TABLE 1 Comparison between the Conventional FEM and

the Semianalytical FEM

Conventional FEM
Relative error of AT curve
Relative error of PD curve
CPU time (s)

23

4.95 3 10
7.52 3 1023
2903.8

Semianalytical FEM
3.58 3 1023
4.64 3 1023
35.3

5. CONCLUSION

Figure 6 AT curves of the borehole logging example. [Color figure can

be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.
com]

The two measurement curves by this tool are defined as


VT1R2


1
120log 10 VT2R1
AT5
20log 10
V

2
VT1R1
T2R2





1
VT1R2
VT1R2
PD5
angle
1angle
:
2
VT1R1
VT1R1

In this article, we have discussed a semianalytical FEM for electromagnetic propagation in stratified media. This method is easy
to implement, very accurate, and efficient. Compared to other
techniques for layered problems, such as the numerical modematching method, our method can give a final discretized system fully compatible with conventional FEM method, so it is
straightforward to combine the semianalytical mesh with conventional FEM grid to handle the situation when an irregular
object is sandwiched by stratified media. The implementation of
hybrid FEM-semi-FEM scheme will be our future study.
REFERENCES

(22)
(23)

where VT1R2 means the signal received by receiver R2 from

transmitter T1, and so forth. Figures 6 and 7 show the simulated
AT and PD curves with 100 data points by the conventional
FEM and the proposed semianalytical FEM (with air hang value
subtracted from the numerical results). Curve values obtained by
conventional FEM with a very fine grid are used here as reference. From these two figures, we observed that both methods
give simulation results agreeing with reference very well. Table
1 lists the comparisons of computational time and relative errors
by the two method. From the table, we clearly see that to
achieve a same level of accuracy the conventional method needs
to consume much more computational resources than the semianalytical method. In another word, the semianalytical FEM is
more efficient than the conventional FEM in simulating this
type of layered problem.

1. Q.H. Liu and W.C. Chew, Numerical mode-matching method for the
multiregion vertically stratified media, IEEE Trans Antennas Propag
38 (1990), 498506.
2. W.X. Zhong, On precise integration method, J Comput Appl Math
163 (2004), 5978.
3. C.A. Balanis, Advanced Engineering Electromagnetics, Wiley, New
York, NY, 1989.
4. W.X. Zhong, Duality System In Applied Mechanics And Optimal
Control, Kluwer, Boston, MA, 2004.
5. J. Chen, B. Zhu, W.X. Zhong, and Q.H. Liu, A semianalytical spectral element method for the analysis of 3-D layered structures, IEEE
Trans Microwave Theory Tech 59 (2011), 18.
6. G. Meurant, A review on the inverse of symmetric tridiagonal and
block tridiagonal matrices, SIAM J Matrix Anal Appl 13 (1992),
707728.
C 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
V

NEW RADAR ABSORBENT MATERIAL

BASED OF CARBONED FOAM GLASS
APPLICATION TO PYRAMIDAL RADAR
ABSORBER
Jean-Francois Legendre
es de Rennes, 20 Avenue
Institut National des Sciences Applique
smes, CS 70839, F-35708 Rennes Cedex 7,
des Buttes de Coe
France; Corresponding author: jeff.legendre@free.fr
Received 28 May 2014
ABSTRACT: This note describes a new material made of carboned
foam glass. Shaped as a pyramid, its leads to great absorption levels.
C 2015
The computation of reflection coefficient is completely derived. V
Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:1822, 2015;
View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/
mop.28769
Key words: radar; absorber; pyramid; reflectivity
1. INTRODUCTION

Figure 7 PD curves of the borehole logging example. [Color figure can

be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.
com]

18

Microwave spectrum covers the frequency range from 100 MHz

to 100 GHz. Probably, the most important and best known use
is in telecommunications services to the public, industry, and

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 57, No. 1, January 2015

DOI 10.1002/mop

Figure 1 Carbon glass cakes. [Color figure can be viewed in the

online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

Figure 2 Carbon glass balls. [Color figure can be viewed in the online
issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

government, for example: radio and TV broadcasting, cellular

phones, satellite communications, and so forth. Outside the field
of communications, it may be noted as important as other applications: microwave ovens, civil and military radars, EMC qualification measures, medical applications, heating or industrial
collage fast, the food processing, and so forth.
This use of increasingly intensive has led some organizations
(ARNT in France, the FCC) to implement a number of standards (allocation of frequencies, radiation limits, etc.) for that
electromagnetic pollution does not imply significant risks to
human health or to electronic systems (interference, EMC). The
use of microwave absorbent, notably the material presented
here, enters in the scope of the protection against the electromagnetic waves.

Like a cake cooking, microwave absorbent is made from

three basic elements: a flourglass cracked recovery called
also calsin, an yeastthe aluminum nitride, an adjuvant
the graphite. With cakes (Fig. 1), we did not control the gradient
index. This mixture is next formed into thin balls (Fig. 2) that
are then heated to 1000 C. For example, the shape of the pyramids is obtained by bonding (Fig. 3). Today, the only adjuvant
that has been tested is the graphite, but to get microwave
absorbent thin for low frequencies (below 1 GHz for EMC studies), it is planned to replace the carbon by ferrites, ferromagnetic metals, a nickel/zinc mixture/manganese, and so forth.
Our absorbent presents an innovative intrinsic nature with
these physical qualities:

2. ORIGINS OF THE MATERIAL

The starting point of the absorbent material was a study on the

armored glass leaded performed in the chemistry laboratory of
Professor Laurent of the University of Rennes 1, there is about
30 years. Like many inventions, the foam glass was discovered
by chance due to a breakdown of the oven overnight; the oven
broke down and the researcher found inside a cake nontransparent foamed glass, containing a large number of air bubbles,
but with very interesting properties (strength, low density,
impermeable, M0 fire class).
Professor Chassay, at LCST laboratory of INSA Rennes and
specialist in the field of radar, advised chemists adding graphite
into the receipt to try to get microwave absorbent. After several
unsuccessful attempts, including graphite, we showed that this could
be feasible and gave very satisfactory results in terms of absorption
(approximately 35 dB band X for a height of 9 cm). Five years
ago, the company CERNIX has improved the manufacturing process, now offering foamed glass balls form of a few millimeters.

High temperature resistance (800 C) can be considered the

first example anechoic chamber in which high temperatures
can be measured hot targets (e.g., missile in flight) or making EMC tests with very high power (>1000 V/m)

Mechanical resistance and water: it can be used outside, for

example, as a coating on the metal facades of airports.
In the case of anechoic chambers, the product as ball makes
it easy to consider all forms (cones, pyramids, etc.) and it will

3. PRODUCTION PROCESS OF THE MATERIAL

Microwave absorbing is usually placed in front of a metallic or

dielectric surface (for sample, concrete) to reduce the reflectivity
or the transmission through the media. The effectiveness of the
absorbent is measured in decibels, dB. For example, 20 dB of
aborption means that the power of the electromagnetic wave is
reduced by a factor of 100. Reducing the reflectivity finds a
large number of applications in radar stealth, EMC measurement
(anechoic chamber), reduced multipath.

DOI 10.1002/mop

Figure 3 Shaped structure with carbon glass balls. [Color figure can
be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.
com]

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 57, No. 1, January 2015

19

be possible to make the first absorbing microwave with a gradient index (without multilayered collage) by simply mixing neutral ball (transparent to waves) and balls loaded with graphite.
For example, in the case of a pyramid, the theory shows that it
is then possible to obtain 33% absorption or reduce the size of
33% to find the same characteristics as the other absorbent manufacturers. This is advantageous from the viewpoint of the price
but also the useful volume of EMC chamber, instead of using conventional pyramids 2 m, we can choose a gradient pyramid 1.5 m.

N
X

h
ap 5 azdz

p51

Finally, we find the global T matrix

"
TP 5

T11

T12

T21

T22

2
6
56
4

cosU
jYc1 sinU

4. REFLECTIVITY COMPUTATION OF N-SLABS

If we consider a dielectric slab p of dz size, with er and lr electromagnetical characteristics, a plane wave arriving with incident angle h leads to a transfert T matrix given by:
2

cosaP

6
56
4 j
T22
sinaP
Zcp


T11
Tp 5
T21

jZcp aP

T12

cosaP

21

32

p
2p erp lrp
dzp coshp
k

54

exp2j  ap

Ycp

cp

32

Ycp

54

T 5

T11

T12

T21

T22

2
cosap
N
Y
6
55 Tp 5 4 j
sinap
p51
p51
Zcp

2Ycp

jZcp sinap

N
Y

1
(3)

cosap

7
5

p51

"

T 5

1
YcN Y
c1

"


YcN

 z 2
a:z b:z

5Sz5h
h h
h

(13)

The pyramid admittance at elevation z is given by the following linear approximation:

Sz502Sz
Sz
1Yz5h
Sz50
Sz50

(14)

Replacing S(z) by its value, the pyramid impedance at z is

given by formula [15]. Globally, the pyramid acts like a gradient material. We notice that, for z 5 0, the impedance equals to
air impedance 377 X (Figure 4).

C
C
C
C
C
N
C
X
aP A
exp2j 
0

p51

Zz5

Zz50

 
2
Zz50
11 Zz5h 21 hz

(15)

If we consider very small slab, the sum is given by the integration of angle a from z 5 0 to z 5 h:

20

(12)

The pyramid shape is a usual way to assure the impedance matching and leads to reflection coefficient less than N dielectrical slabs.
The surface S(z 5 h) of the rectangular pyramid is equal to the
product of sizes a and b. The surface S(z) at elevation z is given by:

(6)
2YcN

(11)

5. REFLECTIVITY COMPUTATION OF A PYRAMID

Yz5Yz50

Zeff 2Zair
Zeff 1Zair

T12 2Zair T12

Zair 2jZc0 :tgU
52
Zair 1jZc0 :tgU
T12 1Zair T12

exp2j  ap

That can be rewritten as:

N
X
aP
expj

B
#
21 B
p51
B
B
B
B
Yc1
@
0

R5

Sz5

(5)

(10)

If the last slab is perfectly conducting, this equation can be

rewritten as:

#!

T11 ZcN11 1T12

T22 1T21 ZcN11

R5

Including the admittance notation, this leads to:

"
N
expj  ap
Y

(9)

With Zair 5 120 pX the characteristic impedance of air, we

can deduce the reflection coefficient as:

(4)

"
#
1 21
1
T 5

YcN Y
Yc1
c1
"
#
YcN
1

2YcN 1

Zeff 5

The T matrix of a composite radar absorber made of N slabs

is given by the individual T matrix product like this:
"

D q
er z:lr z2sin2 h: dz
0

(2)

expj  ap

(8)

The composite radar absorber is placed in front of a slab

with a characteristic impedance noted ZcN11. Its effective
impedance in front of the composite is given by:

Using admittance notation, we have the product of three

matrices:
2
1
1 4
TP 5
Ycp Y

2p
k

(1)

With the complex angle:

ap 5

3
j
sinU
7
Yc1
7
5
Yc1
cosU
YcN

With complex angle:

U5

7
7
5

(7)

Generally, radar absorber materials are made of pure dielectrical material (a-magnetic lrm 51) with erm, the permittivity of
the pyramid. By definition, we have:

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 57, No. 1, January 2015

DOI 10.1002/mop

Figure 6 Variation of impedance and permittivity versus elevation z

Figure 4 Variation of impedance and permittivity versus elevation z

Zair
Zz5 p
er z

(16)

Zair
Zz5h5 p
erm

(17)

We can deduce the equivalent permittivity of the pyramid at

elevation z:
s

 2
p
Z
er Z5 11
erm 21
h

(18)

Using Eq. (9) and as Zc0 5 Zair 5 377 X at z 5 0, the

reflection coefficient can be simplified by this integral that can
be computed with the trapezes method:
0

4p
kRk5e22ImU 5exp@2
k

sr
1

 z 2 p
11
3rm 212sin2 h:dzA
h

(19)
Figures 5 and 6 show the simulation of reflection coefficients
of pyramid absorber and one slab with the same material with
erm 5 1.5j0.5 and the same height. We notice that for incident
angle less than 45 , the pyramid shape is twice more efficient
than the slab (36 dB for pyramid and 17 dB for the slab).
This demonstrates the interest of using geometrical transition.
With less material, it is possible to improve the absorbing
properties.

Figure 5 Variation of impedance and permittivity versus elevation z

DOI 10.1002/mop

Figure 7 Measurement of a dielectric slab in semianechoic chamber.

[Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]
6. DIELECTRICAL CHARACTERISTIC MEASUREMENTS

The dielectrical characteristic of our material is measured in a

semianechoic chamber (Figure 7) of INSA high school. We
used a Hp 8510 network analyzer. A slab (20 3 20 cm2) of the
material is placed in front of a metallic plate whose reflectivity
is used as reference and without this perfect electric conductor
(PEC) plate. This slab is 3 m far from the antennas; we used a
hamming window in time domain to reduce the parasit reflections inside the anechoic room. This plateform enables to know
the measured reflectivity Rma(f) (with PEC plate) and Rmb(f)
(without PEC plate) versus frequency in X-band. The simulated
reflectivity Rsa(f) and Rsb(f) is deduced from Eq. (12) for one

Figure 8 Example of 3 cm pyramids with one slab

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 57, No. 1, January 2015

21

Ck 5Ck21 1b:D 21 :DR

(23)

The factor b is less than 0.8 to obtain a good convergence.

Using this gradient method, we have measured the characteristics of different slabs charged with different kind of carbon. The
module of the permittivity is between 1.3 and 3.
7. CONCLUSION

Figure 9

We have presented a new radar absorbent material made of

foam glass charged with carbon. N-slabs reflectivity coefficient
is derived and we deduce the reflectivity of a pyramid made
with our material. The dielectrical characteristic of this material
is measured in semianechoic chamber using a gradient method.
We have design a first prototype with 3 cm pyramids (with carbon N 1074) and one slab (with carbon N 1020)see Figure 8
which leads to the permittivity profile of Figure 9; the reflectivity in X-band is 218 dB (Fig. 10). Another example, using pyramids of 95 mm height, we succeed to have 35 dB absorption
in X-band which is very near to the value obtained by classical
radar absorbent s.

Permittivity profile of 3 cm pyramids with one slab

slab defined by a complex permittivity erm 5 e0 rm J e00 rm.

These characteristics are obtained by comparison between Rm(f)
and Rs(f) using a gradient method.
Let define the initial vector C and the error vector DR:
2
Ck50 54

erm
00

DC5Ck 2Ck21 54

erm
DR5

Derm
00

3
5

Rmb f 2Rsb f

Young-Guk Kim and Seong-Ook Park

Department of Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of
Science and Technology (KAIST), Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, South
Korea; Corresponding author: sopark1@kaist.ac.kr

(21)

Received 2 June 2014

(22)

ABSTRACT: This article investigates the slotted bow-tie dual-polarization antenna with achieving the wide band. The proposed antenna consists of upper antenna and lower antenna in one PCB substrate. This
antenna achieves a 210 dB return loss within the operating band of
1.62.3 GHz, which has a 700 MHz bandwidth. Isolation between
antenna 1 and antenna 2 is about 230 dB within the operating frequency band. Antenna 1 and 2s gains are above 8 dBi in the entire freC 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt
quency bandwidth. V
Technol Lett 57:2226, 2015; View this article online at
wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.28767

The derivation matrix D is given by:

2

@Rma f
6 @e0
rm
6
D56
4 @Rmb f
@e0rm

3
@Rma f
00
@erm 7
7
7
@Rmb f 5

A WIDEBAND DUAL POLARIZATION

BASE STATION ANTENNA

(20)

Derm
Rma f 2Rsa f

C 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

V

@e00rm

By iterative computation, we converge to the good value of

complex permittivity using the following equation deduced form
DR 5 DDC:

Key words: wideband antenna; dual polarization; high isolation

1. INTRODUCTION

Figure 10 Reflectivity of 3 cm pyramids with one slab

22

Over the past years, modern communication systems such as

3G, long term evolution (LTE), World Interoperability for
Microwave Access require wide bandwidth, dual polarization,
and stable gain performance. Recently, mobile devices such as
smart phones and tablets, are spreading rapidly, therefore,
mobile users can easily access internet wherever they want.
Because of the increase of internet access demand, many telecommunication companies need a femto cell base station
antenna to be mounted on ceiling of indoor buildings. This
femto cell base station antenna enlarges indoor network coverage and provides a mobile communication service to indoor
users better power efficiently and also it offers better quality
because of less interference from other macro base station signal
[1, 2].
Modern base station antennas are based on dual polarization
(645 ). Dual polarization not only enhances polarization

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 57, No. 1, January 2015

DOI 10.1002/mop