13th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2019)
A Model for Equivalent Loss Tangent of Multilayered
Media for Automotive Radar Applications
Jogesh Chandra Dash1, Shilpa Kharche2, Jayanta Mukherjee3
1,2,3
Electrical Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai-400076, Maharashtra, India
Vivek Dhoot4, Ranga Makanaboyina5
4,5
Daimler-Mercedes Benz Research & Development India
(email: jcdash92@gmail.com1, shilpaukharche@gmail.com2, jayanta@ee.iitb.ac.in3, vivek.dhoot@daimler.com4,
ranga.makanaboyina@daimler.com5)
Abstract - In this paper, a mathematical equation to obtain
the effective loss tangent of a multilayered medium is derived.
This equation is applied to obtain the effective loss tangent of a
car bumper with multiple paint layers on it. The equation is
derived using two models - a parallel plate capacitor model and
a transmission/reflection coefficient model. The accuracy of the
equation is verified and compared using EM simulations. For
the EM simulation we use two structures one where both
bumper and paint materials are replaced by a single effective
medium and the other where only the paint layers are replaced
by a single effective medium, while the bumper is kept as it is.
The EM simulations have been performed at the 77 GHz
frequency band (Automotive collision avoidance radar). The
simulation time for antenna gain is reduced by 88 % and 57 %
for an antenna in the presence of the first and second EM
structures respectively. The antenna gain obtained using the
second EM structure shows a near 100 % match with that of the
actual multilayered bumper and paint structure.
Index Terms - Automotive radar sensor, effective
loss tangent, multilayered media
I. INTRODUCTION
Electromagnetic waves undergo reflection, refraction and
scattering while propagating from one medium to another. At
the smaller wavelengths, e.g. millimetre waves, this effect is
much more pronounced and results in significant losses. The
property of the medium affects millimetre waves more than
lower frequency EM waves. Millimetre waves find
applications in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
The basic build block of ADAS is an automotive radar sensor,
which works at the 76-81 GHz frequency band [1-2]. Without
disturbing the aerodynamic profile and outer body look of the
vehicle, the radar sensors have to be mounted behind the
bumper, which is a significant challenge. When the sensor
antenna radiates the EM wave, the wave passes through the
bumper painted with multiple paint layers. Hence, the wave
must propagate through bumper and then through the paint
layers. Hence, the car bumper and paint material play a key
role in determining the change of the radiation characteristics
of the sensor when it is integrated with the vehicle. The
characteristics parameters such as permittivity, permeability,
thickness of bumper and paint material, distance between
bumper and radar sensor determine the radar sensor
performance. The bumper with layers of paint can be
considered as a stratified medium through which the
radiated/reflected wave travels. The wave is reflected when
travelling through the stratified medium which can lead to
performance degradation. Therefore, it is necessary to study
the effect of the stratified medium on the antenna/radar
characteristics.
In literature, methods such as application of antireflection
coating [3], and inductive compensation technique [4] have
been reported to reduce the reflections from inner part of
bumper. To study the effect of car bumper and paint layers on
the radiation characteristics of radar sensor, it is required to
integrate the radar sensor inside the bumper. Due to small
wavelengths at the 76-81 GHz frequency band, the integrated
sensor and bumper structure appears electrically very large.
While simulating these structures at these frequencies, the
EM simulators generate a large number of mesh cells for the
structure and hence require longer simulation time. The
simulation time and mesh cells can be reduced by reducing
the number of cells per wavelength, but accuracy may be
lower.
In this paper, the primary problem that we try to solve is to a
model the multilayered medium using an equivalent model so
that the simulation time can be reduced. To retain the
accuracy of simulation and reduce the effective simulation
time, the effective medium theory is used to suit the
automotive radar applications. In [5] four different equivalent
models to calculate effective dielectric constant were
developed using effective medium theory [6]. However, the
analysis is confined to the real part of the dielectric constant.
In this work, the reported formulae in literature are extended
to calculate the effective loss tangent value for layered media.
We then verify the formulae using simulations by two
different approaches.
II. FORMULATION
A stratified medium consists of multiple dielectric layers;
each layer has its own thickness, dielectric constant, and loss
tangent. The dielectric losses are more in case of higher
relative permittivity and higher loss tangent of material. EM
simulation tools can be used to determine these losses.
However, the EM simulation tools take a significant amount
of time to simulate the losses when the structure is electrically
large. This problem becomes worse when the anti-collision
detection radar sensor with operating frequency of 76-81
GHz has to be integrated in a car bumper. It creates millions
of mesh cells, which require RAM of the PC of the order of
30 GB or more. To simplify this problem, the multilayered
 13th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2019)

medium can be modelled as a single layer having an and tan δ eff is the effective loss tangent of the stratified
equivalent dielectric constant. Two different models - a
medium and ht is the total thickness of the modelled layers.
parallel plate capacitor model and a model based on same
transmission and reflection coefficient have been proposed in
[5] to calculate the effective dielectric constant and effective 2. Model based on the same transmission and reflection
thickness of a multilayered structure. Both models are coefficients
discussed here and derived further to calculate the effective
loss tangent. The computation of complex permittivity is not The effective permittivity of n-layered media is calculated in
merely a mathematical necessity; its imaginary term i.e. loss [5] by using same reflection and transmission coefficient
N
tangent is a measure of losses inside the material. ε eff =  ε rn hn ht (4)
n =1
1. Parallel plate capacitor model (equivalent model 1) Again, considering the two-layered media, let us formulate
the effective loss tangent value from equation (4)
A parallel plate capacitor model assumes the presence of ε h +ε h
multiple layers between two conducting plates. According to ε eff = r1 1 r 2 2
h1 + h2
[5] the effective permittivity using parallel plate capacitor
model for n-layered media is ′ (1 − j tan δ eff
 ε eff )
1 N
h ε r′1 (1 − j tan δ1 ) .h1 + ε r′2 (1 − j tan δ 2 ) .h2
= n (1)
ε eff n =1 ε n .ht =
h1 + h2
Where, ε eff is the effective dielectric permittivity of the ε r′1h1 + ε r′2 h2 − j ( ε r′1h1 tan δ1 + ε r′2 h2 tan δ 2 )
=
material, hn and ε n are the thickness and dielectric constant of h1 + h2
the nth layer respectively. Permittivity ( ε ) of the medium is ε r′1h1 tan δ1 + ε r′2 h2 tan δ 2
′ tan δ eff =
 ε eff
complex in nature where real part is dielectric constant ( ε ′ ) h1 + h2
and imaginary part indicates the loss tangent ( tan δ ).
ε r′1h1 tan δ1 + ε r′2 h2 tan δ 2
Considering both real and imaginary parts, the effective loss  tan δ eff = (1 ε eff
′ ). (5)
h1 + h2
tangent of the stratified medium is derived. Let us consider a
two-layered media. By applying, the equation (1) the The effective loss tangent derived in (5) can be extended to n
formulation for effective loss tangent value for the two layered media as below
N
layered media will be
tan δ eff = (1 ε eff
′ ) ε ′ h rn n tan δ n ht (6)
1 h1 h2 n =1
= +
ε eff ε1 ( h1 + h2 ) ε 2 ( h1 + h2 ) N
ht =  hk (7)
1 k =1

ε eff′ (1 − j tan δ eff ) ε eff′ can be calculated using equation (4)
  Where the symbols have the same meaning as mentioned
1 h1 h2
=  +  earlier.
h1 + h2  ε1′ (1 − j tan δ1 ) ε 2′ (1 − j tan δ 2 ) 
1 III. EM SIMULATION AND NUMERICAL RESULTS

ε eff′
(1 + j tan δ eff ) EM simulations are carried out to simulate and compare the
results with and without the proposed formulae for both the
1  h1 (1 + j tan δ1 ) h2 (1 + j tan δ 2 )  models. In simulation, two different approaches are used to
=  + 
h1 + h2  ε1′ ε 2′  verify the results by using CST MWS. For verification
purpose, a simplified antenna model at 77 GHz operating
ε eff′  h1 ( tan δ1 ) h2 ( tan δ 2 ) 
 tan δ eff =  +  frequency and a simplified rectangular bumper model having
h1 + h2  ε1′ ε 2′  7-layers of paint are considered. A single element rectangular
(2) microstrip patch antenna is designed for analysis purpose.
Equation (2) can be extended to calculate the effective loss The antenna is designed based on the standard microstrip
tangent of a n layered medium antenna design technique [7] using silicon (dielectric constant
= 11.9) substrate considering the silicon-semiconductor
ε eff′ N hn ( tan δ n )
tan δ eff =  ε′
ht n =1
(3) technology for radar-on-chip [8]. The antenna is optimised to
achieve S11 < -10 dB form 73 GHz to 82 GHz frequency band.
n

where, Here the media are considered as homogeneous and isotropic

N
in nature. The two different simulation approaches are
ht =  hk described below.
k =1

ε eff′ can be calculated using equation (1)

 13th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2019)

A. Simulation approach 1 A good agreement among three equivalent models can be

In the simulation approach 1, the layered model having a
bumper and 7-layers of paint are replaced by a single layer
with effective dielectric constant and loss tangent as shown
in Fig. 1. The effective dielectric constant and loss tangent are
calculated using both the equivalent models discussed in the
previous section. The EM simulations are carried out for the
actual layered structure as well as the simplified structure
using equivalent model 1 and 2. The comparison in terms of
the simulation time is presented in Table I. Table I shows the
dielectric properties of each layer and also that for the two
models. Significant reduction in simulation time
(approximately 88% reduction) as compared to the actual
multilayered structure is clearly observed in case of both
equivalent models.
To further verify the accuracy of the formulae, the radiation
patterns of layered medium, equivalent model 1 and
equivalent model 2, are compared as shown in Fig. 2. Fig 2
shows gain plot vs theta for phi= 900.
seen. However, the gain obtained for equivalent model 1
differs by approximately 1 dB and that obtained for
equivalent model 2 differs by approximately 0.7 dB with that
of the layered media.
B. Simulation Approach 2
In case of a specific application such as car bumper and
paint layers, the bumper thickness is usually larger than that
of the paint layers. Therefore, in the simulation approach 1,
equivalent values of dielectric constant and loss tangent of the
bumper dominates. In simulation approach 2, the bumper is
considered as a separate layer and the 7 paint layers are
replaced by an equivalent layer and thus a two-layered model
as shown in Fig 3 is used instead of a single layer (Fig 1). The
equivalent mathematical model equations (3) and (6), are
applied to the paint layers only. Table. II shows the dielectric
properties of multilayer and equivalent media. In this
simulation approach, approximately 57% reduction in
simulation time as compared to the actual multilayered
medium is observed which is less as compared to the 88 %
reduction in case of simulation approach 1. However, as we
shall see that the accuracy obtained using this approach is
much higher.

To verify the accuracy of the results obtained, the radiation

patterns for the actual multilayered media, equivalent model
1 and equivalent model 2 are compared. Fig 4 shows the gain
plot vs theta for phi= 900. The results for equivalent model 1
differ by approximately 0.2 dB from that of the actual
multilayered media and there is almost negligible variation of
the results obtained for equivalent model 2 from that of the
actual multilayered medium. Though the simulation time is
more than that of simulation approach 1, the simulation
Fig. 1 Effective model based on simulation approach 1 where H is total approach 2 gives results with high accuracy. Depending on
thickness the trade-off between level of accuracy desired and
TABLE I simulation time available, one can use either of the simulation
approaches with the proposed mathematical equivalent
Dielectric Property Simulation Time model.
( ε r′ / tan δ ) (Seconds)
2/0.07(h1), 5/0.08(h2),
7/0.09(h3), 8/0.1(h4),
Layered media 50348
9/0.2(h5), 10/0.3(h6),
11/0.4(h7)
Equivalent
2.058/0.07(H) 5529
method 1
Equivalent
2.2435/0.0915(H) 6110
method 2
h1= bumper thichness= 3mm, h2= h3= h4= h5= h6= h7= each paint layer
thickness= 20 um, H= total thickness = 3.12mm

Fig. 3 Effective model based on simulation 2, where H1= effective thickness

of paint layeres

IV. CONCLUSION
Two different mathematical formulations for effective loss
tangent calculation are derived using Parallel plate capacitor
model and Model based on the same transmission and
reflection coefficients. These two equivalent formulations are
Fig. 2 gain vs theta at phi= 900 for simulation process 1
 13th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2019)

TABLE II [8] J. Hasch, E. Toprak, R. Schnabel, T. Zwick, R. Weigel, and C.

Waldschmidt, “Millimeter-wave technology for automotive radar
Dielectric Property Simulation Time sensors in the 77 GHz frequency band,” IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory
( ε r′ / tan δ ) (Seconds) Techn., vol. 60, no. 3, pp. 845–860, Mar. 2012.

2/0.07(h1), 5/0.08(h2),
7/0.09(h3), 8/0.1(h4),
Layered media 50348
9/0.2(h5), 10/0.3(h6),
11/0.4(h7)
2/0.07(h1),
Equivalent method
7.793/0.168(H1) 19682
1

Equivalent method 2/0.07(h1),

21680
2 8.33/0.2206(H1)
h1= bumper thichness= 3mm, h2= h3= h4= h5= h6= h7= each paint layer
thickness= 20 um, H1= effective thickness of paint layeres= 0.12mm

Fig. 4 gain vs theta at phi= 900 for simulation approach 2

verified by using two different simulation approaches, single

layer equivalent approach and two-layer equivalent approach.
The simulation time is reduced by 88% and 57% in case of
single and double layer approach respectively. Though the
two-layer approach requires more simulation time than the
single layer approach, the accuracy is nearly 100 % for the
former. The mathematical models along with the particular
simulation approach can be selected according to requirement
of accuracy and available simulation time.

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