Circuit models for Salisbury screens made from unidirectional carbon fiber composite sandwich structures

Carbon fiber composite materials have many useful structural material properties. The electromagnetic perfor- mance of these materials is of great interest for future applications. The work presented in this paper deals with the construction of Salisbury screen microwave absorbers made from unidirectional carbon fiber composite sand- wich structures. Specifically, absorbers centered at 7.25 GHz and 12.56 GHz are investigated. Circuit models are created to match the measured performance of the carbon fiber Salisbury screens using a genetic algorithm to extract lumped element circuit values. The screens presented in this paper utilize unidirectional carbon fiber sheets in place of the resistive sheet utilized in the classic Salisbury screen. The theory, models, prototypes, and measurements of these absorbers are discussed.