Flexible metamaterial absorber with wide incident angle insensitivity for conformal applications

This Letter demonstrates design, simulation, fabrication and performance of a metamaterial (MTM) absorber having wide incident angle insensitivity for conformal applications in X‐band region. The important feature of the proposed structure is achieving more than 90% absorptivity with very low thickness. In this design, an FR4 material having thickness 0.1 mm is used as a substrate. Hence, the overall thickness of the proposed MTM absorber is only 1/81 of the wavelength at the resonance frequency of 9.2 GHz. Also, the presented absorber is offering more than 80% absorptivity up to 50° incident angle which is very much suitable for conformal applications where curved surfaces are involved. Designed MTM absorber has been fabricated and simulation results are experimentally verified.