Broadband Source-Surrounded Cloak for On-Chip Antenna Radiation Pattern Protection
Weifeng Han, Hanchuan Chen, Fei Sun, Yichao Liu, Shuai ZhangWith the expansion of electromagnetic wave communication frequency bands and the improvement of integrated circuit integration, electromagnetic waves emitted by on-chip antennas are easily scattered by electronic components, causing radiation pattern distortion, which limits the improvement of integration and communication stability. Traditional cloaks can reduce electromagnetic scattering, but they cannot achieve broadband and omnidirectional performance simultaneously, and are mostly designed for external sources, making it difficult to protect on-chip antenna radiation patterns. In this work, a broadband air-impedance-matched metamaterial (AIMM) with characteristic impedance matched to free space is proposed in 2–8 GHz, with geometry-tunable phase delay and transmittance higher than 93%. Based on AIMM, a broadband source-surrounded cloak (SSC) is designed, which can guide electromagnetic waves from the surrounded source to bypass obstacles in any direction and restore the original wavefront outside the cloak, so as to protect the radiation pattern from scattering distortion. Numerical simulations show that the SSC works well in the whole bandwidth and remains effective when the source is offset. This work has important potential for improving the integration of integrated circuits and the stability of communication systems.