Study on the Electromagnetic Performance of Inhomogeneous Radomes for Airborne Applications—Part II: the Overall Comparison With Variable Thickness Radomes

In the first part of a two-paper sequence, the phase distortion caused by inhomogeneous radomes is studied to reveal the boresight error (BSE) characteristics, and a method is proposed to estimate the insertion phase delay distribution and the BSE. In this second part, the bandwidth performance and the effect of radome coating, thickness errors, and layer number are further analyzed to acquire an overall understanding of the performance of inhomogeneous radomes through the comparison with variable thickness radomes (VTRs). Transmission loss and BSE, the two most important EM characteristics of airborne radomes, are considered. The bandwidth performance of VTRs is, from the authors' best knowledge, for the first time optimized, and corresponding conclusions are drawn. Results indicate that inhomogeneous radomes have superiorities over VTRs, which makes this kind of radome a potentially popular choice in modern airborne applications.