SBIR-STTR Award

Four design techniques will be evaluated and radome materials will be selected to obtain designs for polarization insensitivity radomes for high speed missile applications. The four techniques will include the dielectric ring/strip, wire grid, anistropic patch and anistropic fabric methods. Computer analysis and limited flat panel testing will be performed to demonstrate the feasibility of the designs selected. The principal investigator's extensive experience in the areas of computer modeling, material evaluation and testing will ensure practical and usable results from Phase I.

The results of the Phase I study prediot the possiblity of a new class of streamlined radomes having low boresight errors, high transmissions and low polarization distortion over a 30 to 40 percent bandwidth with the addition of an inductive layer in a proven A-sandwich radome. The objective of Phase II will be to demonstrate the predictions through measurements and to develop a computer model to account for inductive layers in predicting radome performance. Flat panel measurements will be performed initially and this will be used to determine the design for streamlined radome measurements. The results are expected to demonstrate the performance and provide a computer tool for the design of improved tactical radomes.

Keywords:
RADOMES POLARIZATION HOMING BROAD BANDWIDTH MISSILES HYPERVELOCITY INDUCTIVE LAYER BORESIGHT ERROR