A Design Method of Ultra-wideband Self-reconfigurable Electromagnetic Pulse Protection Surface

Electronic devices are faced with increasing threats from powerful electromagnetic environment with the maturity of high-power technologies. Electronic devices have to guarantee their own normal functions at the same time of resisting powerful EMP. One practical way to do this is to add a pulse guard, which is similar to an FSS radome, to the antenna of an electronic device. This paper introduces the operating principles of EMP protection surface and designs an S-band ultra-wideband self-reconfigurable EMP protection surface. Based on multi-level cascade of metal patch array and metal grid array, a patch-grid-patch self-reconfigurable EMP protection surface is developed, with a diode cascade structure designed within patch layers to achieve self-reconfigurable protection. Performances of such surface were verified through modeling and simulation. Results show that the wave-transparent bandwidth for low-power signals can be as high as more than 1 G, and the shielding effectiveness for high-power EMP can be more than 15 dB. It is obviously a new idea and way of achieving powerful EMP protection for electronic devices.