Effect of plasma area on frequency of monostatic radar cross section reduction

This work reports on the effect of plasma area on the frequency characteristics of the monostatic radar cross section (RCS) of a square metallic plate. A dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuator consisting of 10 rings is proposed. The actuator is fabricated in three different configurations such that only three inner rings, seven inner rings, and all rings can be biased. By applying an 18-kV bias at 1 kHz, the three types of DBD actuators generate plasma with a total area of 16.96, 36.74, and 53.69 cm², respectively, in a ring or circular form. The experimental results reveal that when the DBD actuator is placed in front of a 20 mm × 20 cm conducting plate, the monostatic RCS is reduced by as much as 18.5 dB in the range of 9.41-11.65 GHz. Furthermore, by generating the plasma and changing the area, the frequency of maximum reduction in the monostatic RCS of the plate can be controlled. The frequency is reduced by nearly 20% in the X band when all rings are biased. Finally, an electromagnetic model of the plasma is obtained by comparing the experimental and full-wave simulated results.