Jianxun Su

Ultra-wideband, Wide Angle and Polarization-insensitive Specular Reflection Reduction by Metasurface based on Parameter-adjustable Meta-Atoms

In this paper, an ultra-wideband, wide angle and polarization-insensitive metasurface is designed, fabricated, and characterized for suppressing the specular electromagnetic wave reflection or backward radar cross section (RCS). Square ring structure is chosen as the basic meta-atoms. A new physical mechanism based on size adjustment of the basic meta-atoms is proposed for ultra-wideband manipulation of electromagnetic (EM) waves. Based on hybrid array pattern synthesis (APS) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, the selection and distribution of the basic meta-atoms are optimized simultaneously to obtain the ultra-wideband diffusion scattering patterns. The metasurface can achieve an excellent RCS reduction in an ultra-wide frequency range under x- and y-polarized normal incidences. The new proposed mechanism greatly extends the bandwidth of RCS reduction. The simulation and experiment results show the metasurface can achieve ultra-wideband and polarization-insensitive specular reflection reduction for both normal and wide-angle incidences. The proposed methodology opens up a new route for realizing ultra-wideband diffusion scattering of EM wave, which is important for stealth and other microwave applications in the future.

Fast analysis and optimal design of metasurface for wideband monostatic and multistatic radar stealth

In this paper, a metasurface (MS) is designed based on the hybrid array pattern synthesis and particle swarm optimization method for wideband monostatic and multistatic radar stealth. The non-absorptive MS is composed of two kinds of electronic band gap structures with the reflection phase difference of 180°u2009(±37°) over a wide frequency range. Far field scattering pattern of the MS can be quickly and accurately synthetized by the method of moments and array pattern synthesis. A new strategy is proposed for realizing the diffusion reflection of electromagnetic waves by redirecting electromagnetic energies to more directions through optimizing the reflected phase arrangement for the MS by hybrid array pattern synthesis and particle swarm optimization algorithm. Due to the non-uniform distributions of phase gradient between neighboring lattices, numerous scattering lobes are produced in the upper half-space, leading to a great reduction of bistatic radar cross section (RCS). The −10u2009dB RCS reduction bandwidth of 80.2% is achieved for both monostatic and bistatic at normal incidence. The specular reflection and bistatic scattering for oblique incidence with TE and TM polarizations are also considered in detail. The measured results are in good agreement with the corresponding simulations.

A Wideband End-Fire Conformal Vivaldi Antenna Array Mounted on a Dielectric Cone

The characteristics of a novel antipodal Vivaldi antenna array mounted on a dielectric cone are presented. By employing antipodal Vivaldi antenna element, the antenna array shows ultrawide bandwidth and end-fire radiation characteristics. Our simulations show that the cone curvature has an obvious influence on the performance of the conformal antenna, in terms of both the bandwidth and the radiation patterns. The thickness and permittivity of the dielectric cone have an effect on the bandwidth of the conformal antenna. Measurement results of both single antenna and conformal antenna array show a good agreement with the simulated results. The measured conformal antenna can achieve a −10 dB with bandwidth of 2.2–12 GHz and demonstrate a typical end-fire radiation beam. These findings provide useful guidelines and insights for the design of wideband end-fire antennas mounted on a dielectric cone.

A Wideband and Polarization-Independent Metasurface Based on Phase Optimization for Monostatic and Bistatic Radar Cross Section Reduction

A broadband and polarization-independent metasurface is analyzed and designed for both monostatic and bistatic radar cross section (RCS) reduction in this paper. Metasurfaces are composed of two types of electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) lattice, which is a subarray with “0” or “π” phase responses, arranged in periodic and aperiodic fashions. A new mechanism is proposed for manipulating electromagnetic (EM) scattering and realizing the best reduction of monostatic and bistatic RCS by redirecting EM energy to more directions through controlling the wavefront of EM wave reflected from the metasurface. Scattering characteristics of two kinds of metasurfaces, periodic arrangement and optimized phase layout, are studied in detail. Optimizing phase layout through particle swarm optimization (PSO) together with far field pattern prediction can produce a lot of scattering lobes, leading to a great reduction of bistatic RCS. For the designed metasurface based on optimal phase layout, a bandwidth of more than 80% is achieved at the normal incidence for the −9.5u2009dB RCS reduction for both monostatic and bistatic. Bistatic RCS reduction at frequency points with exactly 180° phase difference reaches 17.6u2009dB. Both TE and TM polarizations for oblique incidence are considered. The measured results are in good agreement with the corresponding simulations.

Integral Equation Analysis of EM Scattering from Multilayered Metallic Photonic Crystal Accelerated with Adaptive Cross Approximation

A space-domain integral equation method accelerated with adaptive cross approximation (ACA) is presented for the fast and accurate analysis of electromagnetic (EM) scattering from multilayered metallic photonic crystal (MPC). The method directly solves for the electric field in order to easily enable the periodic boundary condition (PBC) in the spatial domain. The ACA is a purely algebraic method allowing the compression of fully populated matrices; hence, its formulation and implementation are independent of integral equation kernel (Green’s function). Therefore, the ACA is very well suited for accelerating integral equation analysis of periodic structure with the integral kernel of the periodic Green’s function (PGF). The computation of the spatial-domain periodic Green’s function (PGF) is accelerated by the modified Ewald transformation, such that the multilayered periodic structure can be analyzed efficiently and accurately. An effective interpolation method is also proposed to fast compute the periodic Green’s function, which can greatly reduce the time of matrix filling. Numerical examples show that the proposed method can greatly save the frequency sweep time for multilayered periodic structure.

Uneven-Layered Coding Metamaterial Tile for Ultra-wideband RCS Reduction and Diffuse Scattering

In this paper, a novel uneven-layered coding metamaterial tile is proposed for ultra-wideband radar cross section (RCS) reduction and diffuse scattering. The metamaterial tile is composed of two kinds of square ring unit cells with different layer thickness. The reflection phase difference of 180° (±37°) between two unit cells covers an ultra-wide frequency range. Due to the phase cancellation between two unit cells, the metamaterial tile has the scattering pattern of four strong lobes deviating from normal direction. The metamaterial tile and its 90-degree rotation can be encoded as the ‘0’ and ‘1’ elements to cover an object, and diffuse scattering pattern can be realized by optimizing phase distribution, leading to reductions of the monostatic and bi-static RCSs simultaneously. The metamaterial tile can achieve −10 dB RCS reduction from 6.2u2009GHz to 25.7u2009GHz with the ratio bandwidth of 4.15:1 at normal incidence. The measured and simulated results are in good agreement and validate the proposed uneven-layered coding metamaterial tile can greatly expanding the bandwidth for RCS reduction and diffuse scattering.

The Application of Improved Spherical Harmonics Expansion-Based Multilevel Fast Multipole Algorithm in the Solution of Volume-Surface Integral Equation

During the solution of volume-surface integral equation (VSIE), to reduce the core memory requirement of the radiation patterns (RPs) of the basis functions, an improved spherical harmonics expansion-based multilevel fast multipole algorithm (SE-MLFMA) using the mixed-potential representation and the triangle-/tetrahedron-based grouping scheme is applied. Numerical results show that accompanying with a faster speed, the memory requirement of the RPs in the improved SE-MLFMA is several times less than that in the conventional MLFMA without compromising accuracy. A result employing the OpenMP parallelization and vector arithmetic logic unit (VALU) hardware acceleration technique is also shown to illustrate the robustness and scalability of the improved SE-MLFMA method.

Metasurface base on uneven layered fractal elements for ultra-wideband RCS reduction

A novel metasurface based on uneven layered fractal elements is designed and fabricated for ultra-wideband radar cross section (RCS) reduction in this paper. The proposed metasurface consists of two fractal subwavelength elements with different layer thickness. The reflection phase difference of 180° (±37°) between two unit cells covers an ultra-wide frequency range. Ultra-wideband RCS reduction results from the phase cancellation between two local waves produced by these two unit cells. The diffuse scattering of electromagnetic (EM) waves is caused by the randomized phase distribution, leading to a low monostatic and bistatic RCS simultaneously. This metasurface can achieve -10dB RCS reduction in an ultra-wide frequency range from 6.6 to 23.9 GHz with a ratio bandwidth (fH/fL) of 3.62:1 under normal incidences for both x- and y-polarized waves. Both the simulation and the measurement results are consistent to verify this excellent RCS reduction performance of the proposed metasurface.

An optimal-arranged metasurface for wideband RCS reduction

This paper presents a ultra-thin chessboard-like metasurface, whose arrangement is optimized to reduce both monostatic and bistatic radar cross-section (RCS) in a wide band. The optimized metasurface is formed by two kinds of lattice structures. The wideband monostatic RCS reduction is obtained by properly selecting the phase curve of both structures. Lattices of the metasurface are arranged in an optimized fashion, distributing the scattered energy to more directions and contributing to the great bistatic RCS reduction. The monostatic RCS reduction larger than 10dB has been obtained over more than 80% frequency bandwidth.