A simple and implementable design approach is investigated to improve the bandwidth of the Triple Layer Microwave Absorber (TLMA) using metallic square patches. The TLMA consists of a metal sheet, FR4 substrate, a resistive sheet of 100 Ω/sq, and FR4 substrate. The total thickness of TLMA is 6.13 mm. The fractional bandwidth for − 10 dB reflection for TLMA is 81.8% (7–16.7 GHz) which is attributed to the formation of Jaumann configuration. In contrast, the fractional bandwidth of 100% (5.6–16.8 GHz) for − 10 dB reflection is observed in the metallic square patch-based TLMA with nearly the same thickness of the TLMA. The improved bandwidth is attributed to the overlapping of the resonant mode excited by Jaumann configuration and additional mode introduced due to the metallic square patches. The good degree of correlation is observed between simulation and measurement data. © 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.