Low-Profile Chessboard Metasurface for Monostatic and Multistatic Radar Cross Section Reduction

Advances in radar systems have led to the emergence of low observability technologies that minimize target detectability. Among them, metasurfaces and metamaterials appear as promising solutions. In this paper, the analysis and design of a single-layer scattering metasurface with a thickness of λs/10 is presented for both monostatic and multistatic scenarios, simultaneously. The design achieves -12 dB of radar cross section reduction in the band 9.16 - 11.72 GHz, which means a reduction in the monostatic detection distance of 50%. Due to the symmetry and periodicity of the structure, the metasurface is infinitely replicable and the response has been validated for both polarizations. Moreover, the radar cross section reduction is applicable for an incidence range of θ = [−60, 60]°. Several prototypes have been fabricated and measured, and the results have been experimentally validated. For the measurement process, the vector background subtraction technique was used, as well as time gating and cylindrical mode expansion to transform from near-field to far-field.