The Efficacy of Radar Absorption Material on the Radar Cross Section Reduction of Simple Shapes

Radar Absorption Material (RAM) can absorb microwave, therefore is useful in assuring Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) for consumer electronics or achieving RF stealth for military platform. The specification of RAM is usually described in return loss per unit distance; however, the Radar Cross Section (RCS) is a more complicated function of frequency, shape, material, and incident angle. In this article we demonstrate the efficacy of RAM on the RCS of a simple square metal plate with Multi Level Fast Multipole Method (MLFMM) simulation for 3 GHz microwave at 30˚ incident angle with different thickness of RAM, and found the RCS reduction can be as large as -15 dBsm.