BIANCHA: A spherical indoor facility for bistatic electromagnetic tests

BIANCHA (BIstatic ANechoic CHAmber) is a singular facility located at the premises of the National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA), Spain. It was devised to enable both monostatic and bistatic automatic positioning and, therefore, permits to perform a wide variety of electromagnetic tests. In this regard, it is worth noting that in the last years, a renewed interest has arisen in bistatic radar. Some of the main reasons behind this renaissance are the recent advances in passive radar systems added to the advantages that bistatic radar can offer to detect stealth platforms. On the other hand, with the aim of developing new aeronautic materials with desired specifications, research on the electromagnetic properties of materials has also attracted much attention, demanding engineers and scientists to assess how these materials behave in the presence of electromagnetic fields. Consequently, this paper introduces BIANCHA and demonstrates its applicability for these purposes by presenting results of tests for two different applications: a bistatic scattering analysis of scaled aircraft targets and the extraction of the electromagnetic properties of composite materials utilized in an actual aeronautical platform.