Modeling of RF Absorber for Application in the Design of Anechoic Chamber

Abstract

Abstract—A proper model of RF absorber must be developed based on information such as absorber reflectivity, in magnitude and phase, for various angles of incidence, and for parallel and perpendicular polarizations. Unfortunately, these data are not available due to the practical limitations of the test fixtures to measure the RF absorber performance. Manufacturer data sheets normally specify only the magnitude of the absorber reflectivity for normal incidence. A model has been developed in this paper for pyramidal RF absorber with pyramid length shorter than a quarter wavelength and poor reflectivity performance. Since the reflection from the metal backing would be much higher than the reflection and scattering from the pyramid tips, the metal boundary may be modeled as a lossy dielectric with certain effective dielectric constant, εeff, and effective conductivity, σeff, and the thickness extends to infinity. The appropriate values of εeff and σeff can be derived based on the reflectivity information given by the