General analysis of the phase-switched screen .1. The single layer case

Conventional (passive) radar absorbing materials operate either by phase cancellation or by absorbing incident electromagnetic energy and converting it into heat. The paper examines some general properties of a new class of active ´absorber´, called the phase-switched screen (PSS). The PSS operates quite differently from passive absorbers in that it exhibits an apparently low value of reflectivity by redistributing the electromagnetic energy incident upon it over a bandwidth which is wide enough to ensure that little reflected energy falls within the passband of the receiver. The discussion concentrates on the general admittance relationships pertaining to the PSS in its two switched states and shows how these may be used to design wideband, high performance, dynamically adaptive single-layer structures for RCS control.