrawideband Polarization Conversion Metasurface with Wide Incidence Angle Suitable to Reduce RCS of Planar and Curved Surfaces

Abstract

In this paper, an ultra-wideband linear cross polarization converter based on metasurface (MS) with wide incidence angle is presented and applied to the reduction of radar cross section (RCS) for planar and conformal surfaces. A pair of bow-and-arrow shaped split ring cells is printed on an FR4 dielectric substrate. The simulated and experimental results indicate that the converter achieves a cross polarization conversion ratio (PCR) of over 90% in 11.5-28.5 GHz (85% relative bandwidth) and that its oblique incidence performance can be stabilized at ±40 • with a very small loss of bandwidth (1.65%). Then, the polarization conversion metasurface (PCM) cells and their mirror cells are laid out in a checkerboard array and applied to reduce the RCS of planar and conformal surfaces. The planar PCM achieves more than 7 dB of RCS reduction in 11.4 to 29.6 GHz (88.8% relative bandwidth), and the conformal array with a center angle of 90 • obtains more than 10 dB RCS reduction in 18.2 to 23.7 GHz. Due to its excellent performances, the proposed metasurface offers promising options for polarization control devices and stealth technology in Ku-and K-bands.