Coplanar Dielectric-Barrier-Discharge(DBD) Plasma Generator for X-Band Radar Cross Section(RCS) Reduction

This paper presents a dielectric-barrier-discharge (DBD) plasma generator using a coplanar method for reducing the radar cross section (RCS). Two electrodes of the plasma generator are placed in the form of a finger structure, and a 0.254 mm thick polyimide film is coated over the electrodes to act as the dielectric barrier. When a potential bias is applied, plasma is generated between the electrodes. By placing the plasma generator in front of a target, the RCS of the target is reduced by plasma generation. Fingers of widths 3 mm each were cross-arranged on 2.4 mm thick FR-4 substrates at 3 mm intervals to produce generators with a total size of 200×200 mm2. to experimentally verify the effects of RCS reduction at 0.3 atmospheric pressure for copper substrate targets of the same size. Thus, the monostatic RCS of a target of size 200×200 mm2 was reduced by up to 2.6 dB in the X-band (8∼12 GHz).