724
16, 2017
A Coding Diffuse Metasurface for RCS Reduction
Xiao Liu, Jun Gao, Member, IEEE, Liming Xu, Xiangyu Cao, Senior Member, IEEE, Yi Zhao, and Sijia Li
Abstract—In this letter, a coding diffuse metasurface for radar
cross section (RCS) reduction is designed, simulated, and mea-
sured. First, two kinds of artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) unit
cell are analyzed, and 5 × 5 AMC unit cells construct metamate-
rials block. A linear array factor is optimized by the ergodic algo-
rithm, and the sequence is expanded from one-dimension code to
two-dimension code. Then, the diffuse metasurface is constructed
through the metamaterials blocks arrangement. Simulation results
show that the bandwidth of RCS reduction is expanded compared
to the classical chessboard arrangement. The diffuse characteristic
of the metasurface is achieved under normal and oblique incidence
wave. Experiment results verify the validity of the theoretical de-
sign and simulation. This letter provides a rapid design method
to obtain diffuse metasurface, and this metasurface may achieve
potential applications on low-scattering vehicle.
Index Terms—Artificial magnetic conductor (AMC), diffusion,
metasurface (MS), radar cross section (RCS) reduction.
I. INTRODUCTION
ITH the development of the radar detector, the demand
W of electromagnetic (EM) invisibility or transparency ma-
terial is increased strongly. There are many technical applications
to reduce the radar cross section (RCS), such as ferrite absorber,
low-scattering profile, and almond shape. Metamaterial provides
a new way to manipulate EM waves and achieve the broadband
and low-reflection materials. Unusual constitutive parameters in
macroscopic are obtained through the equivalent circuit theory,
and a set of materials is designed to achieve fantastic EM charac-
ter, such as perfect absorber [1], invisibility cloaking [2], surface
plasmon polarization [3], polarization rotation surface (PRS) [4],
[5], and artificial magnetic conductor (AMC). The metasurface is
a two-dimensional (2-D) equivalence of metamaterials [6], which
are usually constituted by inhomogeneous arrays of subwavelength
resonators. The AMC was first proposed by Sievenpiper et al. in
1999 [7], which could modify the reflect wave by altering its phase
and amplitude. In 2007, Paguay et al. combined perfect electric
conductor and AMC in chessboard arrangement, which provided
the precedent to nonspecular scattering metasurface [8]. Based on
the theorem of scattering cancelation, the reflect energy was mainly
scattered into four diagonal directions, and the RCS in the normal
direction was almost zero. In 2013, Zhao utilized two kinds AMC
units, and the bandwidth of RCS reduction broadened greatly [9].
Manuscript received April 27, 2016; accepted August 13, 2016. Date of
publication August 17, 2016; date of current version April 3, 2017. This work
was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under
Grants 61271100, 61471389, and 61501494.
X. Liu, J. Gao, X. Cao, Y. Zhao, and S. Li are with the Information and
Navigation College, Air Force Engineering University of CPLA, Xi’an 710077,
China (e-mail: 382500638@qq.com; gjgj9694@sina.com; gjgj9694@163.com;
519763316@qq.com; lsj051@126.com).
L. Xu is with the Science and Technology on Electronic Information Control
Laboratory, Chengdu 610036, China (e-mail: 10575229@qq.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this letter are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2016.2601108
1536-1225 © 2016 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL.
In 2015, Hong et al. put two kinds of AMC units cell in triangle
arrangement [10], the RCS in specular direction was suppressed,
and eight peaks were obtained in the backward. Chen et al. put
same units in different sizes randomly [11], which redistributed
the scattering energy from the surface toward all the directions.
In 2014, Cui et al. proposed the concept “coding metamaterials,”
and provided a route to manipulate EM waves and realize differ-
ent functionalities by means of biased diode, field-programmable
gate array, and different codes [12]. Based on the optimization
algorithm and far-field scattering pattern analysis, Wang et al. pro-
posed a low-scattering metasurface [13]. In 2015, a single-layer
terahertz metasurface was proposed to produce ultralow reflections
across a broad-frequency spectrum and wide incidence angles by
controlling the reflection phases of subwavelength structures [14].
A broadband and wide-angle diffuse metasurface in terahertz us-
ing multibit codes was designed [15]. In summary, an optimization
algorithm is used frequently to design the sequence. However, it
usually takes a long time to get multibit and large-scale codes.
In this letter, a rapid design of diffuse metasurface is proposed
for RCS reduction. First, the element pattern (EP) is approached,
and two kinds of metamterial blocks construct a linear array. A lin-
ear code of global best is obtained through the ergodic algorithm
with short time cost. Then, according to the pattern multiplication,
a 2-D code is constructed by the linear code. Later, the diffuse
metasurface is designed through metamaterial blocks that arrange
in the 2-D code. The simulated results indicate that the bandwidth
of RCS reduction (greater than 10 dB) is 5.4–7.4 GHz compared
to metal of the same size. Then, the scattering field under nor-
mal and oblique wave is simulated. The measured bandwidth of
RCS reduction is 1.8 GHz (from 5.57 to 7.37 GHz). The agree-
ment between measured and simulated data validates the proposed
design.
II. DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF DIFFUSE METASURFACE
Fig. 1 gives the schema and the reflect phase difference curves
of two kinds of units cell. Under normal incidence wave, the phase
difference ranges from 135° to 215° (180° at 6.35 GHz) and the
amplitude remains unchanged from 5.8 to 8.7 GHz. Under oblique
incidence wave, the phase difference curves are not smooth
enough, and the bandwidths are narrower. To keep the periodicity
of unit cell, square 5 × 5 AMC block is used as the metamaterial
block in this design. Fig. 2 shows the geometry of square patch
AMC block and scattering pattern under normal incidence wave.
From the pattern, the 3-dB beamwidth is approximately 58° both
in E- and H-plane, and the EP is approached to the function cosθ
in the spherical coordinate system.
To calculate the scattering field of metasurface rapidly and effi-
ciently, we use the design method of antenna array. The AMC#1
block is designed as “0” element with a 0 phase response, and
the AMC#2 block is designed as “1” element with a π phase
response. In this way, the phase responses of the “0” and “1” ele-
ments are simply defined as Δϕ = nπ(n = 0, 1). 5 × 5 AMC
blocks are equivalent to element, and according to the three-
dimensional (3-D) scattering pattern of metamaterial block, EP is
LIU et al.: CODING DIFFUSE METASURFACE FOR RCS REDUCTION 725

Fig. 3. 2-D codes and calculated scattering fields of metal, chessboard, and
diffuse metasurface in logarithmic scale.

Fig. 1. Schema of the AMC unit cell, p = 5 mm, h = 3 mm, εr = 2.65,

a = 5.7 mm for AMC#1 and a = 7.6 mm for AMC#2.

Fig. 2. Square patch AMC block and scattering pattern at 6.35 GHz. (a) 3-D
scattering pattern. (b) 2-D scattering pattern.

approached as Fig. 4. Design flow of the diffuse metasurface.

EP = cos θ. (1) 10→1, 11→0

Linear array scattering field of eight elements is written as
8
 cos θ ·
j 2λπ x m sin θ ·e j ϕ m
F (θ) = EP · AF = cos θ · Am · e
m =1
where
xm = (m − 0.5 (M + 1)) d, Am = 1.
In order to manipulate the scattering wave diffuse as much as
possible, the peak value of scattering field is employed as the fitness
function
fitness = max F (θ) .
To make fitness function minimum, we employ the ergodic al-
gorithm, all the cases of arrangement are calculated for 28 loops,
and the best sequence is 00101110, which only takes few seconds.
In order to scatter the energy both into x-direction and y-direction,
8 × 8 2-D code is obtained based on the principle of pattern multi-
plication. 2-D code is filled in the blanks by logistic XOR gate, and
logistic XOR gate is interpreted simply as follows: 00→0, 01→1,
F (θ, ϕ) = EP · AF =
8,8

Amn · ej ( x m sin θ cos ϕ+ 2λπ y n sin θ sin ϕ )
2π
λ · ej ϕ m , n π
π
(2) m =1,n =1
(5)
where
yn = (n − 0.5 (M + 1)) d, Amn = 1. (6)
(3) Fig. 3 gives 2-D codes and 3-D scattering patterns of metal,
chessboard, and diffuse metasurface through (5) calculated by
MATLAB. The peak values of scattering field are 18.0618,
15.7703, and 11.29 dB successively. The peak value is decreased
by 2.29 dB for chessboard and 6.76 dB for diffuse metasurface,
and the peak value is decreased through different 2-D codes. From
(4) the calculated 3-D scattering patterns, the reflection energy is dis-
tributed into many directions for the diffuse metasurface, which
proves the diffuse characteristic.
The design flow of the diffuse metasurface is summarized in
Fig. 4. Two softwares are used in this design. HFSS 15.0 is re-
sponsible for the design of metamaterial block and the accurate
full-wave simulation that is based on the finite-element method
(FEM). MATLAB is responsible for the rapid calculation and op-
timization of the arrangement and the scattering field.
726 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 16, 2017

Fig. 5. Schematic diagrams of (a) diffuse metasurface and (b) chessboard.

Fig. 8. Scattering patterns under TE oblique wave: (a) 15°, (b) 30°, (c) 45°; and
under TM oblique wave (d) 15°, (e) 30°, (f) 45°; mirror bistatic RCS reduction
curves, (g) TE oblique wave, (h) TM oblique wave.

Fig. 6. RCS reduction curves of chessboard and diffuse metasurface.

Fig. 7. Chessboard arrangement simulation 3-D scattering patterns under

normal incidence waves: (a) 5.4, (b) 6.35, and (c) 7.4 GHz; diffuse metasur-
face simulation 3-D scattering patterns under normal incidence waves: (d) 5.4,
(e) 6.35, and (f) 7.4 GHz.

III. SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS OF DIFFUSE METASURFACE

Fig. 5 shows the schematics of diffuse metasurface and chess-
board. The size of the diffuse metasurface and chessboard is
328 × 328 × 3 mm3 (7λ × 7λ × 0.06λ at 6.35 GHz). Fig. 6
gives the RCS reduction curves under the normal incidence waves,
and only one RCS curve of TE and TM waves is given because
of the rotation symmetry of the arrangement. From Fig. 6, RCS
reduction bands of chessboard (greater than 10 dB) are from 6
to 6.85 GHz and from 7.25 to 7.6 GHz, and the band of diffuse
metasurface is 5.4–7.4 GHz. The absolute bandwidth is expanded
from 1.2 to 2 GHz by 67% through proper arrangement of AMC
blocks.
Fig. 9. (a) Prototype and (b) measurement setup.
Fig. 7 provides the 3-D scattering patterns in the same scale
of chessboard and diffuse metasurface at 5.4, 6.35, and 7.4 GHz,
respectively. From Fig. 7, there are four or five reflect strong peaks
in the chessboard, but for the diffuse metasurface, the reflect waves
are diffuse. At 5.4 and 7.4 GHz, the scattering field of chessboard
in the specular direction is clearly greater than the diffuse metasur-
face. In other words, the RCS reduction bandwidth of chessboard
is narrower than the diffuse metasurface. Fig. 7 clearly shows that
LIU et al.: CODING DIFFUSE METASURFACE FOR RCS REDUCTION
Fig. 10. Measured mirror bistatic RCS reduction with 15°, 30°, and 45°:
(a) TE and (b) TM oblique waves.
the peak values of scattering field are suppressed strongly from 5.4
to 7.4 GHz, which is in agreement with the former analysis.
Fig. 8 gives out the scattering patterns and mirror RCS reduction
curves (compared to metal) under oblique TE and TM waves. The
diffuse characteristic is achieved under TE and TM oblique waves.
The interpretation of this phenomenon is that the phase difference
of two unit cells still keeps π in a broad band under oblique waves,
as shown in Fig. 1. Bandwidths of mirror RCS reduction (greater
than 6 dB) are 5.05–7.75, 5.1–8, and 5.3–7.9 GHz under TE waves
for 15°, 30°, and 45°, respectively. Bandwidths of mirror RCS re-
duction (greater than 6 dB) are 4.85–7.9, 5.1–8, and 5.5–7.45 GHz
under TM waves for 15°, 30°, and 45°, respectively. The mirror
bistatic RCS is reduced in a broadband, which is similar to the
situation of the normal incidence wave.
IV. FABRICATION AND MEASUREMENT
To verify the simulation results, the prototype of the proposed
diffuse metasurface is illustrated in Fig. 9(a) and has been exper-
imentally studied. The diffuse metasurface sample was fabricated
using an optical lithographic processes on a 3-mm-thick F4B sub-
strate with εr = 2.65 and tanδ = 0.001.
The diffuse metasurface is measured in the microwave anechoic
chamber, and the experimental setup is showed in Fig. 9(b). Two
horn antennas are connected to the Agilent vector network analyzer
(N5230C) as a transmitter and receiver, respectively. To measure
727
the bistatic RCS reduction (compared to metal of the same size),
two horn antennas are placed in specular, 15°, 30°, and 45° direc-
tions with respect to the prototype. To eliminate the interference
of environment, the function of time-domain gating in the network
analyzer is adopted in experiments.
Fig. 10 shows the measured results of RCS reduction curves.
From the results, the bandwidth of RCS reduction (greater than
10 dB) is 5.57–7.37 GHz, which is in agreement with the simulated
result. Bandwidths of mirror RCS reduction (greater than 6 dB) are
5.03–9.89, 5.48–10.07, and 5.3–8.9 GHz under TE waves for 15°,
30°, and 45°, successively. Bandwidths of mirror RCS reduction
(greater than 6 dB) are 4.77–8.25, 5.17–8.82, and 5.58–7.25 GHz
under TM waves for 15°, 30°, and 45°, successively. Neglecting
fabrication and measurement errors, the measured results verify
the low scattering of this novel design.
V. CONCLUSION
In summary, a diffuse metasurface is proposed, simulated, fabri-
cated, and measured. Using the theorem of array factor and ergodic
algorithm, the linear AMC blocks diffuse array is obtained with
short time. Then, the 2-D array is constructed by logistic XOR gate.
The benefit of this design method is that it is more effective and
spends less time compared to other diffuse metasurface designs.
The metasurface is simulated, the bandwidth of RCS reduction is
expanded by 67% compared to classical chessboard arrangement,
and the scattering energy is reflected into many directions in a
broad band. The diffuse characteristic is achieved under oblique
TE and TM waves. The measured results verify the validity of the
theoretical design and simulation. This letter provides a rapid way
to design large-scale diffuse and broadband metasurface.
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