XL SCIENTIFIC LLC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: N161-022

Description

XL Scientific proposes to develop a high-performance computational electromagnetic (CEM) simulation software for use in modeling shaped radomes and embedded frequency selective surfaces (FSSs) on large-scale platforms. Large and complex antennas are commonly used in airborne platforms to transmit and receive signals. Radomes found on airborne platforms often have streamlined shapes to reduce aerodynamic drag. A typical radome is constructed with multiple layers of dielectric materials with or without embedding FSSs. The electromagnetic characteristics of an ideal radome are similar to a band-pass or a band-stop digital filter: it is opaque to hostile signals, but is transparent to friendly ones. Optimizing the radome shape and embedding FFSs can reflect and attenuate unwanted signals, and pass desired signals with less attenuation.<br><br>The proposed software will use a hybrid simulation approach to characterize an arbitrary shaped radome and simulate multiple antenna interactions on large-scale platforms. The approach is to combine an exact-physics multi-region multi-solver domain decomposition method (MR-MS-DDM) with an asymptotic ray-tracing method. Our approach provides considerable cost savings over measurement-based antenna characterization, as well as time savings, potentially accelerating system development schedules during the design phase.