Low RCS High-Gain Broadband Substrate Integrated Waveguide Antenna Based on Elliptical Polarization Conversion Metasurface

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel low-RCS, high-gain broadband antenna using an elliptical polarization conversion metasurface integrated with a substrate integrated waveguide, achieving significant RCS reduction and broad bandwidth performance.

Contribution

It introduces a simple, effective elliptical polarization conversion metasurface integrated with a SIW antenna for broadband RCS reduction and high gain in Ka-band applications.

Findings

Polarization conversion bandwidth exceeds 80% with PCR > 90%

Antenna achieves a -10dB impedance bandwidth of 15.09%

Maximum realized gain reaches 9.1dBi

Abstract

Designed an elliptical polarization conversion metasurface (PCM) for Ka-band applications, alongside a high-gain substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) antenna. The PCM elements are integrated into the antenna design in a chessboard array configuration, with the goal of achieving effective reduction in the antenna's radar cross section (RCS). Both the PCM elements and antenna structure exhibit a simple design. The top layer of the metasurface (MS) elements employs an elliptical pattern symmetric along the diagonal, enabling efficient conversion of linearly polarized waves. The antenna component, on the other hand, consists of a broadband dipole antenna fed by SIW slot coupling. Verified through simulations, the polarization conversion bandwidth of this PCM unit reaches 80.38% where polarization conversion ratio (PCR) exceeds 90% (25.3-59.3GHz), demonstrating exceptional conversion performance. When the dipole antenna is combined with the PCM, its -10dB impedance bandwidth reaches to 15.09% (33.7-39.2GHz), with a maximum realized gain of 9.1dBi. Notably, the antenna loaded with the chessboard PCM structure effectively disperses the energy of scattered echoes around, significantly reducing the concentration of scattered energy in the direction of the incident wave, thereby achieving an effective reduction in RCS.