Radar cross section reduction in target airspace based on ultra-wide-angle artificial electromagnetic absorbing surface

doi:10.23919/JSEE.2025.000182

Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics ›› 2026, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (1): 75-83.doi: 10.23919/JSEE.2025.000182

• ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY • Previous Articles Next Articles

Radar cross section reduction in target airspace based on ultra-wide-angle artificial electromagnetic absorbing surface

Liang LI¹(), Hongwei GAO²^,*(), Binchao ZHANG³(), Cheng JIN²()

¹School of Integrated Circuits and Electronics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
²School of Cyberspace Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
³Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Received:2024-03-12 Accepted:2025-12-22 Online:2026-02-18 Published:2026-03-09
Contact: Hongwei GAO E-mail:liuqi@bit.edu.cn;gaohw@bit.edu.cn;binchao_zhang@163.com;jincheng@bit.edu.cn
About author:
LI Liang was born in 1985. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electromagnetic field and microwave technology from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China, in 2007 and 2010, respectively. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree in electronic science and technology at Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China. His research interests include microwave circuit analog absorber and frequency selected surface. E-mail: sparkle_1l@126.com

GAO Hongwei was born in 1986. He received his Ph.D. degree from the School of Information and Electronics, Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) Beijing, China, in 2017, from 2015 to 2017. He is now an associate professor at BIT. His current research interests include advanced computational electromagnetics methods, high-performance computing, design and optimization of in situ antennas, and electromagnetic interference and compatibility. E-mail: gaohw@bit.edu.cn

ZHANG Binchao was born in 1992. He received his B.Eng. and M.S. degrees from the Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China, in 2015 and 2018, respectively, and Ph.D. degree from Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China, in 2022. He is currently a post-doctoral researcher with the Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing. His research interests include microwave circuit analog absorber, frequency-selected structures, stealth antenna, and intelligent antenna array. E-mail: binchao_zhang@163.com

JIN Cheng was born in 1984. He received his B.Eng. degree in electronic engineering from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China, in 2007, and Ph.D. degree in communication engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in 2012. From 2011 to 2013. He is now an associate professor at the School of Information and Electronics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China. E-mail: jincheng@bit.edu.cn
Supported by:
This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2023YFB3907304-3), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (62271050)

Abstract

Abstract:

A methodology for the reduction of radar cross section (RCS) of cambered platforms within the target airspace is presented, which utilizes a dual-polarized ultra-wide-angle artificial electromagnetic absorbing surface. By applying the theory of generalized Brewster complex wave impedance matching, five distinct unit cell designs are developed to attain more than 95% absorption rate for dual-polarized incident waves within five angular ranges: 0°?30°, 30°?50°, 50°?60°, 60°?70°, and 70°?80°. To optimally reduce the RCS of a cambered platform, the five types of units can be evenly distributed on the surface based on the local incident angles of plane waves originating from the target airspace. As an illustrative example, the leading edge of an airfoil is taken into account, and experimental measurements validate the efficiency of the proposed structure. Specifically, the absorbing surface achieves more than 10 dB of RCS reduction in the frequency ranges from 5-10 GHz (about 66.7% relative bandwidth) for dual polarizations.

Key words: artificial electromagnetic absorbing surface, dual-polarization, oblique incidence, ultra-wide-angle

Liang LI, Hongwei GAO, Binchao ZHANG, Cheng JIN. Radar cross section reduction in target airspace based on ultra-wide-angle artificial electromagnetic absorbing surface[J]. Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2026, 37(1): 75-83.

Figures/Tables 14

Fig 1

Table 1

Theoretical value of relative permittivity and permeability tensors for matching angles of θ=25°, θ=45°, θ=55°, θ=65° and θ=75°, and the parameters of corresponding five unit cells"

$ \theta $/(°)	Relative permittivity and permeability	Parameter of absorbing unit cell/mm	Range/(°)
25	$ \begin{aligned}{\varepsilon }_{t}=1.2+\text{j}9.8,{\varepsilon }_{n}=0.1-\text{j}0.1\\{\mu }_{t}=1.4+\text{j}4.9,{\mu }_{n}=0.04-\text{j}0.06\end{aligned} $	$ \begin{aligned}{p}_{1}=14.6,{p}_{2}=14.8,h=8,{l}_{1}=11,{w}_{1}=1,{l}_{2}=11.6,\\{w}_{2}=0.5,{a}_{1}=2.75,{a}_{2}=3.8,d=3,{R}_{1}=200\;\Omega ,{R}_{2}=200\;\Omega \end{aligned} $	0−30
45	$ \begin{aligned}{\varepsilon }_{t}=2+\text{j}4,{\varepsilon }_{n}=0.02-\text{j}0.45\\{\mu }_{t}=1+\text{j}2,{\mu }_{n}=0.07-\text{j}0.13\end{aligned} $	$ \begin{aligned}{p}_{1}=14.3,{p}_{2}=14.8,h=9,{l}_{1}=11,{w}_{1}=1.5,{l}_{2}=12.2,\\{w}_{2}=0.5,{a}_{1}=2.7,{a}_{2}=3,d=3,{R}_{1}=180\;\Omega ,{R}_{2}=200\;\Omega \end{aligned} $	30−50
55	$ \begin{aligned}{\varepsilon }_{t}=2+\text{j}8,{\varepsilon }_{n}=0.01-\text{j}0.3\\{\mu }_{t}=1+\text{j}3,{\mu }_{n}=0.03-\text{j}0.1\end{aligned} $	$ \begin{aligned}{p}_{1}=15,{p}_{2}=14.8,h=13,{l}_{1}=11,{w}_{1}=1.9,{l}_{2}=14.4,\\{w}_{2}=0.5,{a}_{1}=2.95,{a}_{2}=3.8,d=2.6,{R}_{1}=150\;\Omega ,{R}_{2}=200\;\Omega \end{aligned} $	50−60
65	$ \begin{aligned}{\varepsilon }_{t}=2.3+\text{j}9,{\varepsilon }_{n}=0.04-\text{j}0.2\\{\mu }_{t}=1.4+\text{j}4.6,{\mu }_{n}=0.03-\text{j}0.1\end{aligned} $	$ \begin{aligned}{p}_{1}=14.9,{p}_{2}=14.8,h=15,{l}_{1}=11,{w}_{1}=1.9,{l}_{2}=14.4,\\{w}_{2}=0.5,{a}_{1}=2.75,{a}_{2}=3.8,d=3,{R}_{1}=250\;\Omega ,{R}_{2}=160\;\Omega \end{aligned} $	60−70
75	$ \begin{aligned}{\varepsilon }_{t}=2.8+\text{j}10,{\varepsilon }_{n}=0.02-\text{j}0.1\\{\mu }_{t}=2.7+\text{j}8,{\mu }_{n}=0.02-\text{j}0.08\end{aligned} $	$ \begin{aligned}{p}_{1}=14.9,{p}_{2}=14.8,h=17.5,{l}_{1}=11,{w}_{1}=1.8,{l}_{2}=14.2,\\{w}_{2}=0.5,{a}_{1}=1.9,{a}_{2}=6,d=4.5,{R}_{1}=500\;\Omega ,{R}_{2}=150\;\Omega \end{aligned} $	70−80

Table 1

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Table 2

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Reference	Polarization	Oblique incidence/(°)	Bandwidth/GHz
[29]	TE polarization	0−65	99−117
[30]	TM polarization	0−75	3.6−11.4
[31]	Dual polarization	0−45	7.7−23.6
[32]	Dual polarization	0−45	8.7−32.5
[33]	Dual polarization	0−30	14.4−39.4
[34]	Dual polarization	0−50	2.11−3.89
This paper	Dual polarization	0−80	5−10.9

Radar cross section reduction in target airspace based on ultra-wide-angle artificial electromagnetic absorbing surface

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