In order to extend the performance of radar absorbing materials, it is necessary to design new structures with wideband properties and large angles of incidence which are also as thin as possible. The objective of this work, realized within the framework of the SAFAS project (self-complementary surface with low signature) is, then, the development of an ultra-wideband microwave absorber of low thickness. The design of such material requires a multilayered structure composed with dielectric layers, metasurfaces, and wide-angle impedance matching layers. This solution has been realized with on-the-shelf materials, and measured to validate the concept. At normal incidence, the bandwidth ratio, defined for a magnitude of the reflection coefficient below −10 dB, is 4.7:1 for an absorber with a total thickness of 11.5 mm, which corresponds to λ/7 at the lowest operating frequency. For an incidence of 60°, this bandwidth ratio is reduced to 3.8:1, but the device remains ultra-wideband.

In this letter, characterization of circular high-impedance surfaces (HISs) is investigated. The reflection phase characterization used for rectangular HISs is here extended to circular lattices. Circular HISs discussed in this letter present a 2-D periodicity, and consequently the phase diagram is determined for concentric and radial polarizations. The effect of mapping a rectangular HIS into a circular one is investigated in order to give some insights regarding the design of such metasurface. The presented characterization constitutes a useful tool for the design of low-profile antennas using HIS as reflector.

The simple planar shape and wideband input impedance of the bow‐tie antenna make it suitable to diverse wideband applications. However, the radiation pattern of this kind of antenna is not stable and the gain in the broadside direction deteriorates with increasing frequencies. In this article, the operation of both the triangular and the rounded‐edge versions of the bow‐tie antenna is thoroughly investigated and the performance thereof is compared. A technique to maximise such performance, which consists of inserting radially aligned grooves in the radiators' ends, is presented. The bandwidth, defined by a broadside gain of at least 2 dBi and a reflection coefficient magnitude of less than −10 dB, is improved from 85.7% to 97.9% in simulations. Such an improvement is validated through the measurement of two prototypes, in which the presented technique also increases the broadside gain in up to 1.5 dB, with no significant change in the shapes of the radiation patterns and in the reflection coefficient magnitude.

An ultra-wide-band (UWB) microstrip spiral antenna is proposed. The antenna is resistively loaded inside the substrate to maintain a good circular polarization on the bandwidth. The main performances are a very thin thickness (/spl lambda//100 at the lowest operating frequency), good impedance matching and right hand circularly polarized patterns over a 9:1 bandwidth.

In this paper, a wideband dual polarized self-complementary connected array antenna with low radar cross section (RCS) under normal and oblique incidence is presented. First, an analytical model of the multilayer structure is proposed in order to obtain a fast and reliable predimensioning tool providing an optimized design of the infinite array. The accuracy of this model is demonstrated thanks to comparative simulations with a full wave analysis software. RCS reduction compared to a perfectly conducting flat plate of at least 10 dB has been obtained over an ultrawide bandwidth of nearly 7:1 at normal incidence and 5:1 (3.8 to 19 GHz) at 60° in both polarizations. These performances are confirmed by finite element tearing and interconnecting computations of finite arrays of different sizes. Finally, the realization of a 28 × 28 cell prototype and measurement results are detailed.