Shadow boundary and truncated wedge ILDCs in Xpatch [radar applications]

Recent electromagnetic formulation efforts related to the shooting and bouncing ray tracing code suite Xpatch have concentrated upon higher order diffractive phenomena such as creeping waves and the truncation effects due to diffraction from finite sized wedge faces. These classes of diffraction are essential components of the radar returns at large bistatic angles from complex, low observable targets composed of smooth, rounded surfaces. This paper explains that during 2002-2004 the shadow boundary incremental length diffraction coefficients (ILDCs) and truncated wedge ILDC formulations were implemented in Xpatch. In addition, the supporting Xpatch geometry tools were modified to support these new ILDC capabilities.