Optik 140 (2017) 515–522

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Optik
journal homepage: www.elsevier.de/ijleo

Microwave metamaterial Absorber based on Jerusalem Cross

with meandered load for bandwidth enhancement
Mohammad Naser-Moghadasi a,∗ , Amir Zara Nia a , Mohammad Toolabi a ,
Samaneh Heydari b
a
Faculty of Eng., Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran-Iran
b
Department of Electrical Engineering, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Microwave absorber is important devices that have been noticed in various applications
Received 3 January 2017 such as microwave imagining and reflect array antenna. In this paper, we have developed
Accepted 3 April 2017 a novel form of the JC metamaterial absorber for microwave application with dual band
application at Ku band. We have shown that with meandered load, we have obtained wider
Keywords: bandwidth. The current distribution and capacitances are described that how the load is
Absorber made a new resonance and made wider bandwidth. The symmetrical form of prototype
microwave
structure is made polarization independence and for this absorber is checked for 0◦ to 60◦
metamaterial
incident wave angle. The Prototype MA is simulated with CST by time domain method with
reflection
Jerusalem Cross periodic boundary condition and it is fabricated on a FR-4 low cost substrate for dual band
application and test in the chamber room. The loads are placed in symmetrical formation
and made a uniform current distribution which is important for polarization independent.
The parametric studies are noticed for each element and reveals that how the capacitance
between load and JC are made and controlled the absorption.
© 2017 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Nowadays, artificial electromagnetic structures called metamaterials (MTMs) have received a great deal of research
attention due to their various potential applications such as cloaking [1], antenna [2], microwave application [3] and optical
devices [4,5] base on the left hand characteristic. These materials are composed of metals and dielectric which made from
arrays of subwavelength.
In particular, several studies have been investigated in realizing metamaterial absorber based on their various applications
such as radar with Split Ring resonator (SRR) at C band [6], multi ring for wide bandwidth 10–28 GHz [7] and optical
sensor for imaging in areas such as biology based on plasmonic absorber [8]. The concept of a perfect absorber with near-
unity absorption can be achieved through adjusting the reflection and impedance of MTMs [9] which is useful for optical
solar cell [10]. Enormous efforts have focused on the search for dual band and multi band metamaterial absorber for THz
application [11]. Quite recently, the design, fabrication and characterization of multi band MA have been investigated from
microwave [12] to THz frequencies with graphene for tunable application [13]. Several efforts have been examined in MA
to achieve multi-band based on various shapes such as isotropic ring resonator [14], Jerusalem cross with Ring [15] L-

∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: mn.moghaddasi@srbiau.ac.ir (M. Naser-Moghadasi), samanehheydari7@gmail.com (S. Heydari).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2017.04.007
0030-4026/© 2017 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
516 M. Naser-Moghadasi et al. / Optik 140 (2017) 515–522

Fig. 1. (a) the geometry of the Jerusalem cross (b) the geometry of the Jerusalem cross with meander load (c) the fabricated absorber.

shaped coupled metamaterial [16] and broken cross [17]. Wen et al. proposed a dual-band metamaterial absorber in the
terahertz region, which has two distinct absorptions of 80.8% and 63.4% near 0.45 and 0.92 THz [18]. The results exhibit
that the absorber is an excellent electromagnetic wave collector, which traps the input EM wave into specific locations
of the devices and then strongly absorbs it for Triple band application in THz and microwave. Huang et al. investigated
a Triple-band metamaterial absorber based on spiral which can perform absorption peaks at three resonant frequencies
9.86 GHz, 12.24 GHz, and 15.34 GHz with the absorption of 99.4%, 96.7%, and 99.1%, respectively [19]. Shen et al. presented
Triple-band terahertz metamaterial absorber using three concentric closed rings to form a compact single particle which has
three distinctive absorption peaks at 0.5, 1.03, and 1.71 THz with absorption rates of 96.4%, 96.3%, and 96.7%, respectively
[20]. Various formations of the cross-shaped structures have been investigated for dual-band and multi-band applications.
Aslan et al. proposed a dual-resonant Jerusalem cross-shaped nanoaperture antenna foe infrared detection application
[21]. The single and multi-band perfect metamaterial absorber (MA) in the THz region base on the Jerusalem cross (JC)
 M. Naser-Moghadasi et al. / Optik 140 (2017) 515–522 517

Fig. 2. The absorption of the JC structure (a) for various lengths of JC arm (b) for various JC widths.

and metamaterial load in unit cells with an absorption peak of more than 99% have been presented [22]. The Microwave
absorbers are developed for various applications in the microwave and THz range for defense systems, communication,
stealth technologies and biosensing [23,24].
By good implementation of these loaded to the structure, multi-band characteristics can be achieved. Symmetrical
characteristic of the prototype structure is made an independent to the polarization and incident wave angle.
In this paper, at first, we have designed and studied the JC absorber in microwave regime and we have done parametric
studied about this structure. In the Second step, we have implemented the meandered load to structure for achieving the
wider bandwidth and the current distribution is described the load effect on bandwidth enhancement.

2. Absorber Design

Fig. 1 shows two steps of the process of proposed cross-shaped metamaterial absorber. The prototype Jerusalem cross
MA is presented at Fig. 1 (a) and then at second step as shown in Fig. 1 (b), we have added four loads in the unit cell form. The
proposed MA is containing two metallic layers which separated by a dielectric layer. We have used FR-4 as low cost dielectric
substrate with relative permittivity of 4.4, thickness of 1.6 mm and loss tangent of 0.02. In the unit cell we have employed
copper for two metallic layers with thickness of 35 ␮m. In this structure, for investigation of the absorption properties we
utilized the CST Microwave Studio based on the time domain method in periodic condition which is made using perfect
electrical conductive (PEC) and perfect magnetic conductive (PMC) walls in parallel side in X and Y direction and the open
and space boundary for Z direction as shown in Fig. 2. The overall size of the proposed MA unit cell is 24mm × 24 mm. The
dimensions of the unit cell are, w1 = 1 mm, w2 = 20 mm, w3 = 14 mm, w4 = 5 mm, w5 = 1.5 mm and w6 = 4 mm. The fabricated
MA for experimental in chamber room is presented Fig. 1 (c).

3. Simulation Results and Discussions

The simulation has been done based on two ports analyzing, and by implementation of the metal layer under dielectric
spacer, we don’t have transmittance so the T (␻) value is reduced to zero because of the skin depth of the copper that is
0.65 ␮m and therefore the absorption is calculated by A (␻) = 1-R2 (␻) [25]. The Fig. 2 shows the parametric studies about the
JC structure for various arm lengths (W3 ) and the JC width (W1 ). As shows in Fig. 2 (a) the structure has dual band and multi
518 M. Naser-Moghadasi et al. / Optik 140 (2017) 515–522

Fig. 3. The absorption of the JC structure with meandered load (a) for various lengths of JC arm (b) for various JC widths.

band characteristic for various arm lengths and in this case the result shows that by increasing the length, the resonance
number is increased haphazardly and as shows in Fig. 2 (b) the increasing the width is affected on the number of resonance
too. In this research, we have assumed W3 = 14 mm and W1 = 1 mm and in this case we have two resonances at 14.75 GHz
and 16.1 GHz with 80% absorbance.
In the second step, we have added the meandered load to JC structure and we have done some parametric studies. As
same as Fig. 2 we have checked the JC element, effect on absorbance of the prototype structure at Fig. 3. As shows in Fig. 3 (a)
for W3 = 14 mm we have the best bandwidth enhancement for 15 GHz and by increasing to 18 mm the resonance absorbance
at higher frequency is improved at 17.5 GHz and as shows in Fig. 3 (b) the increasing the width is affected on the number of
resonance and in the other hand reduced the resonances number.
We have checked the meandered load element, effect on absorbance of the prototype structure at Fig. 3. The absorbance
is presented in Fig. 4 (a) for various widths of the loads and as shows here the best case is occurring for W8 = 1 mm and by
reducing and increasing the width the inductance and capacitance are altered and the therefore we have loss the matching
at 15 GHz and so bandwidth are reduced. In this model we have two gaps between meandered load and JC which are made
two various capacitances in the equivalent circuit. As shows in Fig. 1 (b) the W7 shows the gaps between JC arms and loads
which made the first capacitance and by increasing this gap capacitance will decrease and resonances are shifted to higher
frequencies as shows for W7 = 1.5 mm and in this case the best result is achieved by W7 = 1mm(see Fig. 4(b)). By variation
of the W5 , the both capacitances are affected directly and increasing the W5 value reduces the both capacitance and so the
frequencies are shifted to higher ones. Therefore, the best bandwidth is obtained by W5 = 1.5 mm as shows Fig. 4(c).
Fig. 5 shows the current distribution for the prototype JC absorber with meandered load for 14.75, 15.1 and 16.25 GHz.
As shows in Fig. 5 the current is distributed uniform and this uniform current is made possible the independent of incident
wave polarization. In addition the current is concentrated between gaps at both capacitances. In third frequency, the current
is reduced in the gaps and the most part of the current are placed at JC.
The effect of polarization on prototype absorber is checked and the results are proven that the absorption is stable for
polarization because of symmetrical shape of the absorber structure. The proposed absorbers independence to incident wave
polarization is presented in Fig. 6 for the reflection from the absorber for ␾ = 0◦ , 30◦ and 45◦ .
 M. Naser-Moghadasi et al. / Optik 140 (2017) 515–522 519

Fig. 4. The absorption of the JC structure with meandered load (a)S for various loads with (b) for various first gaps with W7 (c) for various first gaps with
W5.

4. Experimental results

Fig. 1 (c) shows the fabricated proposed MA and schematic of the experimental environments which the results of
absorber test in the chamber room. As can be seen the simulated results show good agreement with experimental results.
The fabricated proposed MA has 5 × 5 unit cells with total dimensions of 120 mm × 120 mm × 1.6 mm. Hence, horn antenna
is used for this test. In the following, we placed two horn antennas with different radiation angles. This method can be used
to assess the effects of radiation angle as shown in Fig. 7 and in this case we have two resonances at 14.75 GHz and 16.1 GHz
with more than 95% absorbance. The experimental are confirmed the simulation at Fig. 7(a). The incident wave angle is
checked in experimental for phi = 0◦ , 30◦ and 45◦ and as shows in Fig. 7(b) that the incident wave angle has less effect on
absorption.
520 M. Naser-Moghadasi et al. / Optik 140 (2017) 515–522

Fig. 5. the surface current distribution of metamaterial absorber (a) at 14.75 GHz (b) at 15.1 (c) 16.25 GHz.

Fig. 6. the reflection from the absorber for ␾ = 0◦ , 30◦ and 45◦ .
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Fig. 7. the absorption of the prototype absorber (a) comparison between simulation and measurement (b) the effect of the incident angle on absorption of
measurement.

5. Conclusion

In this article, a microwave metamaterial absorber based on the Jerusalem cross with meandered loads is designed and
modified for wider bandwidth. When the loads are added to JC, the new resonance appears in this structure and by this
dimension both resonance are placed near to each other and it made wider bandwidth.

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