Microwave Doppler tomography of high impedance ground planes for aerospace applications

Recent developments in the areas of metamaterials and high impedance ground planes (HIGPs) have created new opportunities for the development of novel multi-functional aerospace materials. One niche application of such materials is the suppression of electromagnetic surface waves across the outer mold line (OML) of aerospace structures. Doppler tomographic imaging and spectral filtering techniques are used to characterize the performance of a simple numerically simulated HIGP. A tapered HIGP concept is introduced to improve the performance over a range of illumination angles. This tapered HIGP is to be embroidered in a commercial aerospace pre-preg material. Experimental results will be presented at the conference.