Development of diverse coding metamaterial structure for radar cross section reduction applications

Abstract

Despite their widespread use for performing advanced electromagnetic properties, metamaterial suffers from several restrictions in this technological era. Generally, technology affects the way individuals communicate, learn, think and plays an important role in society today. For this reason, there has been a surge of interest in a coding metamaterial field that possesses the ability to manipulate electromagnetic waves and realize different functionalities. This research work investigates circular-shaped coding metamaterial for microwave frequency applications through several analyses. First, the 1-bit coding metamaterial that is made up of only “0” and “1” elements with 0 and π phase responses by adopting two types of unit cells such as square-shaped Rogers RT6002 substrate material with and without metamaterial structure were analysed in this work. The proposed element ‘1’ successfully manifests several more than 180○ phase responses at several frequency ranges, for instance, 7.35 to 9.48 GHz, 12.87 to 14.25 GHz and 17.49 to 18 GHz (C, X, and Ku-bands), respectively. Besides that, three types of coding sequences were proposed and the radar cross-section (RCS) reduction values of the designs were numerically calculated by utilising Computer Simulation Technology (CST) software. Meanwhile, the single-layered coding metamaterial with 6 lattices was compared with double and triple-layered metamaterial structures. At 2 GHz, the triple-layered structure exhibit reduced RCS values with near to − 30 dBm2 for all coding sequences. Therefore, the transmission coefficient results of the triple-layered coding metamaterial sequences were numerically calculated. Several advanced coding metamaterial designs were constructed and the properties were discussed in terms of RCS values and scattering patterns. Meanwhile, the scattering and effective medium parameters of the unit cell metamaterial structure were also analysed in this work. In a nutshell, the 1-bit coding metamaterial in a controlled sequence can control electromagnetic waves and realize different functionalities.