Dual-Functional Metasurface Reflector for Wideband Polarization Conversion and RCS Reduction Applications

A wideband polarization transforming reflective metasurface with dual functionality is proposed in this work. It converts the incident TE(Transverse Electric)/TM(Transverse Magnetic) waves into circularly polarized waves in a portion of the operating band and also into TM/TE waves respectively waves at the remaining frequency spectrum. The proposed unit cell’s front side comprises of tapered rectangular metal connected with a circular patch and backside by a metal ground. Proposed structure exhibits circular polarization (CP) conversion from 13.5-20.9 GHz and cross polarization (XP) conversion from 11.12-12.64 and 23.32-34.65 GHz. The proposed meta-atom and 90 degree rotated image are used to construct checkerboard metasurface with $10 \times 10$ elements for RCS reduction. It is inferred from the simulation results that a significant reduction in RCS is observed in the LP-XP band. The dimensions of the realized meta-atom are $0.297 \times 0.297 \times 0.062 \lambda_{0}^{3}$ (where $\lambda_{0}$ is dependent on lowest operating frequency), and is best suitable for future wireless communication and RCS reduction application simultaneously.