Effect of plasma volume on monostatic radar cross section control

Abstract

Under atmospheric pressure, dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) with a plasma layer is utilized to produce large-volume plasma without a vessel. When a 16-kV bias at 1 kHz is applied to 85 copper strips, the DBD actuator generates plasma with the dimensions 170 × 170 × 1 mm. When the incident wave with an electric wave vector perpendicular to the strip array is illuminated, the monostatic radar cross section (RCS) is reduced by a maximum of 3.5 dB. The measured results are validated using full-wave simulation based on homogeneous plasma, with estimated plasma parameters. By changing the number of copper strips connected to the feed line, the relative volume of plasma can be changed. If the relative volume decreases by 20%, the maximum RCS reduction is reduced by nearly 20%. This demonstrates the possibility of using plasma to control monostatic RCS in a wide bandwidth.