Microstrip array antenna in-band RCS reduction using polarization reconfigurable elements

ABSTRACT

An efficient approach for in-band radar cross section (RCS) reduction of microstrip patch array antenna without employing extra-low RCS artificial materials is proposed and analysed. The element of the array has a simple structure, consisting of a corner-cut square patch and two tiny perturbation elements. By controlling two independently biased PIN diodes, it can produce linear polarization (LP), left- and right-handed circular polarization (LHCP/RHCP) radiation waves. The backscattering RCS reduction of the array can be achieved by changing the polarization status of array elements. For verification, the performance of a $\text{7}\times \text{7}$ polarization reconfigurable microstrip array with different polarization modes is designed, compared and analysed. From the simulation and measurement results, the peak RCS of the array can be reduced by more than 7 dB without affecting its radiation performance.

KEYWORDS:

• Polarization reconfigurable
• RCS reduction
• low RCS array
• antenna scattering
• PIN diode

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant 61721001, 61871001 and 61631006, and, in part by the National Key and Research and Development Program of China under grant 2016YFC0303501.

Notes on contributors

Lu Yin

Lu Yin was born in Sichuan, China, in 1995. She received her B.S. degrees from Yunnan University, Kunming, China, in 2017. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC). Her research interests include antenna RCS reduction, reconfigurable antenna and wide-band phased arrays.

Peng Yang

Peng Yang was born in Yunnan, China. He received his B.S., M.S., and the Ph.D. degrees in electronic engineering from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, China, in 2001, 2008, and 2011, respectively. From January 2009 to November 2010, he was a Research Assistant with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Hong Kong. He is currently an Associate Professor at UESTC. His research interests include antenna theory and design, and array signal processing.

Yu-yi Gan

Yu-yi Gan was born in Guangxi, China, in 1993. He received his B.S. degree from Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin, China, in 2016. He is currently pursuing his M.S. degree in electronic engineering from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC). His current research interests include multi-beam feed network and reconfigurable antennas.