Optically Transparent Conformal Reflectarray with Multi‐Angle Microwave Efficient Scattering Enhancement

Abstract

AbstractOptically transparent electromagnetic devices play a key role in modern society. Traditional transparent electromagnetic devices face the problems of high return loss, low optical transparency, and dependence on the properties of transparent conductive materials. Due to the limitation of substrate, there are few studies on conformal transparent reflectarray. However, for conformal targets such as aircraft, it is particularly important to fabricate conformal transparent reflectarray. Here, an optically transparent conformal reflectarray with multi‐angle scattering enhancement performance is proposed. ITO square ring and patch are selected to realize wide phase coverage and low return loss of the array is achieved by traversing the initial phase. By partitioning the phase distribution of the reflectarray, the 0° normal incidence efficient backscattering enhancement and the ±45° multi‐angle backscattering enhancement functions of the conformal reflectarray are realized in X‐band. Both simulation and experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed prototype. The reflectarray has high reflection efficiency, excellent optical transparency, stable performance, and is easy to manufacture. Therefore, it is expected to be applied to backscattering enhancement of transparent conformal shapes such as aircraft and friendly targets, and then improve the efficiency of target echo detection from multiple angles in complex situations.