Design, modelling, and manufacturing of sandwich radome structure with out-of-band absorption and in-band transmission performances

Abstract

Muti-functional composite structures with customizable electromagnetic (EM) responses have attracted much interest in the radome field. In this study, a multi-layered foam-cored sandwich rasorber structure (FSRS) with absorption-transmission-absorption-type (A-T-A-type) of EM response was proposed. Silver-based frequency selective surface (FSS) screen and carbon-based film as alternatives for traditional metallized FSS and lumped resistors were integrated into the FSRS and prepared using a low-cost screen-printing method. Considering specific geometric and EM parameters, full-wave simulations were conducted to predict the EM characteristics of FSRS. Experimental findings demonstrated that under normal incidence, the absorption rate of the FSRS specimen in the frequency ranges of 3.2–6.4 GHz and 13.2–18 GHz is greater than 80 %, and the transmission rate in 9–11.3 GHz is greater than 80 %. Moreover, the absorption and transmission performances of the FRSR specimen remained stable under different polarization directions. The proposal may provide promising materials for future developments in low-observable radome technology.