An Ultra-Thin, Triple-Band, Incident Angle-Insensitive Perfect Metamaterial Absorber

Materials (Basel). 2023 Feb 15;16(4):1623. doi: 10.3390/ma16041623.

Abstract

We created an ultra-thin, triple-band incident angle-insensitive perfect metamaterial absorber (MMA) with a metallic patch and a continuous metal ground isolated by a central dielectric substrate. The top metallic patch, placed across the edges of the 0.58 mm thickness Rogers RO4003C (lossy) substrate, forms the bulk of the projected absorber's ultra-thin layer. Nonetheless, absorption is exceedingly strong, covering C-band, X-band and K-band and reaching levels of 97.8%, 99.9%, and 99.9%, respectively, under normal and even oblique (0° to 45°) incident conditions. In chosen ranges of frequency of 6.24, 10.608, and 18.624 GHz for both TM and TE mode, the displayed Q-factors were 62.4, 17.68, and 26.61, respectively. We correspondingly calculated the RAB (relative absorption bandwidth) to evaluate absorption performance. An equivalent circuit proved its performance capabilities, indicating that it would produce a high-quality MMA from ADS software. Furthermore, the absorber's performance has been verified in free space on a sample being tested using a different array of unit cells. Moreover, the proposed structures with HFSS simulators to display the MMA's absolute absorption at each absorption peak are somewhat inconsistent with the results of the CST simulator. Because of its superior performance, the ultra-thin absorber is suited for a wide range of applications, including satellite applications such as radar systems, stealth technology, imaging, and electromagnetic interference reduction.

Keywords: RAB; incident angle insensitivity; metamaterial absorber.