A Novel Ultrathin Checkerboard Inspired Ultrawideband Metasurface Absorber

A cost-effective, conformal, polarization-insensitive, light-weight, ultrathin, and ultrawideband electromagnetic wave absorber covering the entire Ku, K, and Ka bands and the lower V band is presented in this article. The absorber consists of a single layer of inkjet printed resistive metasurface laid over a flexible paper supported by a grounded foam. A novel metasurface pattern is designed by combining a checkerboard inspired symmetrical structure around a central square patch. The notable features of the proposed absorber are its ultrathin thickness of 2.17 mm (0.09$\boldsymbol{\lambda _l}$ at the lowest operating frequency) for achieving a fractional bandwidth of 117% with a small radar cross section and its suitability for conformal applications. It exhibits more than 90% absorptivity over a frequency range from 11.87 to 45.28 GHz for all the angles of polarization and is also angularly stable. The theoretical, simulation, circuital, and experimental analysis validates the various features exhibited by the absorber.