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This study investigates the effect of driving frequency on the ability of a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma to reduce the radar cross section (RCS) in the Ku -band. Analysis based on the Drude model suggests that the electron density of the plasma will increase with the driving frequency, implying that the plasma will be more effective in terms of RCS reduction. Experimental results based on a multifingered DBD generator reveal that an RCS reduction of up to 4.1 dB is achieved at 18 GHz, which is a 1.3 dB increase due to increasing the driving frequency from 1 to 2 kHz. Finally, the electron density, which is extracted by fitting the simulated RCS results, increased by as much as approximately 330% due to the increase in the driving frequency from 1 to 2 kHz. As the driving frequency increases, the frequency of collision between plasma particles increases. Therefore, the ionization of gas molecules is enhanced, resulting in a higher electron density. The experimental results also suggest that enhancement in the RCS reduction is larger when the electric field intensity between the two electrodes of the DBD generator is greater. As a result, the plasma becomes electromagnetically more lossy and is more effective for reducing the RCS. Experimental results are provided and analyzed based on the electromagnetic parameters used for modeling the plasma.

It is difficult to predict plasma parameters such as electron density and collision frequency due to a large error between the simulation and experimental results. Hence, the parameter distributions are not considered, and the method is proposed to analyze the plasma using an equivalent material. The error between the analysis of the dispersive characteristics of the plasma through numerical analysis and the measurement results in the real plasma-generated environment is improved. The radar cross-section (RCS) of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuator is measured, and the formula is derived by modeling DBD plasma actuator such as dielectric slab. As a result, the permittivity of the plasma can be extracted, and the dispersive characteristics of the plasma were modeled and used in a commercial simulation tool to compare with the measurements.