Thin AMC Structure for Radar Cross-Section Reduction

• Published in: IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation Vol. 55; no. 12; pp. 3630 - 3638
• Main Authors: Paquay, M., Iriarte, J.-C., Ederra, I., Gonzalo, R., de Maagt, P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.12.2007; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Antenna measurements; Applied sciences; Arrays; Artificial magnetic conductor (AMC); Coatings; Conductors; Cross sections; Design engineering; Dielectric materials; electromagnetic band gap structures; Electromagnetic measurements; Exact sciences and technology; Frequency; Mushrooms; Position measurement; Radar; Radar cross section; Radiolocalization and radionavigation; Reduction; Reflection; Specular reflection; Studies; Telecommunications; Telecommunications and information theory; Testing; Radar cross section; Photonic crystal; Specular reflection; Plane wave; electromagnetic band gap structures; radar cross-section; Implementation; Wave reflection; Normal incidence; Artificial magnetic conductor (AMC)
• ISSN: 0018-926X; 1558-2221
• DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2007.910306

A thin artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) structure is designed and breadboarded for radar cross-section (RCS) Reduction applications. The design presented in this paper shows the advantage of geometrical simplicity while simultaneously reducing the overall thickness (for the current design ). The design is very pragmatic and is based on a combination of AMC and perfect electric conductor (PEC) cells in a chessboard like configuration. An array of Sievenpiper's mushrooms constitutes the AMC part, while the PEC part is formed by full metallic patches. Around the operational frequency of the AMC-elements, the reflection of the AMC and PEC have opposite phase, so for any normal incident plane wave the reflections cancel out, thus reducing the RCS. The same applies to specular reflections for off-normal incidence angles. A simple basic model has been implemented in order to verify the behavior of this structure, while Ansoft-HFSS software has been used to provide a more thorough analysis. Both bistatic and monostatic measurements have been performed to validate the approach.