Mushroom-like EBG structures for reducing RCS of patch antenna arrays

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel method for reduction of radar cross section (RCS) of systems equipped with arrays of patch antennas. A mushroom like electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structure can be designed to partially cover the array substrate, resulting in RCS reduction at the design frequency. Such RCS reduction may be achieved either at in-band or at out-band frequencies depending on the parameters of the EBG unit cell. It is seen that by proper design the RCS is reduced by around 30 dB as compared to the conventional array antenna without degrading the antenna performance.