Scattered EM Field Responses of Canonical Scatterers Illuminated by an Impulse-Radiating Antenna (IRA)

This paper investigates the possibility of using the impulse-radiating antenna (IRA) as both a transmitter and receiver of electromagnetic energy for the purpose of target identification. Of specific interest is estimating the induced open-circuit voltage at the IRA´s source terminals, when it is illuminated by the scattered EM field from simple conducting bodies excited by an incident field from the same IRA acting as a transmitter. In this study, several different canonical scatters are considered, including thin wires, spheres, conducting boxes, and an infinite conducting plate. For a 7 kV pulse excitation of the IRA, received peak transient voltages at the antenna ranged from a few volts to about 400 volts, depending on the scatterer.