Optik - International Journal for Light and Electron Optics 278 (2023) 170726

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Optik
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijleo

Fabrication of the double-layer millimeter wave frequency

selective surface by femtosecond laser
Cong Wang a, Xuesong Chen a, Xianshi Jia a, *, Kai Li a, Huiyong Liang a, Shaohui Li b,
Xiaofeng Zhang b, Nai Lin c, Ji’an Duan a
a
State Key Laboratory of High Performance and Complex Manufacturing, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Central South
University, Changsha 410083, China
b
Institute of Remote Sensing Satellite, China Academy of Space Technology, Beijing 100094, China
c
10th Research Institute of CETC, Chengdu, Sichuan 610036, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: With the rapid development of communication technology, frequency selective surface (FSS)
Frequency selective surface operating at higher frequencies is required and it is necessary to design and fabricate new FSS. In
Broadband this paper, a broadband double-layer FSS is proposed which is composed of one layer of foam, two
Double-layer
metal layers, and four layers of substrate. The simulation result shows that a high transmission in
Femtosecond laser
Waveguide method
the band of 60.03–89.33 GHz (covering the E band) with a relative bandwidth up to 29 % is
achieved. In addition, the effects of the key structural parameters, oblique incidence angle, and
TE/TM polarization on the transmission performance are further explored. The results indicate
that the proposed FSS has good oblique incidence angular stability and polarization insensitivity
up to 60◦ . Finally, the proposed FSS is fabricated by the femtosecond laser and measured by the
waveguide method. Experimental results show that the machined sample has high precision and
the machining error is within 1 µm, and good agreement between the simulated and measured
results is observed. Therefore, the proposed FSS could be used as spatial filters or sub-reflectors of
multiband antennas and the corresponding processing method could be extended to other
millimeter wave functional devices, such as absorbers, radomes, etc.

1. Introduction

Frequency selection surface (FSS) is a two-dimensional periodic structure composed of several identical units in a certain
arrangement and combination. The electromagnetic (EM) characteristics of FSS are determined by changing the structural form of the
element, the combination mode of the array, or the material type of the dielectric substrate [1]. After decades of research, FSS has been
widely used as spatial filters, reflectors, antenna housings, or other devices that play an important role in improving the performance of
microstrip antennas [2,3], EM compatibility [4], stealth technology [5,6], and sensory imaging [7], etc.
In recent years, many FSSs have been proposed to pursue the features of miniaturization, broadband, and multiband frequencies.
For example, Q. Chen et al. proposed a miniaturized FSS by introducing several circular spiral resonators into a lumped-resistor-loaded
hexagonal metallic loop [8]. The Q factor of water-based FSS could be increased by incorporating air holes inside the water and it
indicates a low pass response with a cutoff frequency of 3.7 GHz. In addition, M. Taghizadeh and M. Maddahali used aperture elements

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: 221026@csu.edu.cn (X. Jia).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2023.170726
Received 6 December 2022; Received in revised form 11 February 2023; Accepted 26 February 2023
Available online 28 February 2023
0030-4026/© 2023 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
C. Wang et al. Optik 278 (2023) 170726

Table 1
Comparative analysis between the designed FSS and the existing FSS.
Parameters The designed FSS The existing FSS

Operating band E band below Ka band

Operating bandwidth 29.3 GHz about 10 GHz
Angular Stability Up to 60◦ Up to 45◦
Processing method Femtosecond Laser Machining PCB, mask deposition, 3D printing
Processing accuracy 1 µm about 10 µm

to achieve a bandpass response (12.71 GHz at normal incidence) [9]. For achieving the multiband response, X. Y. Song and his col­
leagues proposed a multiband FSS composed of a square loop combined with angular stability [10]. However, the majority of studies
have focused on low frequencies ranging from 300 MHz to 40 GHz, especially the C band (4–8 GHz), X band (8–12 GHz), and Ku band
(12–18 GHz), but less systematic research work over 40 GHz is reported.
On the one hand, millimeter wave has the advantages of high spatial resolution, high transmission efficiency, and a wide operating
band [11], which is of great help to the performance improvement of FSS. More importantly, communication, radar, military and other
fields are gradually developing into sub-millimeter wave, millimeter wave, and other high frequency bands [12] in recent years, which
also urges the development of FSS to higher frequency bands to meet the needs of the future. It can be seen that the research on
millimeter wave FSS has great engineering application value and development prospects.
On the other hand, the higher the repetition rate, the shorter the wavelength, which means the processing of FSS requires a higher
processing technology. For precision machining, the first thought must be the photoetching technique. There is no doubt that
photolithography is an outstanding representative of precision machining, but requires a clean room environment [13] and multiple
steps such as spin-coating, pre-baking, the preparation of masks, exposure, etc., giving rise to a long preparation cycle and a high cost
[14]. In contrast, femtosecond (fs) laser micro-machining is relatively flexible and simple [15]. It has the characteristics of a small
pulse width, a high peak power, and a small heat influence zone [16,17], which has been used for laser drilling and laser welding on
ceramic materials and transparent materials [18,19]. It provides an alternative choice for the high-precision preparation of
millimeter-wave FSS at the same time. Ultrafast laser processing has the advantages of high processing accuracy, fast processing ef­
ficiency, no tool wear, no contact pressure, and non-interference with the material [20,21]. The advantages are more obvious
compared with other processing methods when processing the array structure. Ultrafast laser processing is characterized by high
processing quality, easy operation, and stable processing in the processing of array structures [22,23]. With it ultrafast, ultra-strong
and hyperfine processing characteristics, fs laser will become an important research trend in the future.
In this paper, a broadband double-layer FSS is proposed. The FSS is composed of one layer of foam, two metal layers, and four layers
of substrate. The simulation result shows that it can achieve transmission in the band of 60.03–89.33 GHz, and the relative bandwidth
up to 29 %, exhibiting broadband characteristics. Compared with the existing designs, the proposed FSS has the characteristics of high
frequency and wide band, which could be used as a sub-reflector or waveguide filter in the MMW band. The femtosecond laser micro-
machining presented in this manuscript can also serve as a reference for the precision processing of other MMW functional devices. In
particular, the proposed FSS has good flatness, good out-of-band suppression capability, and low insertion loss; it also has good oblique
incidence angular stability and polarization insensitivity. Besides, the proposed FSS was fabricated by fs laser and measured by the
waveguide method, the proposing result shows that the fabricated sample has high precision, and the measured and simulated results
have good agreement. Therefore, the proposed FSS could be used as spatial filters or sub-reflectors of multiband antennas and the
corresponding processing method could be extended to other millimeter wave functional devices, such as absorbers, radomes, etc.

2. Design and simulation

2.1. Design of double-layer FSS

In this section, a broadband double-layer, large-pitch millimeter wave FSS is proposed based on the previous work, which further
develops the broadband characteristics of the hexagonal shape. The designed FSS works in E-band with a bandwidth of about 30 GHz,
which is higher than the existing FSS operating frequency and has a larger operating bandwidth. At the same time, the designed FSS has
better angular stability than the existing FSS. The FSS designed in this paper is processed by a femtosecond laser, which is suitable for
processing small cell FSS with higher processing accuracy and better surface topography than the conventional processing method. The
comparison of the FSS with the currently available FSS is shown in Table 1.
The three-dimensional topology of the double-layer FSS element is shown in Fig. 1(a). The proposed FSS element consists of one
layer of 0.5 mm thick PE foam (εr = 1.07, tanδ = 0.0045), two layers of identical metallic bringing about broadband characteristic, and
four layers of dielectric substrate leading to angle stability. The dielectric substrate with a thickness (h) of 127 µm, F4BTMS-2, has a
dielectric loss tangent value, tanδ = 0.0011 and dielectric constant εr = 2.2. The two metal layers with a thickness of 35 µm are copper
(σ = 5.8 ×107 S/m), and consist of an outer loop combined with a square loop that cuts away the hexagon and a small hexagon, which
are loaded between two neighboring substrates as depicted in Fig. 1(b).
The simulation software ANSYS HFSS based on the finite element method is used for numerical simulation of the proposed FSS. The
Floquet port is adopted in the Z direction, while master-slave boundaries are applied as the infinite periodic boundary in the X and Y
directions. The incident EM waves are set to be polarized in the X direction and propagate in the +Z direction. The two metal layers are

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→
Fig. 1. (a) Schematic of the proposed double-layer FSS. (b) Layout of the single-layer FSS structure. ( K represents the direction of the incident EM waves). (c) Simulated transmission and reflection
coefficients of the proposed FSS under normal incidence for different polarizations.

Optik 278 (2023) 170726

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Table 2
Optimal structural and electrical parameters of the proposed double-layer FSS.
Parameters D w l r1 r2 H

Value(µm) 1400 100 660 310 120 127

Parameters L1(nH) L2(nH) L3(nH) C1(fF) C2(fF) C3(fF)
Value 0.888 0.258 0.306 1.189 5.994 1.872

Fig. 2. (a) Schematic of the different structures, which are named Structure I, Structure II, Structure III, and Structure IV. (b) Simulated transmission
coefficients of different structures from Structure I to Structure IV. (c) Comparison of transmission coefficients of single-layer FSS and double-layer
FSS under normal incidence for TE polarization.

defined by a finite conductivity boundary. To reach an optimized goal such as − 3 dB bandwidth of passband only includes the whole E
band, minimum insertion losses (less than 0.5 dB under normal incidence), sharper rejection on both sides of the passband (decreasing
10 dB in 10 GHz range) and the detailed structural parameters are listed in Table 2.
The simulation results of transmission and reflection of the proposed double-layer FSS under normal incidence for different po­
larization (often TE and TM) are illustrated in Fig. 1(c). As observed, the proposed FSS stays relatively stable for different polarization.
It also provides one transmission window and one wide out-of-band rejection in the F band. It can be seen that the transmission
window is produced by two resonant transmission peaks: 72.24 GHz and 80.44 GHz. − 3 dB bandwidth of the windows is about
30 GHz (60.03–89.33 GHz), which could cover the whole E band. The passband has a relative bandwidth of 29.23 %, which is more
than 20 %, and exhibits broadband characteristics.
In this paper, the equivalent circuit parameter values are extracted by fitting the calculated curves to the FSS full wave analysis
method. This method is more advantageous in dealing with complex FSS structures and multi-screen FSS structures, which is fast and
intuitive with higher accuracy.
Firstly, the full-wave analysis method is used for numerical calculation to obtain the frequency domain response curve of the full-
wave analysis method, and the transmission characteristics of the structure under different LC parameters are analyzed quickly by
using the equivalent circuit parameters.

2.2. Design principle of double-layer FSS

To explain the design principle of the proposed FSS, the transmission coefficients of four different structures are simulated and
depicted in Fig. 2(a). Fig. 2(b) compares the transmission coefficients of the different structures under normal incidence.
Structure I is consist of a square ring. As can be seen from Fig. 2(b), the transmission coefficients of Structure I are less than − 3 dB

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Fig. 3. (a) ECM schematic diagram of the proposed double-layer FSS. (b) Comparison of transmission and reflection coefficients of the designed FSS
by HFSS and ECM under normal incidence for TE polarization.

after 60 GHz, which has ultra-wideband characteristics. A square patch is added based on Structure I and Structure II is obtained.
Compared with Structure I, the − 3 dB transmission bandwidth of Structure II decreases to 61.16 GHz (49.82–110.98 GHz), but its
bandwidth of less than − 3 dB is still large. Therefore, a hexagon is removed in the square patch of Structure II, as represented in
Structure III in Fig. 2(a). Then the − 3 dB bandwidth decreases to 49.91–93.24 GHz, which is close to the target of E band.
Furthermore, a small hexagon is attached to the middle of the Structure III and Structure IV is formed. The bandwidth is further
reduced compared with Structure I to III.
For an FSS with excellent performance, not only is a wide and flat transmission passband required to ensure the normal trans­
mission of in-band signals but good out-of-band inhibition is also needed to filter out-of-band clutter jamming effectively. Conse­
quently, we add the same layer in the vertical direction at a distance H = 500 µm. The distance is maintained by the foam, and its
dielectric loss can be ignored. As demonstrated in Fig. 2(c), the double-layer FSS in series has a flat transmission passband and better
out-of-band suppression compared with single-layer FSS. At the same time, its − 3 dB bandwidth is greatly reduced to
60.03–89.33 GHz, which satisfies the goal of transmitting the desired signals at the E band.
Self-inductance occurs at circular ring elements when the ring element is excited by EM waves due to closed loop geometry. Self-
inductance is generated by circular ring elements when excited by EM waves. The rotating currents produced by the magnetic flux
causes the self-magnetic flux [24,25]. According to this theory, the small hexagon and square ring in the middle can be modelled as two
series resonators (C1L1) and (L2C2), respectively. Two series LC circuits with the stopband characteristics contribute two transmission
zeros (fZ1, and fZ2) in the frequency response of the proposed double-layer FSS. The outer ring can be considered as an inductor (L3) that
is parallel with two series resonators. Since the area of the square ring in the middle is larger than that of the outer ring and hexagon,
and the distance between two metal structures is very thin, thus a coupling capacitance (C3) is generated between two metal structures
and is parallel to the capacitor (C2). In the case of normal incidence of EM waves, the dielectric substrate can be modeled as a short
transmission line [26]. Its height and impedance are d and Z1 = Z0/ε1/2r , respectively, where εr is the dielectric constant of the substrate
and Z0 = 377 Ω is the free space impedance.
Based on the above analysis, the ECM schematic diagram of the double-layer FSS is depicted in Fig. 3(a). When a series LC resonator
(L2C2C3) resonates with the inductors (L3), a transmission zero fZ1, and a transmission pole fP1 can be generated. Therefore, the two
resonant frequencies of fP1 and fZ1 can be calculated by
1
fP1 = √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ ≈ 75.56GHz (1)
2π (C2 + C3 )(L2 + L3 )

1
fZ1 = √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ ≈ 111.73GHz (2)
2π L2 (C2 + C3 )

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Fig. 4. Distributions of (a-b) electric field, and surface current on (c-d) the top layer and (e-f) bottom layer of the proposed FSS for normal incidence
with two central frequencies of 74.68 GHz and 146.17 GHz, respectively.

When two series LC resonators resonate, another transmission peak and zero can be formed at two frequencies of fP2 and fZ2, which can
be can be given by
1
fP2 = √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ =≈ 146.29GHz (3)
2π C1 (C2 + C3 )(L1 + L2 )/C1 (C2 + C3 )

1
fZ2 = √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ ≈ 128.01GHz (4)
2π C1 L1
Eqs. (1–4) reveals the relationships between the operating frequencies and electrical parameters. The detailed electrical parameters
are listed in Table 2. For comparison, the transmission response of the ECM obtained by ADS using the curve-fitting method [27] is
plotted in Fig. 3(b). It is observed that the simulated result obtained from the ECM is in agreement with that obtained by the ANSYS
HFSS, which verifies the validity of the ECM established in Fig. 3(b).

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Fig. 5. Simulated transmission coefficients of the proposed FSS with different values of the key parameters under normal incidence for TE po­
larization, including (a) w (b) r1 (c) substrate (d) foam (e) TE polarization under oblique incident angles and (f) TM polarization under oblique
incident angles.

To study its filtering characteristics in depth, the distribution of surface electric field intensity and induced current at two central
frequencies of 74.68 GHz and 146.17 GHz are analyzed separately in this paper, as shown in Fig. 4. From Fig. 4, it can be seen that at
74.68 GHz frequency, the currents are mainly gathered in the outer square ring and internal square ring, while the current at the small
hexagon is weak. The electric field diagram in Fig. 4(a) indicates that the fP1 is mainly generated by the coupling of two rings in the
outside and the middle, which is consistent with the conclusion of Eq. (1).
At 146.17 GHz, the currents are distributed over the whole metal layer, but the current density of the outer ring is lower than that of
the ring in the middle and inner hexagon, as shown in Fig. 4(d) and (f). The electric field diagram in Fig. 4(b) also reveals that the
capacitive effect produced by the coupling of two rings between the middle and outer rings is smaller than that produced by the

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Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of the fs laser micro-machining system.

coupling of the middle ring and the small hexagon. The induced current of the middle ring and the small hexagon itself produces an
inductive effect, which in turn excites up the LC circuit resonance, thus forming another transmission passband.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Key structural parameter analysis

To reveal the influence of machining accuracy on transmission performance, the influence of key structural parameters on its
transmission performance is studied, including w, r1, h, and H, as shown in Fig. 5.
The impacts of the width (w1) of the outer square ring on transmission performance under normal incidence of EM waves are
discussed and plotted in Fig. 5(a). The resonant frequency of fP1 increases and the bandwidth of the passband decreases as the width
(w1) of the outer square ring expands from 90 to 110 µm, while the frequencies and bandwidth of the two stop bands only have slight
variation. The main reason is that the area of the outer square ring is wider with the broadening of width (w1), which leads to a smaller
L3 and a slight increase in C2. Moreover, according to the enlarged view of Fig. 5(a), whether the width (w1) of the outer square ring is
enlarged or reduced by 10 µm, the offsets of the low-frequency end of the passband are all less than 1.5 GHz.
When the outer length (r1) of the six-sided clearance ring increases, the resonant frequency fP1 and − 3 dB bandwidth of the
passband of the double-layer FSS are reduced, as shown in Fig. 5(b). The area of the inner square ring diminishes as the side length (r1)
increases, which gives rise to a slight increase in L2 and a decline in C2. Therefore, the stopband of the proposed FSS also shifts to low
frequencies as the change of side length (r1). In addition, whether the side length (r1) is enlarged or reduced by 10 µm, the offsets of the
high-frequency end of the passband are all less than 1.5 GHz, but the offsets of the high-frequency end of the stopband exceed 3 GHz. In
addition to the metal structure, the thickness of the substrate and foam also affects the transmission performance of the proposed FSS.
Hence, the effects of loading different thicknesses of substrate and foam on the transmission performance are also analyzed.
Fig. 5(c) shows the transmission coefficients of the FSS at three different thicknesses. When the thickness of the four layers of
substrates increases, the distance between the two metal structures becomes greater, leading to the coupling effect between them
weakening. It can be observed that the transmission responses shift toward lower frequency and the − 3 dB bandwidth decreases.
Furthermore, according to the formula of double loading medium [1]: f = f0/ε1/2 r , the resonant frequency would decrease as the
thickness of the slab increases, which leads to the overall resonant frequency moving to lower frequencies. Where f0 is the resonant
frequency measured without adding a dielectric substrate and εr is the relative dielectric constant. When the thickness of foam in­
creases, a similar phenomenon can also be observed as shown in Fig. 5(d). Since the permittivity of foam is only 1.07, which is close to
that of air, its effect on the transmission coefficient is less than the dielectric substrate.
According to the above numerical analysis, when the structural offset is within ± 10 µm, the impact on the center frequency and
bandwidth of the proposed double-layer FSS are relatively small, which could ensure better transmission performance. Within the
same range of variation, however, the outer length (r1) of the six-sided clearance ring has a great influence on the high frequency end of
the stopband, which in consequence means the machining accuracy of the prototype needs to be further improved. In other words, the
machining accuracy must be less than 10 µm.

3.2. Angular stability analysis

As a spatial filter, the impacts of resonant frequencies and operating bandwidth are very sensitive to the incident angle and po­
larization mode of EM waves. Consequently, it is necessary to further investigate the angular stability of the double-layer FSS. The
angular stability of the proposed FSS in oblique incidence under TE and TM polarization is studied, as shown in Fig. 5(e) and (f). The
simulated results reveal a frequency response that does not change significantly with TE/TM polarization and incident angle up to 60◦ .

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Fig. 7. (a) Optical microscope image of the array structures with 15 × 15 elements. (b) Enlarged views of the array structure. (c) Sectioning
micrograph of one of the array structure. (d) Optical microscope image of the array structure with 2 × 5 elements. (e) Larger view of one of the
metal array structures. (f) Prototype with 7.15 mm × 3.6 mm.

Meanwhile, it is also observed that the operating bandwidth of the proposed FSS decreases slightly in passband when the incident angle
increases. These deviations are mainly caused by the strong surface impedance dependence and polarization at oblique incidence to
one plane, which has been explained in [28]. In addition, it is observed that an additional resonance appears at the stopband for both
polarizations when increasing the incident angle. The comparison between Fig. 5(e) and (f) shows that the transmission performance is
different at high frequencies, especially after 140 GHz, when the incident angle increases. It could be attributed to the fact that the
hexagon is not completely symmetrical.

4. Fabrication and measurement

To verify the validity of the designed double-layer FSS, the fs laser micro-machining system was built and shown in Fig. 6. The
linearly polarized fs laser (Pharos from Light Conversion, Lithuania) has a wavelength of 1030 nm, a pulse duration of 215 fs, and a
repetition rate of 10 kHz. A laser control system was used to realize the adjustment of the laser pulse energy. Four Mirrors were high
reflectivity mirrors. An electronic shutter (GCI-73 M, Daheng Optics) was employed to control the on/off of the beam and the diameter
of the laser beam was limited to 6 mm by a small aperture. Then the laser beam was focused by one focusing lens with a focal length of
50 mm and a diameter of 25.4 mm perpendicularly onto the sample surface, which was mounted on a computer-controlled XYZ three-
axis translation stage (Suruga Seiki, Japan). The microstructure of any pattern could be fabricated by moving the three-dimensional
motion platform. As mentioned in [29–31], the most suitable laser processing parameters, including a laser power of 250 mW, a
scanning interval of 10 µm, and a moving speed of 1.5 mm/s, were explored and adopted for optimal machining quality. The time
required to process an FSS with a unit layout of 2 × 5 is 15 min.
After fs laser processing, the fabricated materials were washed in an ultrasonic cleaner with 3 % HCl for 30 min, followed by
anhydrous ethanol and deionized water for 5 min respectively so that the surface oxides and stains were fully removed. The array
structure and size of the fabricated metal structures were obtained by an Ultra depth of field 3D microscope (VHX5000, KEYENCE,
Japan). The ablation depth of the fabricated metal structures was measured by a MIRA3 LMU scanning electron microscope (SEM,
TESCAN, Czech).
The size of the fabricated array structures occupies 21 mm × 21 mm, as revealed in Fig. 7(a). Enlarged view of the array structures
is presented in Fig. 7(b). It can be seen that the edge of the processing area is smooth and straight, and unit similarity is high, indicating
a good processing quality. In addition, the SEM of one of the fabricated array structures at the center section is illustrated in Fig. 7(c). It
is observed that the dielectric layer is hardly fabricated and the thickness of the metal layer remains 35 µm. Given the limitation of the
test conditions, only the Ka-band (26.5–40 GHz) of the prototype can be measured by the waveguide method [32] in this paper.
According to the testing requirements of the waveguide method, the sample size to be tested must be 7.15 mm × 3.60 mm, thus the
metal array structures with 2 × 5 elements were fabricated and displayed in Fig. 7(d). A larger view of one of the metal array structures
is shown in Fig. 7(e). It is suggested that the measured sizes are in good agreement with the structural size of the proposed FSS, and

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Fig. 8. Comparison of measured and simulated results of the proposed double-layer FSS under normal incidence.

their error is within 1 µm, which meets the machining accuracy requirement of the proposed FSS. The dielectric substrate, PE foam,
and processed metal array structures were then bonded and the prototype with the size of 7.15 mm × 3.6 mm was obtained, as
revealed in Fig. 7(f).
The ultrafast laser processing system is not suitable for processing large-area FSS, so the rectangular waveguide method which can
measure small-size FSS was chosen for experimental verification. The transmission and reflection coefficients of the fabricated pro­
totype were tested using a vector network analyzer (Agilent N5222A) and a waveguide (WR-28). The measured results of reflection
and transmission coefficients are plotted in Fig. 8. It can be observed that the measured results and the simulation results have a good
agreement, except for some discrepancies.
The vector network analyzer that could measure the frequency range from 40 GHz to 100 GHz could not be found right now. The
research only tested the transmission and reflection in the Ka-band of the FSS due to the limited test conditions. It can be seen that there
is a deviation between the tested transmission coefficient and the simulation results in the frequency range of 26.5–33 GHz. This
discrepancy can be attributed to the presence of processing error, an air gap that exists when the substrate, PE foam, and processed
metal array structures are bonded to each other, and testing error. In addition, the tested transmission coefficient in the range of
33–40 GHz is basically consistent with the simulation result, and the tested reflection coefficient in the range of 26–40 GHz is basically
consistent with the simulation result. It verifies the reliability of the simulation design, and the result of 60–89 GHz is expected to be
further verified in the subsequent research.

5. Conclusion

In this paper, we proposed and fabricated a broadband double-layer FSS and studied its performance. The simulation result shows
that the double-layer FSS could achieve a high transmission in the band of 60.03–89.33 GHz, and the relative bandwidth is up to 29 %,
exhibiting broadband characteristics. Besides, it is suggested that the transmission performance of the proposed FSS has little effect
when its structural error is less than 10 µm. Furthermore, the designed FSS has a high oblique incidence angular stability and po­
larization insensitivity up to 60◦ . In addition, the proposed FSS was fabricated and measured. The results are indicated that the
machined sample has high precision and the machining error is within 1 µm, which could meet the requirements of machining ac­
curacy of the proposed FSS, and the test results are in good agreement with the simulation results. In conclusion, the proposed double-
layer FSS has the advantages of broadband, low insertion loss, and stable performance, which can be widely used in the multiband
antennas, and high frequency waveguide. Moreover, the corresponding processing method could be extended to other millimeter wave
functional devices, such as absorbers, radomes, etc.

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China (51975595 and 52105498); Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province
(2021JJ30838, 2022JJ40597); Research Project of State Key Laboratory of High Performance Complex Manufacturing (ZZYJKT2021-
12), State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration (MSV202214), and State Key Laboratory of Pulsed Power Laser
Technology (SKL2021KF01). National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Materials under Shock and Impact (WDZC2022-
14), Science and Technology Innovation Program of Hunan Province (Grant No. 2022RC1132), and National Natural Science Foun­
dation of China Joint Fund for Regional Innovation Development (Hunan Province) U22A20200.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to

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influence the work reported in this paper.

Data availability

Data will be made available on request.

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