Low-RCS Broadband Phased Array Using Polarization Selective Metamaterial Surface

In this letter, a broadband wide-scanning phased array with radar cross-section (RCS) reduction performance is presented. The proposed phased array is composed of two types of antenna elements: Ant-0 and Ant-1. Ant-0 and Ant-1 are the y-polarized dipole antennas that have almost the same radiation performance over the frequency range of 6.5-12 GHz. Ant-1 is obtained by codesigning Ant-0 with a polarization selective metamaterial surface (PSMS), and the PSMS has little effect on the y-polarized radiation performance. As of x-polarized incident waves, the phase difference of the reflected waves on Ant-0 and Ant-1 is around 180 degrees over the frequency range of 3.74-15.1 GHz; thus, a broadband scattering cancelation is achieved. A 5x16 finite array is fabricated and measured, and the measured results show great agreement with the simulated results. The fabricated phased array antenna has the ability to scan to +/- 60 degrees with active VSWR < 3 over the frequency range of 6.5-12 GHz and over the frequency range of 3.9-15.1 GHz, and ultrabroadband monostatic RCS reduction is achieved.