Carbon Foam RCS/EMI Control Applications

Touchstone's Carbon Foam has a tailorable electrical resistivity from 10^-3 to 10^7 Ω-cm. Touchstone's Carbon Foam, when properly tailored, can be used as an electromagnetic interference (EMI) shield that provides a greater than 60 dB reduction in the 100 MHZ to 18GHz range. When combined with its structural properties, a Touchstone's Carbon Foam EMI shield has numerous advantages over conductive metals such as steel and aluminum that are currently being used, which are heavy and very susceptible to salt water corrosion. The tailorability of Touchstone's Carbon Foam’s electrical conductivity also makes carbon foam an ideal material for the designing of RF absorbers. Digital reflectometer measurements of properly tailored Touchstone's Carbon Foam show microwave loss values on average of -11.5dB through the frequencies 2GHz to 18GHz for flat surface panels less than one inch in thickness. Development of the radar properties of Touchstone's Carbon Foam is in its early stages, but shaped absorber algorithms for CFOAM have shown values of reflection coefficient exceeding -23dB.

Shown here is the Navy test craft, Sea Shadow, as it prepares to moor alongside the Embarcadero waterfront park in San Diego, Calif., on October 2, 2004 for public tours. Sea Shadow is an experimental stealth variety of Naval ship designed to test new technologies for surface ships including ship control, structures, automation for reduced manning, sea keeping and signature control. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Defense)