Multi-Objective Design of Multi-Layer Radar Absorber Using Surrogate-Based Optimization

Abstract

Design of multi-layer radar absorber material (MRAM) is a multi-objective problem for minimizing total reflection (TR) together with the total thickness (TT) by selecting optimum variables such as the material type for each layer from a material database and determining the thickness of each layer. In this paper, five-layer broadband and wide-incident-angle MRAMs (BWM) at the most important radar bands of 0.2–2, 2–8, 8–12, 12–18, and 2–18 GHz are optimally designed through an implemented EM model by taking into account of the incident wave angle with TE and TM polarizations using surrogate-based optimization (SbO) integrated with Pareto front technique. The MRAMs are optimized for the multi-objective functions of the TR and TT by ensuring the tradeoff for mean oblique incident between 0° and 40° with a mean of TE and TM. The BWMs have, respectively, the TT and TR of 3.38 mm, −27.83 dB; 2.13 mm, −22.31 dB; 1.11 mm, −25.24 dB; 1.0426 mm, −25.47 dB; and 2.69 mm, −18.88 dB. They are elaborately compared with those in the literature. Therefore, the proposed BWMs are the most optimal designs with regard to the TR and TT, thanks to the computational fast and powerful multi-objective SbO and Pareto front.