volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

This work presents a unified analytical and full-wave investigation of the monostatic radar cross section (RCS) of trihedral corner reflectors (TCRs) and their arrays, covering both metallic and dielectric configurations. Accurate analytical prediction of the monostatic RCS of trihedral corner reflector arrays (TCRAs), particularly for tightly packed mosaic geometries and dielectric materials, remains challenging due to the lack of general closed-form models accounting for multiple reflector orientations and array effects. To address this gap, closed-form RCS expressions are derived for single reflectors and mosaic arrays incorporating two distinct reflector orientations. The proposed formulation extends classical geometrical-optics models through a corrected complex-target phase treatment and explicit inclusion of multi-orientation effects. The analytical results are validated using full-wave finite-element simulations in COMSOL Multiphysics®. For metallic reflectors, geometrical optics is shown to be accurate for electrically large elements, whereas diffraction, resonance, and phase-distortion effects emerge as the reflector size decreases. Dielectric TCRAs exhibit strongly non-symmetrical scattering and reversed boresight offsets in the φ = π/2 plane; nevertheless, grating-lobe locations remain predictable using the metal-array analytical model. The study concludes with practical design guidelines for mosaic TCRAs, including peak-RCS scaling, grating-lobe placement, and the transition from corner-reflector to plate-like scattering.

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Mr. Denys I. Zaikin