Wideband RCS reduction and gain enhancement microstrip antenna using chessboard configuration superstrate

A novel design for wideband radar cross section (RCS) reduction and gain enhancement microstrip antenna is proposed. Two 180 degrees phase difference and modified artificial magnetic conductor cells are utilized to combine chessboard configuration superstrate (CCS). The bottom side of CCS is etched slot and exploited to construct Fabry-Perot resonance cavity with ground plane of a microstrip antenna. The CCS can enable the primary antenna to obtain gain enhancement and RCS reduction simultaneously. Measured results show that the proposed antenna gain is enhanced by about 4.8 dB at 9.6 GHz and its 3 dB gain enhancement bandwidth is from 9.1 to 10.5 GHz. The half power beamwidth is suppressed from 101 degrees to 12 degrees in E-plane, while it is only 14 degrees in H-plane, decreased by about 75 degrees compared with the primary antenna. Meanwhile, the antenna RCS is dramatically reduced in a broad frequency range from 8.0 to 14.0 GHz, which contains the operation band of the proposed antenna. (c) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:1738-1741, 2015