Computer Simulation for the Design of Radar Absorbing Material (RAM)

To avoid detection by enemy radar, military platforms are often coated with Radar Absorbing Material (RAM). RAM is intended to operate over a wide range of frequencies with a minimum amount of angular dependence to increase platform survivability. Themain objective of the proposed Phase II work is to integrate various innovative and successfully demonstrated methodologies under a single main frame to develop a general-purpose broadband optimized RAM design toolset. Our Phase I work laid the foundationfor such a development by successfully demonstrating a powerful 3D simulator (for multilayered periodic structures) with optimization algorithms for RAM design. It was also demonstrated for the first time that one can tailor the RAM multi-spectralcharacteristics to satisfy constraints based on of available material and geometry specifications. During Phase II we will develop a prototype simulation toolset in accordance to the architecture developed during Phase I. A graphical user interface will bealso integrated with the optimization algorithms and EM simulation design tools. This will also allow for future commercialization of the developed EM optimization algorithms.There has been a growing and widespread interest in radar-absorbing material(RAM) over the recent years for reducing radar observability. More recently, RAM is also being used to protect sensitive electronics from electromagnetic interference. The proposed computational toolsets are not only applicable to RAM designs, but willallow for designing a large set of RF components, radomes, antennas, microwave components, etc.