Advanced Material Innovations for Electromagnetic Shielding and Radar Signature Reduction of Drones and UAVs

The rapid proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in civil, industrial, and defense sectors has intensified the demand for enhanced electromagnetic robustness and reduced radar observability. Although miniature UAVs generally exhibit low radar cross section (RCS), the increasing density of C/X band radar systems and advanced signal processing methods call for novel lightweight composites with strong and tunable dielectric losses. This work presents an experimental and simulation study of polymer- and carbon-based radar absorbing composites, namely nanotubular polypyrrole, and nanostructured carbons as conductive fillers. Composites were characterized over the frequency range 2.6 – 18 GHz using waveguide measurements, from which complex permittivity were extracted via the Nicolson-Ross-Weir method. Shielding effectiveness (SE) and its absorptive components were determined and implemented into validated, frequency dispersive material models in CST Studio Suite.