A new design method for patch antenna with low RCS and high gain performance

Abstract

In this letter, a new design for patch antenna, which can obtain low radar cross section (RCS) and high gain performance simultaneously, is proposed on the basis of a metamaterial (MTM) superstrate. The superstrate consists of two metallic layers with different patterns on both sides of a dielectric substrate. Low reflection and transmission are obtained from the upper surface which can absorb most of the incident wave to reduce the antenna RCS. The bottom surface, which has partial reflectivity, is used to construct a Fabry-Perot resonance cavity with the ground plane of the patch antenna to improve its directivity. Measured results show that the proposed antenna can achieve RCS reduction in a broad frequency band ranging from 2 to 14 GHz with maximum RCS reduction value of 28.3 dB, and high gain performance is enhanced by 4.3 dB at most compared with the original antenna in the working frequency band extending from 10.9 GHz to 12 GHz. The measured results agree well with the simulated ones.