Graded Dielectric Inhomogeneous Planar Layer Radome for Aerospace Applications

Controllable artificial dielectrics are used in the design of radomes to enhance their electromagnetic (EM) performance. The fabrication of such radome wall structures with controllable dielectric parameters seems to be an arduous task. Further even minor fluctuations of dielectric properties of radome wall due to fabrication uncertainties tend to result in drastic degradation of radome performance parameters. In the present work, a novel inhomogeneous radome with graded variation of dielectric parameters is proposed which limits the constraints on fabrication and facilitates excellent EM performance characteristics. This radome wall consists of five dielectric layers cascaded such that the middle layer has maximum dielectric constant and electric loss tangent. The dielectric parameters of the layers on both sides of the middle layer decrease in a graded (or step-wise) manner. The EM performance characteristics of the IPL radome with graded dielectric parameters are superior to that of conventional monolithic half-wave radome.