Anti-radar space-filling and/or multilevel chaff dispersers

• US 6,876,320 B2
• Filed: 11/26/2002
• Issued: 04/05/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fractus SA
• Original Assignee: Fractus SA
• Inventors: Puente Baliarda, Carles
• Primary Examiner(s): Gregory, Bernarr E.
• Application Number:
  US10/305,788
• Publication Number:
  US 20030137442A1
• Time in Patent Office: 861 Days
• Field of Search: 342 5- 20
• US Class Current: 342/12
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 15/145 comprising a plurality of reflecting particles, e.g. radar chaff missiles of the signal type provided with means for disseminating radar-reflecting chaff F42B12/70

Abstract

The present invention consists of the particular geometry of the reflectors or dispersers which constitute the anti-radar chaff cloud. Instead of using conventional rectilinear forms, in the present invention multilevel and space-filling forms are introduced. Due to this geometric design, the properties of the radar chaff clouds improve mainly in two aspects: radar cross-section (RCS) and mean time of suspension.

Claims

1. An anti-radar chaff disperser for forming a cloud of defensive countermeasures against radar, comprising,

a structure with conducting, semiconducting or superconducting material, said structure being characterised in that at least a part thereof is a space-filling curve,

said space-filling curve being composed of at least ten segments connected so that each segment forms an angle with any adjacent segment and said segments being smaller than a tenth part of the resonant wavelength in free space of the whole structure.

2. An anti-radar chaff disperser according to claim 1, characterised in that at least a portion of said space-filling curve has a box-counting dimension grater than unity, said box-counting dimension being calculated as the gradient of a straight portion of a log-log graph, wherein said straight portion is substantially defines by a straight segment over at least an octave on the horizontal axis of the log-log graph.

3. An anti-radar chaff disperser according to claim 1, characterised in that at least a portion of the disperer is formed by a Hilbert or Peano curve.

4. An anti-radar chaff disperser according to claim 1, characterised in that at least a portion of the disperser is formed as a SZ, ZZ, HilbertZZ, Peanoinc, Peanodec, PeanoZZ or a meander curve.

6. An anti-radar chaff disperser according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, characterised in that the structure of said disperser is formed by a conducting leaf.

7. An anti-radar chaff disperser according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, characterised in that the structure of said disperser is made of conducting material, said material being sustained by a light and thin dielectric substrate on at least one of the two faces of said structure.

8. An anti-radar chaff disperser according to claim 7, characterised in that said conducting structure is printed, laminated or deposited on a thin layer of dielectric material.

9. An anti-radar chaff disperser according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, characterised in that the structure of said disperser is made of conducting ink, said ink being printed and deposited on a thin dielectric substrate.

10. An anti-radar chaff disperser according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 8, characterised in that the maximum size of the conducting, superconducting or semiconducting structure is smaller than a fourth part of the radar wavelength in free space.

11. An anti-radar chaff disperser according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 8, characterised in that the disperser resonates at multiple frequencies inside the bandwidth of one or several frequency bands in which a radar set operates:

HF, UHF, L, S, C, X, Ku, K, Ka or mm.

12. An anti-radar chaff disperser according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 8, characterised in that the disperser resonates at a plurality of frequencies spaced non-harmonically.

13. An anti-radar chaff disperser according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 8, characterised in that the disperser resonates simultaneously with a substantially similar Q-factor at two or more of the following bands:

L, S, C, X, Ku, Ka, mm.

14. An anti-radar chaff disperser according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 8, characterised in that the disperser comprises at least three planar surfaces, said surfaces defining a trihedron and said surfaces including a space-filling and multilevel reflector.

15. An anti-radar chaff disperser according to claim 14, characterised in that the disperser includes eight trihedrons, all the trihedrons being oriented in one or eight semi-spaces in a reference of Cartesian coordinates.

16. An anti-radar chaff disperser according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 8, characterised in that the cloud provides a larger radar cross-section with respect to a chaff cloud which includes the same number of dispersers in non-space-filling and non-multilevel form, both clouds operating at the same frequency.

17. An anti-radar chaff disperser according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 8, characterised in that the cloud remains in suspension in the air a longer time with respect to a chaff cloud which includes the same number of dispersers in non-space-filling and non-multilevel form, both clouds operating at the same frequency.

18. An anti-radar chaff disperser according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 8, characterised in that the cloud is composed by a mix of different multilevel and space-filling dispersers of different size, resonate at a different set of frequencies in the radar frequency bands, each set of frequencies being determined by the size of said dispersers and the size of the segments and polygons which constitute the dispersers.

19. An anti-radar chaff disperser according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 8, characterised in that the disperser has a multilevel structure of which at least a part of its external perimeter adopts a space-filling form.

20. An anti-radar chaff disperser according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 8, characterised in that the disperser has a multilevel structure wherein at least a part of the internal openings of the structure adopts a space-filling form.

21. An anti-radar chaff disperser according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 8, characterised in that the support on which the conducting element is mounted has a plurality of holes for creating turbulence in the air which passes through them in order to increase the time of suspension.

22. An anti-radar chaff disperser according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 8, characterised in that the support on which the conducting element is mounted has a series of cuts in its perimeter which contribute to increasing the time of permanency in the air of the reflector.

5. An anti-radar chaff disperser for forming a cloud of defensive countermeasures against radar, comprising:

a conducting, semiconducting or superconducting structure, characterised in that at least a portion thereof is a multilevel structure,

said multilevel structure including a set of polygons with the same number of sides and which are electromagnetically coupled either by means of capacitive coupling or ohmic contact, wherein a contact region between directly connected polygons is smaller than 50% of the perimeter of said polygons in at least 75% of said polygons defining said portion of said disperser, and wherein a global geometry of the multilevel structure is different than the geometry of each polygon from which it is formed.