Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2019-2020).

In this project we will develop technology for the reduction and in general the management of the radar crossx000D
section (RCS) of complex objects in order to enhance the surveillance of aircrafts and drones for security and safety purposes. The basic principle will be based on the active cancellation of the electromagnetic fields by means of engineered surfaces (metasurfaces). Compared to existing "stealth" technologies that rely on a combination of scattering re-direction (through the design of the geometry of the vehicle) and radar absorptive materials (RAM), the proposed approach offers the x000D
potential for significant advantages. In particular, radar signal redirection can be detected by the use of multi-static radar, that is, by using receivers surrounding the vehicle and not just looking for specular reflections. On the other hand, RAM absorbs the incident radar signal thus producing a detectable infrared signature. Also thick RAM is needed to effectively absorb a broad spectrum of frequencies and with enough attenuation. In contrast, in this project we seek to reduce the scattering waves in all directions around the object but without absorbing it. This is what can be termed as "cloaking" to contrast it to the conventional "stealth" approach. Furthermore, in contrast to other so-called metamaterial cloaks, this active cloaking approach has the potential to lead to very thin cloaks that are conformal to the objects to be concealed and can cloak large objects. However, significant challenges have to be overcome in order to make this technology viable for real-world applications. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to develop and demonstrate key milestones toward the goal of rendering this technology feasible forpractical applications, such as for the radar cross section (RCS) reduction of aircraft and drones.x000D