Scattered EM Field Responses of Canonical Scatterers Illuminated by an Impulse-Radiating Antenna (IRA)

This paper investigates the possibility of using the impulse-radiating antenna (IRA) as both a transmitter and receiver of electromagnetic energy for the purpose of target identification. Of specific interest is estimating the induced open-circuit voltage at the IRA's source terminals, when it is illuminated by the scattered EM field from simple conducting bodies excited by an incident field from the same IRA acting as a transmitter. In this study, several different canonical scatters are considered, including thin wires, spheres, conducting boxes, and an infinite conducting plate. For a 7 kV pulse excitation of the IRA, received peak transient voltages at the antenna ranged from a few volts to about 400 volts, depending on the scatterer.