Microstrip Phased-Array In-Band RCS Reduction With a Random Element Rotation Technique

The techniques of random antenna element distribution and rotation have been proposed to design a low sidelobe and low crosspolarization phased array or reflect array for a long time. In this communication, we demonstrate that the use of randomly rotated (RR) elements can provide random scattering phases and phase center distributions, which can lead to an in-band radar cross section (RCS) reduction for the array. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, three 8 × 8 circularly polarized (CP) microstrip arrays, 1) the uniform array without rotation; 2) sequentially rotated (SR) array; and 3) RR array, are compared and analyzed. Results indicate that the RCS of the RR array can be reduced significantly, even in the main beam region, while maintaining its high radiation performance.