Microwave absorption properties of copper coated composites

A new-style fabric radar absorbing material (RAM) composed of copper coating and absorbing coating was prepared on two fabrics. In order to analyze the effects of electroless copper coating on the microwave properties of the composite RAM, the copper coatings of various components, fabric with different conformations and multilayer structures were adopted. The results show that for the structure of the absorbing coating as the first layer and the copper coating as the second layer after electroless copper plating at room temperature, after air oxidation for 8 days, compared with initial copper-plating composite, the reflectivity of non-woven RAM with copper-plating decreases from -11 dB to -13.2 dB. For the structure of the copper coating as the first layer and the absorbing coating as the second layer, the whole thickness of the non-woven composite RAM after copper-plating at 40°C reduces by 1.4 mm approximately, compared with that after copper plating at room temperature in the state of an adjacent reflectivity peak value. The results indicate that copper coating can be used to improve the microwave property of RAM.